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CharmYou Posted 13 years ago
Vocabulary

Should I learn words no longer used?

The word 'apparel' is no longer used in modern English (The Longman dictionary told me this). Should I learn words like this?
  

Top answer

Longman has many mistakes in it, but I looked the word up in it just now, and I do not see a comment at all. "Apparel" is used in certain settings, such as fashion sales. The Shorter Oxford calls "apparel" "now literary", and the American Heritage Dictionary lists it without comment.

— Enoon

  • Longman has many mistakes in it, but I looked the word up in it just now, and I do not see a comment at all.
  • "Apparel" is used in certain settings, such as fashion sales.
  • The Shorter Oxford calls "apparel" "now literary", and the American Heritage Dictionary lists it without comment.
  • We no longer use it in conversation for clothing, but the word is current, and you should learn it.
  • Words that are labeled "obsolete" or "archaic" you can safely ignore until you need them.
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9 Answers
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Longman has many mistakes in it, but I looked the word up in it just now, and I do not see a comment at all. "Apparel" is used in certain settings, such as fashion sales. The Shorter Oxford calls "apparel" "now literary", and the American Heritage Dictionary lists it without comment.
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It is used sometimes, actually... It really depends on what you are learning English for. What are your goals? There is a lot of vocabulary that is only useful is certain specific fields, but if you are studying for the GRE, for example, it may be important to learn them anyway.
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My goal is to be able to talk to natives and be understood...So learning every words would be necessary to me, because a statics shows that the number of vocabs that a native adult knows is pretty much 600,000....
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Hmm, I think that number is very wrong... The numbers I've seen are around 20,000...
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Or at least less than 100,000.
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ElanguestThe numbers I've seen are around 20,000...
That's not native but learners of ESL. Many learners (including me) have reached that amount of vocabs but still not fluent.
Native knows more names (such as Jehovah, Saton and Lucifer)
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CharmYouThat's not native but learners of ESL. Many learners (including me) have reached that amount of vocabs but still not fluent.Native knows more names (such as Jehovah, Saton and Lucifer)
20,000 words should be plenty for everyday fluency (of course, you need more than just vocab to be fluent).

"apparel" is old-fashioned or technical-sound
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CharmYou ElanguestThe numbers I've seen are around 20,000...That's not native but learners of ESL. Many learners (including me) have reached that amount of vocabs but still not fluent.Native knows more names (such as Jehovah, Saton and Lucifer)
A lot depends on how you define a word. Are "say" and "says" different words? Are "said", saying" and "sayeth"? How a
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