This song from The Sound of Music<\/i> contains several GRE-worthy vocabulary words:<\/p>\n
\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=YL27-VldopA<\/p>\n
This particular video is rather ineptly subtitled; here is a snippet of the real lyrics:<\/p>\n
You are sixteen going on seventeen
\nBaby, it’s time to think
\nBetter beware, be canny<\/strong> and careful
\nBaby, you’re on the brink<\/p>\nYou are sixteen going on seventeen
\nFellows will fall in line
\nEager young lads and rou\u00e9s<\/strong> and cads<\/strong>
\nWill offer you food and wine<\/p>\nTotally unprepared are you
\nTo face a world of men
\nTimid and shy and scared are you
\nOf things beyond your ken<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe word canny<\/i> is certainly related to uncanny<\/i>, but the words are hardly antonyms. Uncanny<\/a> means “mysterious, seemingly supernatural.” Here, Rolf is telling Liesl to be canny<\/A> — that is, “careful, astute, prudent, shrewd.” See our post on sagacious<\/A> for some synonyms.<\/p>\n
One way to be canny<\/i> is to stay away from rou\u00e9s<\/A> and cads<\/A>. If you have an American grandmother, she is well familiar with the word cad<\/i> (“an ill-bred man, especially one who behaves in a dishonorable or irresponsible way toward women”) — several decades ago, a man who took you out on more than a handful of dates without proposing marriage could be considered a cad<\/i>.<\/p>\n
A rou\u00e9<\/A> is really quite a bit worse, though: “a lecherous dissipated man.” Rou\u00e9 comes from a French word for breaking a person on the wheel<\/A>, a truly grotesque medieval punishment. The idea was, of course, that a rou\u00e9 deserved this punishment, which was considered to be reserved for criminals for whom a simple hanging was too merciful.<\/p>\n
Finally, Liesel is supposedly “timid and shy and scared” of things beyond her ken. Ken means knowledge, understanding, or perception and often occurs as it is used in the song, in the idiom “beyond (someone’s) ken.” (“Ken” got an entire blog post here<\/A>). Note that the subtitler in the video above has confused “ken” with “kin,” which means extended family.<\/p>\n
Finally, while I know I may attract the ire<\/a> of many ardent lovers of The Sound of Music<\/i>, it must be said: this song is a little creepy.<\/p>\n
“Your life, little girl, is an empty page that men will want to write on.”<\/p>\n