rarefied ˈrer-ə-ˌfīd adjective
1. of high moral or intellectual value; elevated in nature or style
2. having low density
_________
The word rarefied has appeared in 99 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Oct. 27 in the book review “Shifting the Focus From Sylvia Plath’s Tragic Death to Her Brilliant Life” by Daphne Merkin:
What becomes a legend most? As suggested by the old black-and-white Blackglama fur ads, featuring Lena Horne, Diana Vreeland and Cher, among others, legends are people who have soared beyond fame or celebrity into a more rarefied, inaccessible stratosphere.
Today’s media-fixated, Kardashian-dominated world is filled with all sorts of legends, from the elevated to the base, but I can think of few poets who fit into this category. The exception is Sylvia Plath, who, with her perfect blond pageboy, wide smile and cinched-waist dresses, looked less like a proper poet and more like Doris Day.
_________
