ameliorate AIBU?

[LightTheFlameThrower]

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

I use it regularly at work but I'm a disaster recovery lawyer. I don't think I was aware of it before that.

If they worked in a profession where fairly high-level vocabulary was expected, then yes

What would you consider to be professions where fairly high-level vocabulary was expected?

The premise of your question is flawed, OP.

If it's a word you know and use frequently, as does your circle, you'll assume everyone else does too. And vice versa.

It’s a compliment OP:- she thinks of you as a cultured person and assumes you have a wide vocabulary so she doesn’t need to limit her natural choice of words. But tbh it sounds like you do have a pretty wide vocabulary - you’ve just got a random blind spot on this particular slightly uncommon word.

It is not a common word.

And not used by normal people in everyday conversation.

Not unusual to hear it used in conversation imo.

Yes, quite common.
French: ameliorer

So to be clear this is a message on gift (clotted cream ) from a much adored elderly relative.

This relative is know for having exacting standards in English. For example: the word fantastic can only be used to describe something that involves fantasy not the Sunday roast they have served you.

So I was just trying to work out whether “ameliorate” was on the “fantastic/fantasy” end of the scale or the “you really should have know in” end of the scale.

It’s a word I remember learning at secondary school (comp if that matters) and use fairly regularly.

P.s. the roast is fantastic it really is.

It sounds like it’s quite a technical word from the fact that a lot of you are saying you use it at work.
I don’t think it’s shocking that I have an English degree and teach English and don’t know one word which quite a few people on the thread agree is fairly obscure. If a large list of words had been stated and I hadn’t known any of them then that would be different.

My DP is a former Oxbridge mathmo and he uses it too fwiw

And I got an A at GCSE without learning the word ‘ameliorer’ too!

Not common at all. I read extensively, top grades in English for A level, 1st in my degree and masters at a top university and have a PhD. I have never even heard of it - never mind anyone using it in day to day conversation or at work or at university. Given I work surrounded by academics if it was common surely I would’ve heard it by now.

I've just googled because someone upthread said it means to make something better, and that isn't how I use it. Specifically it means to remove something negative, so yes, it makes something better, but by removing the bad rather than by adding good.
No OP, I wouldn't use this in an email to someone in any but the most technical terms. I would use mitigate or alleviate instead.

@CuriousaboutSamphire

Abnegate!

Love it! Ameliorate - not common - but I have heard it and used it on occasion.

Whereas I only talked to Mathmos.

I honestly don't know how you managed this unless you actively shunned everybody else in your college.

On the subject of common or uncommon words, I didn't know what a "mathmo" was until I eventually worked it out after seeing it in a few posts on this thread!

The issue with 'fantastic' is that it's a common word which is commonly used with a different meaning to its original one. Ameliorate is a word which is not that commonly used so I presume she's putting it in a 'I would expect you to know this word, but fearing that you disappointingly will not' category. Is that what you mean?

I share her sentiment but with the word "amazing". It rarely is

See also 'stunning'.

I’ve got a body moisturiser called ameliorate 😬. I use it everyday 😬

@Smileyaxolotl1

It’s not common at all. I have an English degree and teach English and while I have heard of it have never used it and don’t know what it means. Pretty sure none of my friends, 2 of whom went to Cambridge use it either.

This shocks me.

@EmilySpinach That's made me giggle. Mental images are rather funny!

@Tearsfortiers can you give examples of how you commonly use it - say when chatting to friends or your parents?