Are they commonly used words?

[svartnik]

Hello

I have these words:
pestinential, kerfuffle, retch, galumph, tosh

I was wondering if they are commonly used words in the English language.

If I picked out 100 people randomly on the street in an English speaking country, how many of them would know all these words?

Thanks

[Anglika]

Not that many.

Should the first one be "pestilential"?

[Anglika]

Not that many.

Should the first one be "pestilential"?

As to "retch", it could so easily be confused with "wretch".

..

[svartnik]

Not that many.

Should the first one be "pestilential"?

Thanks Anglika.

That "not that many", what would you say their educational background should be?

Thanks

[Anglika]

Thanks Anglika.

That "not that many", what would you say their educational background should be?

Thanks

Literate.

[svartnik]

..

Literate.

Furthermore?

[Anglika]

I don't know. You aer choosing 100 people at random. I suppose you look at what sort of clothes they are wearing, what newspaper they might be carrying, try to overhear what they sound like as they speak.

[Ouisch]

Many of the words you mentioned are of Yiddish origin, so if you asked 100 people in (for example) New York City's garment district, which has a large Jewish population, no doubt at least 90 percent of those you asked would recognize "retch," "tosh," "kerfuffle" and "galumph." In a larger metropolitan area, maybe 50 percent of the responders would know these words. If you took your survey in a rural community in Mississippi, very few would be familiar with any of those words.

[Charlie Bernstein]

Where are we going with this?

=O.

[Anglika]

You tell us.

I think the answer to the original poster is that they are not particularly commonly used words [notably the first one, which still puzzles me]