Quote:
Originally posted by lumberjim
oddly enough, i have the answer to that question. I know it seems incredible, as the question posed would seem to be unquantifiable, but it just so happens, that it was a question that was included in the y2K US census. I have a copy right here. Let's see.........yup, here it is: question 192: "have you ever heard the word 'hoarfrost'?" official result: 27,932,882.33.
in related news, at that time, 35,908,223 people had never heard the word "asshat". i have to admit that I was one of those people. thank you cellar, i'm a better man because of you!
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i am a university teacher of English-Chinese translation. i posed the question coz some half of the Chinese university students--non-english majors, alas-- know the word hoarfrost. i just wondered why, and to the best of my knowledge, most britishers use the word. i have seen it from time to time in their poetry anthologies, and it is not at all a technical term, but highly poetic. culture shock, isn't it? thank u, undertoad and lumberjim. i do like here. this is my very first time to surf an english BBS. i am not a native speaker of english and i hope i cann make myself understood.