Miscellaneous Word List 1601-1700

Front 1

quizzical

Back 1

adj. suggesting puzzlement; questioning; eccentric; odd; teasing; mocking

Front 2

Rabelaisian

Back 2

adj. characterized by coarse humor or bold caricature

Front 3

refectory

Back 3

n. a room where meals are served, especially in a college or other institution

Front 4

regnant

Back 4

adj. reigning; ruling; predominant; widespread; prevalent

Front 5

repristinate

Back 5

v. to restore to an original state

Front 6

ribald

Back 6

adj. characterized by or indulging in vulgar, lewd humor

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salvific

Back 7

adj. having the intention or power to bring about salvation or redemption

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saprophyte

Back 8

n. an organism, especially a fungus or bacterium, that grows on and derives its nourishment from dead or decaying organic matter

Front 9

sass

Back 9

n./v. impertinent, disrespectful speech; back talk/to talk impudently to

Front 10

satyagraha

Back 10

n. the policy of nonviolent resistance initiated in india by gandhi as a means of pressing for political reform

Front 11

schuss

Back 11

v./n. to make a fast straight downhill run in skiing

Front 12

seemliness

Back 12

adj. conforming to standards of conduct and good taste; suitable; of pleasing appearance; handsome

Front 13

seine

Back 13

n. a large net made to hang vertically in the water by weights at the lower edge and floats at the top

Front 14

shibboleth

Back 14

n. (1) a word or phrase identified with a particular group or cause; a catchword (2) a custom or practice that betrays one as an outsider

Front 15

skein

Back 15

n. something suggesting the coil of string or yarn; a complex tangle

Front 16

Solomonic

Back 16

adj. exhibiting or requiring the exercise of great wisdom, especially in making difficult decisions

Front 17

sommelier

Back 17

n. a restaurant employee who orders and maintains the wines sold in the restaurant and usually has extensive knowledge about wine and food pairings

Front 18

somnambulist

Back 18

n. sleepwalking

Front 19

sorites

Back 19

adj. elliptical series of syllogisms in which the premises are so arranged that the predicate of the first is the subject of the second, continuing until the last (where x grains of sand doesn't make a heap, no single addition will make a heap either)

Front 20

sostenuto

Back 20

adj. in a manner that is sustained as long as or beyond a note's full value

Front 21

splenetic

Back 21

adj. affected or marked by ill humor or irritability

Front 22

Stakhanovite

Back 22

n. a soviet worker honored and rewarded for exceptional diligence in increasing production

Front 23

strophe

Back 23

n. the first pair of stanzas of alternating form on which the structure of a given poem is based

Front 24

stultify

Back 24

v. (1) to render useless or ineffectual; cripple (2) to cause to appear stupid, inconstistent, or ridiculous (3) to dull the mind by boring routine

Front 25

suasion

Back 25

n. the act of persuading

Front 26

sub specie aeternitatis

Back 26

viewed under the aspects of the heavens; in its essential or universal form

Front 27

succubus

Back 27

n. a femal demon supposed to descend upon and have sexual intercourse with a man while he sleeps; an evil spirit

Front 28

summum bonum

Back 28

n. the greatest or supreme good

Front 29

superannuation

Back 29

n. a (1) regular payment made by an employee into a pension fund; the pension finally paid (2) the property of being out of date and not current

Front 30

supernumerary

Back 30

adj. exceeding a fixed, prescribed, or standard number; extra; exceeding the required or desired number or amount; superfluous

Front 31

suppurate

Back 31

v. to form or discharge pus

Front 32

synaesthetic

Back 32

adj. involving more than one sense

Front 33

synoptic

Back 33

adj. presenting a summary of the principal parts or a general view of the whole

Front 34

tabula rasa

Back 34

n. the mind before it receives the impressions gained from experience; the unformed, featureless mind

Front 35

talismanic

Back 35

adj. possessing or believed to possess magic power

Front 36

toothsome

Back 36

adj. delicious; luscious; pleasant; attractive

Front 37

tort-feasor

Back 37

n. a party who has commited a tort

Front 38

totemism

Back 38

n. a belief in totems or in kinship through common affiliation to a totem

Front 39

trinitarian

Back 39

adj. having three members, parts, or facets

Front 40

tropism

Back 40

n. turning or bending movement of an organism or a part toward or away from an external stimulus, such as light, heat, or gravity

Front 41

troth

Back 41

n. one's pledged fidelity; good faith; fidelity; betroth

Front 42

tumbril

Back 42

n. a crude cart used to carry condemned prisoners to their place of execution, as during the French Revolution

Front 43

tutoyer

Back 43

v. to address familiarly

Front 44

ultramontanist

Back 44

n. the policy that absolute authority in the Church should be vested in the pope

Front 45

ululation

Back 45

v. to howl, wail, or lament loudly

Front 46

unmeeching

Back 46

adj. no cringing, sneaky, or whining in tone

Front 47

unshirted

Back 47

adj. undiluted; unsparing; undisguished

Front 48

varicose

Back 48

adj. abnormally swollen or knotted

Front 49

vaticination

Back 49

n. the act of prophesying; a prediction; the thing foretold

Front 50

venial

Back 50

adj. easily excused or forgiven; pardonable; a minor transgression warranting a light punishment

Front 51

vinous

Back 51

adj. of, relating to, or made with wine

Front 52

votary

Back 52

n. (1) a person bound by vows (2) a person who is fervently devoted (3) a person who is filled with enthusiasm, as for a pursuit or hobby

Front 53

vox populi

Back 53

n. popular opinion or sentiment

Front 54

williwaw

Back 54

n. a sudden gust of wind; a squall

Front 55

winnow

Back 55

v. to rid of undesireable parts; to examine closely in order to separate the good from the bad; sift

Front 56

ineffable

Back 56

adj. incapable of being expressed; indescribable or unutterable; taboo

Front 57

jeu d'esprit

Back 57

a witticism

Front 58

billets-doux

Back 58

n. a love letter

Front 59

smarmy

Back 59

adj. hypocritically, complacently, or effusively earnest; unctuous; sleek

Front 60

steatopygia

Back 60

n. excessive development of fat on the buttocks, especially of women

Front 61

lambent

Back 61

adj. softly radiant, as with wit, or light or flame on a surface without burning it

Front 62

verbivore

Back 62

n. an animal that resricts to consuming plants only

Front 63

sesquipedalian

Back 63

adj. of a word, having many syllables; of a writer, tending to use long words

Front 64

thaumaturge

Back 64

n. a worker of miracles

Front 65

popinjay

Back 65

n. a conceited and talkative person

Front 66

blatherskite

Back 66

n. a person given to blathering

Front 67

mawkish

Back 67

adj. feebly or falsely sentimental

Front 68

saturnine

Back 68

adj. or a person or his looks, having a gloomy and forbidding appearance

Front 69

poetaster

Back 69

n. an inferior poet

Front 70

quidnunc

Back 70

n. a busybody; a gossip

Front 71

anchorite

Back 71

n. a hermit or recluse, especially a person who has retired to a solitary place for a life of religious seclusion

Front 72

mountebank

Back 72

n. a swindler; a charlatan

Front 73

non liquet

Back 73

the law is not clear enough for a decision

Front 74

infra/praeter/contra legem

Back 74

within the law/without the law/against the law

Front 75

de lege ferenda

Back 75

what the law ought to be

Front 76

hidebound

Back 76

adj. stubbornly prejudiced, narrow-minded, or inflexible; resembling the bark of a tree so contracted and unyielding as to hinder growth

Front 77

litispendence

Back 77

the part of an action pending and undetermined

Front 78

pandiculation

Back 78

n. an instinctive stretching, as on awakening or while yawning

Front 79

sallow

Back 79

adj. having a sickly, yelllowish color

Front 80

bon vivant

Back 80

n. a person with refined taste, especially one who enjoys superb food and drink

Front 81

vita umbratilis

Back 81

life in the shade

Front 82

gourmandize

Back 82

v. to overeat or eat immodestly; make a pig of oneself

Front 83

splinder

Back 83

n. a small splinter; a tiny shard

Front 84

squib

Back 84

n. a brief satirical or witty writing or speech, such as a lampoon

Front 85

watchword

Back 85

n. (1) a rallying cry (2) a prearranged reply to a challenge, as from a guard or sentry; a password

Front 86

delation

Back 86

n. (1) conveyance; carriage; the act of conveying (2) accusation by an informer

Front 87

ocular

Back 87

adj. relating to the eye or sense of sight

Front 88

betise

Back 88

n. stupidity; folly; a dumb act or remark

Front 89

priapic

Back 89

adj. overly concerned with masculinity

Front 90

farceur

Back 90

n. one who acts in or writes a farce; a comic; a wag

Front 91

carmen

Back 91

n. a man whose employment is to drive, or to convey goods in a car

Front 92

servitium amoris

Back 92

enslavement to passion

Front 93

adjure

Back 93

v. to command or enjoin solemnly, as under oath; to appeal to or to entreat earnestly

Front 94

prentice

Back 94

n. an apprentice

Front 95

hysteron proteron

Back 95

n. "latter before"; a rhetorical device where the later in time is presented first, as in put on your shoes and socks

Front 96

plangent

Back 96

adj. (1) loud and resounding (2) expressing or suggesting sadness; plaintive

Front 97

beat/itcus/metre

Back 97

a steady succession of rhythyms/the accent that falls on a stressed syllable in a line of scanned verse/the rhythmic arrangement of syllables in verse

Front 98

contrapuntal

Back 98

adj. having two or more independent but harmonically related melodic parts sounding together

Front 99

Empsonian

Back 99

uncertainty and overlaps in meanings in the use of a word can be an enrichment in poetry rather than a fault

Front 100

crepuscular

Back 100

adj. of or like twilight; dim; becoming active at twighlight or before sunrise, as do bats and certain insects and birds