Whenever I read about an amazing swankienda, I'm struck with curiosity over how much money someone would have to have before setting aside that much of it for a house--especially one home among many, as often is the case--could possibly sound like a good idea. Here's a little getaway penthouse in Monaco that's expected to sell for $400 million. For $400 million, I'd want more than a water-slide between my dance floor and my swimming pool. I'd want an island and a small navy and air force.
There's always the question of how you defend yourself while flaunting that much concentrated wealth, like wandering into a disco wearing the Hope Diamond. The recent assault on a Saudi prince's motorcade in Paris must be making a lot of high-rollers thoughtful. What kind of rich do you have to be to be carrying $350,000 in walking-around money?
"Swankienda."
ReplyDeleteCongratulations -- I have never heard that word before. :) Been a while since I encountered a word I didn't recognize at all.
Try this one: http://www.playbuzz.com/jonb10/how-many-english-words-do-you-actually-know
ReplyDeleteNifty. "Wow, You Vicious Vocabulary Viper! 27/30." I missed 2, 6, and 13.
ReplyDelete28
ReplyDeleteI thought I had a decent vocabulary..
ReplyDeleteMissed 11! They were words I have never read or heard of, however.
"Brontitude"
1-The condition of being dunb as a dinosaur.
2- a severe coarse rasping chest infection.
Most of the world still uses feudal scales. 90% of the peasants have little to nothing. The aristocrats are 5% at the top and they get most of everything. It's the natural way of things.
ReplyDeleteEven American Presidents like Hussein was helping out the aristos in Honduras by stomping on the people who actually liked independence.
EH--yes, looks like I double-clicked or something. Link fixed now!
ReplyDeleteThere were many words on that test that I'd never seen, either, so in many cases I was was making an informed guess based on roots, and in several cases I guessed blind.
I too am a Vocabulary Viper. I missed #11.
ReplyDeleteAnd raven, brontitude is from the Greek. Bronto meaning thunder. Brontosaurus = thunder lizard. So I only knew that one because I never outgrew a childhood love of dinosaurs.
I knew all the words I got right, except one -- the one with "lex" in the middle.
ReplyDeleteBut I wouldn't be surprised if your work with Project Gut has given you a highly expansive vocabulary! English has been impoverished in some respects over the last century, although perhaps because we have adopted many new words for emerging technologies.
I missed one. Dammit!
ReplyDeleteNow I'm embarrassed.
0>;~/
28. Knowing roots and structure definitely helped. I also thought the ones that gave the definition and you picked the right word were easier than the ones that reversed that.
ReplyDeleteYes, and the 50/50 multiple-choice approach certainly helped. I'd have been hard-pressed to scare up a definition of many of those words out of thin air.
ReplyDelete