Without looking in a dictionary, do you know...

btw, you can get the OED on CDROM now

Yeah! I am literate-man! Bow before my educatedness!

Aglet? Isn't that a fish?

No. Socrates said that a truly wise man only knows that he knows nothing.

I feel so dumb, I don't know any of these!

Only a few, but I'm not english-speaking...

The way to differentiate a Dromedary camel from a Bactrian is to turn the leading letter of the name sideways and count the humps (D & B). Another useless fact accumulated in my ten years in Saudi Arabia.

I think I know bring and take, but now you've raised a doubt, lay and lie, I'm less certain of, but I still *think* I know.

A minor fifth *does* (or at least, *did*) exist, and is also known as a "Tritone", or a "diminished fifth". It is "six halftones", or "one halftone below a [perfect or major] fifth." To confirm this, I did a web search for +"minor fifth", and of the 22 matches, the two relevant ones were this and this.

I am ambivalent about the difference between ambivalent and indifferent

I was always amused (or perhaps I should say "bemused") by the distinction between catholic and Catholic.

This is why we have dictionaries. So we can fill our minds with important things like the Brady Bunch theme song, and yet still have trivial knowledge like what a "conundrum" is in a book at our fingertips.

I only *think* I know what the other kind of camel is called; I can't tell if I'm right without looking in a dictionary. (GREAT question!)

I missed "aglet", "covary", and "sphygmomanometer"; my dictionary (Webster's Third New International Dictionary UNABRIDGED) doesn't even list "covary". Does it have to do with "covariance" in math? I don't know what the camel with two humps is called (what is it called, anyway?). I know when to use "bring" and when to use "take" in context but I wasn't able to articulate the rule for it. "Lay" is so commonly misused, it drives me up the wall when people say they are going to "go lay down for a while". And, um, there is no such thing as a "minor fifth" (could one of the TEN people who claimed there is please explain what they thought it was?). Hopefully this was a trick question. ***milktree: thanks for the explanations. *** mark and milktree: if you'd like I can search for info on the web to contradict the info you found, but I don't really need to go any further than my music textbooks from performing arts HS. The thing you are referring to is properly called either a diminished fifth, or, as one site mentioned, a tritone. Fourths and fifths are properly called either perfect (not major), diminished (not minor), or augmented. This is basic knowledge in music. As for the second site you listed, mark, I suggest you read it more carefully. He is quoting from a source (probably old, since this deals with the basic rules for counterpoint), and then changing "minor fifth" and "minor fourth" in parenthesis to the correct language ("i.e. diminished") As for the site which both milktree and mark cited, all I can say is it is wrong, or at the very least extremely unorthodox. (wow, how unusual, to find some misinformation on the net!) I know they use somewhat different musical terms for some things in England, that is the only possibility I can think of. And even that I kind of doubt(I don't want to take up even more room than I already have to explain why). I would appreciate it if other people who know something about music back me up on this so that misinformation doesn't spread.

Cool question. "Aglet" in my dictionary doesn't mean a shoelace cover but a cover for a sharp point (?) For a lot of these words (conundrum, lay/lie, bring/take) I have a vague idea but can't define them exactly. As to the running debate about "minor fifths": I was taught the same as Elija in my snooty arts school. Maybe the proper terms have degenerated in popular usage?

Aglet is one of my favorite weird words - I'm always very smug when I have a chance to use it in a sentence.

oh sure. make me feel stupid and inadequate. very good survey. please publish the answers somewhere

sphygmomanometer? Hmmmm....

Funny. I saw the camel types listed recently, and KNEW dromedary, but even though I saw the list, I forget what the two-humped one is called.

so waht are the rest of the answers??

What *does* covary mean? *** I don't know what a minor fifth is, I expect I mis-remembered it and it doesn't exist. If that's the case, it was a trick question. It wasn't intended to be a trick question. The guy who sits next to me claims it's a half step below a fifth. (intervals, not chords) Covary was in my dict program, but I don't know what it is either. The other kind of camel is a Bactrian camel. It has two humps. If I remember correctly, you take something away, and bring it here, so you never "bring it with you" you "take it with you". It has to do with direction of motion with respect to the speaker. This, of course, is complicated by the internet and telephones. Lay takes an object, lie doesn't. You lie down, but you lay the book down. You can, of course "lay me down to sleep" because "me" is the object of "lay". Oh, an "aglet" is the little thing on the end of your shoelace that keeps it from fraying. *** A sphygmomanometer is an instrument for measuring blood pressure. According to this a minor fifth is.... well, you can read it better than I can retype it.*** Elijahblue: Yeah, sure, whatever. I really don't care enough to argue about it. You win. *** OK, Ok, here's the answers as best I know. Whew!

...i've read a lot of books, some were dictionaries! One of my son's favorite jokes is a line by Homer Simpson (yep, the cartoon character) who said " I like the section in Reader's Digest called 'It Pays to Enrich Your Word Power' it's really ... umm.... neat!"

Bill: A truly wise man knows when to wax philosophically and when to just answer the question. *Atzilut: Why so uptight recently? Take it easy man.

doesn't seem important to me...

Now I have four new things to look up. How do you like your camels, one hump or two?

'A camel has a single hump; a dromedary two. Or perhaps it is the other way; I'm never sure, are you?' - Ogden Nash

OK now you are making me feel stupid Thanks

who knows and who cares???

Dang...there are some toughies on that list....

Rob no like this survey. Rob forget everything Rob learned in school. Rob was smarter in elementary school. Ugh. Rob depressed.

I can also spell antidisestablishmentarianism without looking it up. I was best speller in my class in 4th grade.

4 out of 11. Whooooo!!!!

universal, bring is when arriving, take is for leaving(basically), different conjugations of the same verb,a tritone,something that measures sphygmomans!

never without one

ummmmmmmm... i would like to see other as an option in this survey.

i like to sphy on my mom before i meether

7 out of 11. Not too bad!
No clue about the camels though!