The first SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) was administered on June 23, 1926, to 8,040 hopeful candidates. It consisted of several categories, including Definitions, Arithmetic, Logic, Artificial Language, and Paragraph Reading. Some of the vocabulary on that first exam (“adjective,” “biology,” “oxygen”) is relatively simple compared to what one might find on the current tests , but other words, such as “allopathy” and “stepson,” seem somewhat peculiar in the context of the test. Let’s take a look at some of the more interesting vocabulary words from the first SAT.
Allopathy
Allopathy is the treatment of disease by conventional means, often with remedies that produce the opposite effects of the symptoms. The word was coined in 1836, but it’s rather obsolete today. Discussing this first exam, Brian O’Reilly, the current executive director of the SAT program outreach, said of “allopathy,” “I don’t even know what that means. You would not see that on the SAT today.” “Allopathy” is commonly contrasted with another term from the 1926 exam’s word bank, “homeopathy,” which is the treatment of disease with natural substances that would normally produce symptoms of the disease in a healthy person.
Cornet
A cornet is a valved brass instrument that resembles a trumpet (which has essentially replaced the cornet in modern music). “Cornet” came from the Middle English term cornet (or cornette), describing a wooden wind instrument with six holes. This brings us to another musical instrument from the original SAT word bank: the flute. “Flute,” which refers to a keyed woodwind instrument, was likely placed on the exam to confuse test takers deciding between the two instruments.
Eaves
“Eaves,” meaning “the projecting lower levels of a roof,” was used in a practice question on the exam. It retains a similar meaning today (“the part of a roof that meets or overhangs the walls of a building”), and comes from an alteration of the Old English efes, meaning “edge of a roof.”
Jurisprudence
Jurisprudence is the theory or philosophy of law. The word has been used in English since the early 17th century, when it was derived from the late Latin jurisprudentia, with jur meaning “law” and prudentia meaning “knowledge.” This is also where the words “jurist” (an expert or writer in law) and “jury” (a body of people sworn to give a verdict in a legal case) come from.
Lintel
A lintel is a horizontal support beam (made of timber, stone, concrete, or steel) found across the top of a door or window. It is based on the Latin word for “threshold,” limen, but it’s rarely used today, except to describe “post-and-lintel construction” structures, such as those found at Stonehenge. This was likely put on the 1926 test as a counterpart to a similar architectural term in the word bank, “ridgepole” — the horizontal beam along the ridge of a roof into which rafters are fastened.
Rebellion
“Rebellion” and “revolution” are found side by side on the almost-100-year-old exam. By definition, a rebellion is an act of violent or open resistance to a government or ruler, while a revolution is a forcible overthrow of a government or ruler in favor of a new system. It’s clear that question eight on the exam was looking for “revolution” (rather than “rebellion”) as its answer: “The overthrow of one government and the substitution of another.”
Stepson
Definitions of familial relationships must have been important to the original SAT writers. Not only is “stepson” on the test, but so are the words “stepdaughter,” “stepfather,” and “stepmother.” Use of the prefix “step” to describe family members began centuries ago in Old English, when “stepchild” meant “orphan,” and the word “orphan” meant “deprived of a parent by death” (it didn’t always mean both parents). When the child’s surviving parent remarried, they became a “stepson” or “stepdaughter.” These words weren’t used to describe blended families or situations of divorce or separation for a few more centuries. In fact, “stepparent” didn’t appear until 1890, and “stepfamily” wasn’t coined until 1966.
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