SAT word
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]An idiomatic usage that derives from the former (pre-2016) Reading section of the SAT Reasoning Test where students had to define and understand obscure words, often above their level.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]- (figurative) A particularly difficult or obscure word.
- He was just dropping SAT words left and right! Like who even says "whence" anymore?!
- 2014 March 5, Editorial Board, “The New SAT Is a) Better b) Worse c) Both”, in Bloomberg Opinion[1]:
- Add to this a partnership, also announced today, with Khan Academy to provide free test-prep materials for the SAT -- adaptive software, dashboards, feedback -- and there are probably a lot of (alert: SAT word) melancholy tutors right now.
Of course, the College Board cannot erase the test-prep industry in one fell swoop. Change will still bring (alert: another SAT word) trepidation, something a professional tutor will happily accept an hourly fee to (OK, last SAT word) assuage.
- 2014 March 17, Jamie Gumbrecht, “The SAT word is dead, long live the SAT word”, in CNN[2]:
- “Today, when we say that someone has used an SAT word, it often means a word you have not heard before and are not likely to soon hear again,” Coleman explained in his announcement.
[…]
Drop “mellifluous” or “loquacious” into a sentence after the college applications are sent, and you can actually stop to appreciate it – “Hey, I just used an SAT word!”
- 2019 June 4, Maureen Corrigan, “An Immigrant Yearns For Connection In 'On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous'”, in NPR[3]:
- Here's an SAT word for you: "aptronym." An aptronym is a proper name that's especially "apt" for describing the person who bears it.
- 2021 February 28, Lawrence Yee, “Golden Globes: Laverne Cox Just Asked Us to Google ‘Extradiegetic,’ So We Did”, in The Wrap[4]:
- Laverne Cox dropped a serious SAT word during her virtual red carpet interview at Sunday’s Golden Globes.
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see SAT, word.