William F. Buckley Jr., who died this week at age 82, had the vocabulary of a mischievous lexicographer, "sparkling with phrases from distant eras," as Douglas Martin said in Wednesday's New York Times.
Author of more than 50 books and for many years the editor of National Review magazine, Buckley delighted in perplexing as well as edifying readers with his intimidating arsenal of what he called "out of town words." In Buckley: The Right Word (Random House, 1996), he wrote, "I am often accused of an inordinate reliance on unusual words, and desire to defend myself against the insinuation that I write as I do simply to prove that I have returned recently from the bowels of a dictionary with a fish in my mouth."
He then listed some of the more arcane words that regularly appeared in his syndicated column, "On the Right." Drawing on that list, we now offer--for the benefit of word lovers, Buckley admirers, and students preparing for the SAT--the William F. Buckley, Jr. Vocabulary Quiz.
For the complete article, go to The William F. Buckley Vocabulary Quiz.
Image: William F. Buckley Jr. (1925-2008), © National Review
Comments
Loved your Out of Town Words. Kept us busy with the dictionary for hours on end. Enjoyed Buckley’s quotes as well. Give us another Buckley SAT vocabulary quiz soon. I’m sure he never ran out of words. Thanks,
Jennifer Wright
With pleasure, Jennifer. In the meantime, here are a few more of Buckley’s favorite words to keep you busy:
kedge
nugatory
lucubrate
energumen
All the best–
Richard
William F Buckley was one of a kind when it came to words. I often ask people how do I develop such a vocabulary as Buckley. People just tell me to read, but is there more to it Richard? What would you recommend I do to build a vocabulary such as his? Obviously he was smart and was gifted with words. But I’m sure there certain things he did to build his vocabulary?
I wonder what WFB would have thought of a theory which I have taught for many years in high school and college English classrooms: you don’t have to know all the words; you have to know of all the words. I believe that developing an awareness of words in their places, times, uses, and audiences leads to personal attitudes and actions, among which, likely, is Buckley’s third of three: look it up, and another with which he might have agreed: set a personal relationship with the word, and when appropriate, use it in the same spirit as might have Buckley–one of confidence and appreciation of the word’s own integrity and voice.