Do you know the meaning of this word?

[Missingmybabysomuch]

Just that really, my DD was doing descriptive writing at school about a fire. She wrote about "acrid" smoke and her teacher hadn't heard of the word and had to look it up. My DH hadn't heard of it either. It surprised me as I didn't think it was a particularly unknown word but now I'm doubting myself! So I just wanted a hive mind poll to see whether it's a word generally known or not.

YABU - It isn't a word I've come across before.

YANBU - I know what acrid means.

I imagine it would have been the head’s PA/admin staff who prepared the slides. But they should still have been proofread.

Not necessarily. The Head of my school makes errors like this all the time. However, he is an absolutely incredible Head.

It's not generating more hoops to jump through to make sure they're capable of educating though is it? I'm just coming to the end of primary level education with my child and haven't experienced any clangers from teachers, it will be interesting to see what secondary is like.

My English teacher corrected my word 'reins' in my homework to 'reigns'.

This. Pathetic.

Not an uncommon word to describe the choking type of thick smoke with a painful burning sensation in the throat. I teach this word to intermediate and advanced English as a second language students. So I would expect an educated native teacher to know it.

I know it, but it’s not a word I, or anyone I know, commonly use in every day speech. I have seen it in books though, and would expect an English teacher to be well enough read to recognise the word and understand it.

I seriously doubt that. But what is grammatically acceptable is the split infinitive and ending a sentence with a preposition

Indeed! 😂

OP didn’t actually say it was a specialist English teacher though. Could have been a primary teacher. The (slightly surprising) lack of knowledge of one English word is no indication whatsoever of that teacher’s ability.

As an aside, most people can’t accurately punctuate a sentence. That probably includes a number of headteachers. The proportion of well-educated people who don’t understand what a clause is or that you can’t connect sentences with commas is astonishing. Many of the people suffering apoplexy on here because the teacher didn’t know one word almost certainly make errors themselves.

My head of department is an outstanding teacher. I know this because he gets incredible results out of all his classes and he drives the whole department to success. But he asks me to proof-read letters to parents; very occasionally there’s a grammatical error. His language knowledge isn’t as strong as mine. But he’s undoubtedly a better teacher.

I think some people think school is just about spelling. There are others who had a bad time at school and just like to ‘catch out’ teachers and criticise them.

The slow death of reading for pleasure is not because of teachers! We’re the ones trying to revive it! Society (especially the growth of technology of course) has killed reading for many.

Sadly the government are wildly missing their targets on applicants for teacher training places. There’s a huge recruitment and retention crisis so i imagine it’s a choice between a less qualified candidate or no teachers

Only ever read it in books and I read a lot. Perhaps the teacher may not have come across it if he/she doesn't read. I've never heard it said in a conversation.

acrid & smoke/burning are often together, can’t really think of any other context to use the word. I would expect most people without knowing the exact definition to work out the meaning.

As an aside, most people can’t accurately punctuate a sentence. That probably includes a number of headteachers. The proportion of well-educated people who don’t understand what a clause is or that you can’t connect sentences with commas is astonishing. Many of the people suffering apoplexy on here because the teacher didn’t know one word almost certainly make errors themselves.

I agree. My grammar is pretty shocking now, I blame the years of compute use. I wouldn’t be bothered about a teacher not knowing the word unless it was a secondary english teacher.

Agree with pp that the word is much more common in books than actual speech.

Yes I have come across this word before. Not often, mind. But have read it in books.

Someone on the thread thinking outside the box....I agree. She looked up the word, found out what it meant, moved on. Demonstrating adults even sometimes come across "big words" and need to find out what they are. Not a big deal.

Iron Maiden have the word "acrid" in the lyrics of one of their songs, so I am familiar with it in lyrical format, written format. Just not spoken format🤣

You are an apologist for ignorance.

I’m familiar with the word. From reading I guess. My daughter is very well read. Very. She reads widely and often. What is interesting to me is that she often mispronounces words that she reads, but has never heard spoken.

I think ‘ignorance apologist’ is harsh! She looked up a word she was unfamiliar with, and admitted she didn’t know the meaning. I wouldn’t call that ignorant.

Aren’t you a delight!

Realising you don’t know something and then seeking to find it out is not ‘ignorance’!

Were you born knowing ^all the words’?

Someone is going to post the definition of ‘ignorance’ in a minute 😁

😂. Good point. But I am not a headteacher, and I have an excuse for my poor grammar.

I have a grammar book (eats shoots and leaves) to help me check grammar for work.

I will concede the education system let me down and it was my parents who taught me grammar, not always with precision.

I would feel exposed in the education system and would be paranoid about my written work. But I would work hard to improve it.

Oh my, that takes me back. When I was a 21 year old grad and working at a Big 4 firm, a horrible partner I worked for bought me Eats Shoots and Leaves. He handed it to me and told me to read it before I write another letter to a client on behalf of him 😳

Ive heard of it. Not used it many sentences mind

Off to put it on the list for words to try in wordle

I know a few academics and they don't know everything. But what I've noticed is a tendency not to pretend they know something if they don't, and to look things up if they don't know them. Admitting, and being curious about, what we don't know is an important part of research. Of course it's better if teachers have an above-average vocabulary and know their grammar, no arguments there. But if they have gaps in their knowledge, I agree with others that a willingness to remedy the gap is modelling good studying behaviour to the students.