Customer Reviews

1000 Most Important Words

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Mr. Schur has a gift for glibly describing the essence and etymology of obscure words. He's my favorite philologist!

This book is his first of the four "1000 Words Series." Basically, each book is a mini-dictionary targeting the weirdest and odd words. He provides the word, and pronunciation, then a brief entry explaining the etymology and use of each word. His pen shines and his tongue is blarney. I am impressed that any human being could make a dictionary entry so lively!

A freebie:

Exacerbate: (ig zas' er bate) vb. To exacerbate a situation is to worsen it, to aggravate it, in the sense of increasing its bitterness. A clumsy nurse's ministrations serve only to exacerbate the pain of the patient. Harsh words can only exacerbate bitter feelings. Inept handling exacerbates any situation. The -acerb- part of the word is found also in acerbic. We get exacerbate from Latin exacerbates, a form of exacebare (to exacerbate, embitter).

You can click on the "Look Inside" function to see other samples. I wish my Webster's had this spunk and vigor.

This book is for the English major or grad student, copy editors, or the public speaker. This book also works for your snob-ling friends, your eccentric associates who are into Crispin Glover, or for someone that is hard to shop for. Cruxverbalists will certainly underline and dog-ear this book.

The only drawback to this book is that it relies heavily on Greco-Latin words. This violates "Strunk and White's" Reminder #14: Avoid Fancy words. They assert: "Avoid the elaborate, the pretentious, the coy, and the cute. Do not be tempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is a ten-center handy, ready and able. Anglo-Saxon is a livelier tongue than Latin, so use Anglo-Saxon words." Therefore, this book is great for personal edification, and the soul who loves to connect root words with their branch meanings.

I originally learned English is a non-native environment, and always struggled with the low correlation between spelling and the "non-intutive" pronunciations, and other exceptions in English. Many of these words were difficult to pronounce [correctly, for me] and, therefore, my functional vocabulary was much less than its passive counterpart. Sometimes I didn't use these words for the fear of missing - either the pronunciation, or the context, nuances etc. I have used several vocabulary books in the past, but this is the only one which had 90%+ words that are very "usable" and will truly enrich my speech. I have a much better "feel" for these 1000, and many of them will soon be part of my written and spoken language. The phonetic transcription presented with the words was also of great value (the key to my "active" vocabulary). The best $[money] I have ever spent on a word book.

Speech, language, and communication is what makes us effective (and human too!), and I am glad to have read this.

Just like the cover says, "For anyone and everyone who has something the say!"

Listed in alphabetical order, it's great to use as resource when reading a work of classical literature, writing a paper, or of course to enrich your vacab. From abashed(disconcerted) to zealot(fanatic), Schur provides definitions, synonms, roots, and plenty of examples so that even an obtuse(slow-witted, thick--headed) philistine(one who not only lacks culture and is smugly indifferent to it, but tends to attack it) can learn copious amounts of new words, establish a penchant for being articulate, and perhaps, if he's lucky, even acquire a prodigious amount of savoir-faire like moi.

Hi, I am a High School student who has been in America for two years, I have to take a test called SSAT, so I needed to learn a lot of words, and so I bought this book try to remember all words with in a month. And I did. The words are really beautiful. And 75% of the words my classmats didn't know, teachers were surprised when I used some of the words. So this is a good book both for Taking Huge Tests and become a more literate person.

What's so special about this book is it's like the author is talking to you, it is not boring at all, every word has several example sentences, and most of those centences are very funny, deeply involved with literature, current histry or just funny little things.

It also gives the origin of the words, which is cool, but I did not find helpful. I really suggest you to buy it. But of course, no matter how fun it is, it's still a vocab book, so you might get frustrated and bored, and just throw it away. And also, it is very small, put it in your pocket, read it on a bus, when you are waiting, or in the bathroom! :=)

Fan

I admire 1000 most important words. It explains about a word in detail by using various interesting facts, example sentences, words of famous people, and lines from a famous play. It is far more interesting than dictionary although I recommend you to check this book after looking up a word in a dictionary. It will give you clearer idea of a word and help you to familialize with it. Not only this book is helpful but also this book is very much fun just to read it in a way you read regular novels. It is a shame that this book is out of print. I believe this book is one of the best vocaburaty guides. I use princeton review's word smart, 1100 words you should know, and hot words for SAT along with this book, but this one is the only one I do not mind reading in bed before I go to sleep. It is that much fun simply to read this book!

I've had this book (an his other book 1000 important common words) for over 10 years and I still consider them the "Bibles" of vocabulary building books! I can't praise them enough! A MUST buy for anyone serious (and those not so serious!) about building their vocabulary.

Great little addition to the family's collection of reference and word books!

You'll easily enrich and enliven your vocabulary while learning a little background and history of the origin of the word!

This is not a collection of 'pedantic pundit or parlance'.....all of the words can be used in everyday communication.

They are good, strong words with clear meanings which can help you to express yourself with elegance!

Would you prefer to be wiser or wizened?

This is one of the best vocabulary building book I have used. I learned many powerful, expressive word through reading this book.

Kudos to Norman Schur! This small volume is indispensable for me.

I have KAPLAN WORD POWER: ESSENTIAL TOOLS FOR BUILDING A : Vocabulary Building for Success and definitions in that one are more succinct, 1-4 word definitions. This book? A whole 10 line paragraph usually. This book (1000 Most Important Words) tells you where the word originated from and usually gives more than one example of the word being used in a sentence.

I love this little book! Great definitions & examples. I find myself just reading it for the pure pleasure of it!