Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1905-12-08
WORDS USED IN WRITING.
Fewer Used Than the Ordinary Person Sup.
poses.
INDIANAPOLIS Journal

Fewer Used Than the Ordinary Person Sup.
poses.
Indianapolis Journal
There often appears in print an
item which reads something like this:
An ordinary man will say everything
that any occasion calls for with q vo.
cabulary Of 1000 words. OF these he
commonly uses but 400 or 500, re.
serving the remainder for the emerg-
ency OF an idea out of the usual line
Of thought.
In accordance with this is q state
ment once made by speaker at an
educational meeting: Tho best .edu.
Gated persons in this room will not use
more than 600 or 700 words" And
he added that an ignorant man would
not use mere than 300 or 400. Some
years ago writer in the Chautauquan
said: "It is estimated that an Eng.
lish farmland has q vocabulary limit.
ed to 300 words. An American work.
man who reads the newspapers may
command from 100 to 1000 words.
Five thousand is q large number even
for an educated reader or speaker"
This is q step forward, yet it still seems
q far cry to Shapespeare's vocabulary
OF 5000 words, or even to Millions
5000.
Any one may, with little trouble,
estimate the number OF words whose
meanings would be plain to him in
print or in speech. Of the writer's
vocabulary an estimate was made in
this way: An abridged dictionary
was used because almost all unusual
words would thereby be at once elm.
mated.
Ender each letter of the alphabet .
page or moro OF words was selected At
random and counted. A separate
record was kept Of primitive and
derivative words. That is, among the
former was put measure; among the
latter measurableness, measurably,
measurer, measureless, measurement,
unmeasurable and unmeasured. Com
pound words whose meanings were
clearly indicated by their component
were omitted-as clock.work, draught.
horse, hard-earned. Counting this
way an average of twenty primitive
and thirty.five derivative words was
found on each page, This would
make, there being 8l4 pages Of vocab.
ulary in the dictionary, q total of
16, ,240 of the former aud %, 400 of the
latter or almost $4,000 in all.
Next was taken page in each let.
ter and on it were counted the words
which it seemed any person OF average
intelligence would be able to use and
understand. On twenty.four pages
there were 268 primitive words and
22l derivative or nearly 5000 in all of
the former and more than 1000 of the
latter. And lastly was made q count
Of very common words, such as even .
poorly educated person could hardly
escape knowing, and they were found
to number $500 primitive and 5000
derivative. No proper names were
f, included in any of the countings.
1t would therefore seem to follow, if
we are told of the vocabularies Of
Shakespeare aud Milton be correct,
that a person of average education to.
day knows at least as many words as
did the former, and one whose school
opportunities have been quite limited
is capable of walking beside the latter
in this respect. As regards ideas and
ability to express them, however, the
difference may be worldwide.
The foregoing facts seem to war
rant these general conclusions: Every
well.read person OF fair ability and
education will be able to define or
understand as used nearly or quite
perhaps more than $4,000 words. And
the same person in conversation and
writing will command not fewer than
15,O 900 to 10000, and can add 5000 to
10000 to these numbers if he be liter.
ally inclined. The plain people, as
Lincoln liked to call them, use or read
understandingly from 5000 to 10000
words, according to their general in.
telligence and conversational power
while person who cannot read, but
who has q good degree OF native men
tai ability, will command about 5000
Eggs, like men, are often broke, but
unlike men, they are never too fresh.
IT'S tough when a man has to give
up p0nd m Onev for a touuh atooL