ameliorate AIBU?

[LightTheFlameThrower]

Is this really a standard word that most people know? (I thought it was a typo)

I know what it means as I learned French, but I prefer to use the word improve. Similarly I prefer to use the word "use" than "utilise."

I'd say everyday as in in books (fiction or non) and in newspapers/serious radio.

Not everyday family or social speech and not so obscure as to work technical language only pertinent to some roles.

Yes, aware of it, know what it means, think it's a lovely word, use it occasionally, but aware that it's not in many people's vocabulary, so would be careful about using it.

Yes, I know this word. I thought the thread was going to be about ways to improve the AIBU topic!

It's not a word I often use but I wouldn't class it as obscure.

@LynetteScavo

I went on a day long course where the trainer dropped the word ameliorate about 20 times. I annoyed the fuck out of me. This was about two years ago, and I was still thinking about it yesterday.

Weird, irritating - but not so much as the "you know" thread running on here (well I'd rather have ameliorate rather than y'know, y'know)

Yes its a fairly common word in everyday use. Love the suggestion it might be a potential child's name

It's used a lot with reference to January 2021. Necessarily. Brexit.

I know it and use it sometimes at work, but I wouldn’t say it’s one you hear regularly in common, everyday usage. It’s quite a formal word for conversational use imo.

[quote joystir59]@donquixotedelamancha
Correct spelling is cromulent not cromulant[/quote]
I was about to abnegate cromulant... words are precious but need to be handled with adequate care

I was about to abnegate cromulant

Weirdly I wrote cromulent but my keyboard spell check insisted on cromulant (browser sp-c doesn't like either). As it was 2am even my inner pedant gave up.

It is a word which I would never think about as being unusual but not use in regular speech, but I studied politics and went into medicine.

To those who think that it is synonymous with mitigate, no. Ameliorate is to make better and mitigate is to lessen or decrease something bad. Not quite the same thing.

@longwayoff can you give examples of everyday use? So chatting to your dc or a shop assistant?

Yes, Forever, chatting to my children and friends, definitely. Why use five words when one is sufficient? But we do talk quite a lot about Brexit and what to expect. I havent been into a shop since last February so can't really answer that.

This sauce is a bit too salty, but I can ameliorate that by cooking a potato in it for a few minutes; it will take up the salt selectively.

Never used it not seen it used in general life.

NoR seen it used....

Any situation which is less than ideal can be ameliorated by something that improves it.

So the terrible all-inclusive food at the cheap package holiday destination was ameliorated by eating out in the town for a few nights.

The room was draughty, but this was ameliorated by the use of oil filled radiators.

My DH would ameliorate the taste of macaroni cheese by adding lashings of tomato sauce. Sacrilege, but there you have it.

You can ameliorate a terrible exam result with a stunning presentation.

I thought it was a flower

Most people I know would probably use it. Maybe not in chatty chat but if talking about something more formal or having a debate about something if that makes sense

Genuinely surprised at people not knowing it! I'd say it was fairly common, not used a lot in everyday speech but well-known. I'm amazed at English graduates not knowing what it means, and even if you didn't, couldn't you work it out from the etymology?

I don't think it's a hugely common word. It's also one of those words that I don't use because I second guess myself as to what it means - does that happen to anyone else, where you have heard a word, never been explicitly told what it means, and then gleaned entirely the wrong context and used it completely incorrectly?

Normal word as far as I'm concerned.

@LightTheFlameThrower

I didn’t ask if it was a word you knew. I asked if it was a common word.

Here's your OP: Is this really a standard word that most people know? (I thought it was a typo)

Yes, is a word I know and would use.

It's not the kind of word you often hear in everyday conversation, imo (except on MN, obviously, where everyone uses it before breakfast each day).

It not a common word but I immediately knew what it meant as it’s very like the Italian word for improve.