April 23, 2014, 19:54
Kallehobsequious
According to Eric Zorn's
article (I hope you can access it), the SAT is moving away from " low-frequency words that would be unlikely to be assessed directly as words-in-context questions on the redesigned SAT." [I find that quote unwieldy but that's how it was written. Perhaps the SAT people need more education on the use of words!]
Obsequious is one of those words, along with
propinquity,
enervation,
punctilious and
lachrymose. I hate that move. Plus, while I don't hear it every day, I hear
obsequious being used often enough, don't you? Surely
enervation is used a lot in healthcare and science, but maybe its context is too narrow?
Eric had a nice back story (from Ben Zimmer) on
obsequious. Apparently, it has become increasingly negative. Originally it just meant "ready to serve," but has changed to be more deferential, with synonyms being
bootlickers,
fawners,
sycophants and
toadies.
What are your thoughts on taking these great words out of the SAT? One of their reasons is that they don't want to reward those who merely crammed for the SAT. How about rewarding those, though, who actually use the words? Heck, just this month Tribune theatre critic Chris Jones used
obsequious when describing a character as being "obsequious, but clearly malevolent." Love it!
April 23, 2014, 20:10
<Proofreader>quote:
synonyms being bootlickers, fawners, sycophants and toadies.
Don't forget
brown-noser.
April 23, 2014, 22:49
arnieThe last sentence in the article sums it all up for me:
quote:
Just because students no longer have to know it doesn't mean they shouldn't want to learn it.
April 24, 2014, 04:24
GeoffI've always known
obsequious to mean obsessively deferential. It's also a term I'd have thought the Monty Python bunch could have used in "The Life of Brian." Obsequious Toadus, the sycophant, or some such.
April 24, 2014, 05:41
<Proofreader>I thought it referred to the shiny things on Liberace's outfits.
April 24, 2014, 18:15
GeoffThose were sequence, because they were all lined up one after the other. And how could we forget that ancient Briton graffiti artist who tended cattle, the Rune stone Cowboy?
April 24, 2014, 20:18
KallehGeoff, you are right about what
obsequious means, and, proof,
brown-nose is perfect. However, the word seems to have evolved over time as it originally wasn't so pejorative.
April 26, 2014, 22:20
Kalleharnie, I agree about the last sentence.
I also was struck by the authors using obsequious, such as Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Dickens and James. And that
obsequious uses the Latin root -
sequi, to follow, that is also found in sequence, sequel and consequence. How did "ready to serve" derive from that?
April 27, 2014, 01:46
arniequote:
How did "ready to serve" derive from that?
He's a follower.