Sat - Set 3

Front 1

CHARLATAN

noun

Back 1

A person who makes elaborate, fraudulent, and often voluble claims to skill or knowledge; a quack or fraud; a mountebank

NYT:
“Ponzi’s Scheme” tells the story of Charles Ponzi, a charismatic charlatan who came to Boston and fleeced investors out of millions of dollars in the early 1900s by promising them huge, swift returns on their money.

Front 2

SKEPTIC - noun
SKEPTICAL - adj

Back 2

One who doubts, questions, or disagrees with assertions or generally accepted conclusions.

NYT:
Mr. Netanyahu remains a deep skeptic about the Muslim world’s intentions toward Israel and tends to highlight fears more than hopes for the region.

Front 3

RHETORICIAN - noun

Back 3

1. An expert in or teacher of rhetoric.
2. An eloquent speaker or writer.
3. A person given to verbal extravagance.

NYT:
Obama is a gifted rhetorician with world-class speechwriters.

Front 4

HEDONIST - noun

Back 4

A person who regards pleasure as the chief good or the proper aim; a pleasure seeker.

NYT:
Kreso (Kresimir Mikic) is an unrepentant hedonist whose days are filled with an endless stream of drinking, drugs, and sex.

Front 5

ASCETIC - noun

Back 5

A person who practices extreme self-denial or austerity;

NYT:
Lean and wiry, General McChrystal is known as an ascetic who operates on a few hours of sleep and usually eats just one meal a day.

Front 6

RACONTEUR

noun

Back 6

One who tells stories and anecdotes with skill and wit.

NYT:
A former professional athlete and a gifted raconteur, Jack never tired of recounting his past glories to anyone who would listen....

Front 7

DILETTANTE

noun & adj

Back 7

A person who takes an interest in a subject merely as a pastime and without serious study, a dabbler; an amateur.

NYT:
He [Jacob Schwartz] was not a dilettante, but mastered each field in turn and then made significant contributions.

Front 8

PARTISAN

noun & adj

Back 8

noun - a zealous supporter of a party, person, or cause;
adj - Devoted to or biased in support of a party, group, or cause

NYT:
The partisan disputes are not likely to lessen as the budget heads for approval in the House as early as Tuesday and the Senate on Wednesday.

Front 9

DEMAGOGUE

noun & verb

Back 9

A leader or orator who appeals to popular desires or prejudices to further personal interests, a rabble-rouser.

NYT:
That’s why she [referring to Sarah Palin] now sounds like a demagogue, embodying grievances and playing to people’s worst impulses.

Front 10

AUTOMATON

noun

Back 10

1. A self-operating machine or mechanism, especially a robot.
2. One that behaves or responds in a mechanical way.

NYT:
The idea of building an automaton so perfect that it could fool people into thinking it was human came to inspire not only the mechanics who experimented with these machines but the artists who fictionalized them

Front 11

RECLUSE

noun

Back 11

A person living in or preferring seclusion or isolation, esp. as a religious discipline; a hermit.

NYT:
“I’m so overexposed,” Mr. Obama joked in a speech then, “I’m making Paris Hilton look like a recluse.”

Front 12

BUNGLE - verb & noun
BUNGLER - noun

Back 12

bungle (v) - Do or make clumsily or unskillfully; botch

NYT:
Zacarias Moussaoui's lawyers used the accounts of known terrorists today to try to deflate their client's boastful claim that he had a major role in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and portray him instead as an ineffective, almost comic bungler.

Front 13

CLAIRVOYANT

adj & noun

Back 13

adj - Having the supposed power to see objects or events that cannot be perceived by the senses.
n - A person, such as a medium, possessing the supposed power of clairvoyance.

NYT:
He [Michel Hayek] is Lebanon's foremost clairvoyant and is credited with predicting some of the more significant events in the nation's recent history.

Front 14

PROGNOSTICATE - verb
PROGNOSTICATOR - noun

Back 14

prognosticate - to predict
prognosticator - someone who predicts

NYT:
The buoyant economy and the continued growth in consumer confidence and spending have led the leading prognosticator of advertising spending to project record, sustained demand from marketers for media time and space.

Front 15

PUNDIT

noun

Back 15

A person who makes knowledgeable and authoritative pronouncements on current affairs.

NYT:
On Christmas Eve, the conservative pundit Monica Crowley argued on Fox News that instead of rescuing America from the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt’s spending on public works made it worse.

Front 16

ZEAL - noun
ZEALOUS - adj
ZEALOT - noun

Back 16

zealot - a person who is carried away by excess of zeal; a fanatic.
zeal - fervent love and devotion
zealous - full of zeal

NYT:
THE fitness craze has created a Monster - the zealot who isn't content just to pursue her sport, but who is bent on converting those of us who would rather not sweat or risk life and limb.

Front 17

GREENHORN

noun

Back 17

1. An inexperienced or immature person, especially one who is easily deceived.
2. A newcomer, especially one who is unfamiliar with the ways of a place or group.

NYT:
Why would I want to hover between being a greenhorn and seasoned old hand? So I can retain the excitement and the willingness to make mistakes that come with youthful enthusiasm, and temper it with the knowledge, skills, and confidence that come with experience.

Front 18

BENEFACTOR

noun

Back 18

One that gives aid, especially financial aid; patron; donor

NYT:
For the last two years, recitals have been partly financed by an anonymous benefactor who belongs to the church.

Front 19

BENEFICIARY

noun

Back 19

1. One that receives a benefit
2. The recipient of funds, property, or other benefits, as from an insurance policy or will.

NYT:
Education has been the greatest beneficiary of Ford grants.
NYT:
About half of Medicare beneficiaries live at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty line.

Front 20

DISSEMBLE - verb
DISSEMBLER - noun

Back 20

dissemble - To disguise or conceal one's real nature, motives, or feelings behind a false appearance.

NYT:
Possibly the Major is a crafty dissembler and does not tell all he knows in the speeches with which he is now firing the Republican heart

Front 21

PREVARICATE - verb
PREVARICATOR - noun

Back 21

prevaricator - A person who acts or speaks evasively; a quibbler, an equivocator.

NYT:
THE Frank Lloyd Wright who emerges from Brendan Gill's chatty new biography is an architect of genius, but he's also an arrogant con man - a self-promoter and prevaricator, who uses his gift of gab to seduce women and clients, and enhance his own mythic stature as a visionary artist.

Front 22

PROPONENT

noun

Back 22

One who argues in support of something; an advocate.

NYT:
Jocelyn Frye became a passionate proponent of affirmative action and workplace equity and an advocate for women and families in Washington.

Front 23

ADVOCATE

verb & noun

Back 23

verb - To speak, plead, or argue in favor of.
noun - 1. One that argues for a cause; a supporter or defender: an advocate of civil rights.
2. One that pleads in another's behalf; an intercessor

NYT:
Google says it has discovered that the accounts of dozens of Gmail users who advocate for human rights in China have been accessed, apparently by deceptive software or other improper means.
NYT:
Mr. Bradbury, a fierce advocate for public libraries, appeared at a fund-raiser last June aimed at helping to save the ailing branch.

Front 24

REPROBATE

noun & adj

Back 24

(n) - A morally unprincipled person.
(adj) - Morally unprincipled; shameless.
(verb) - To disapprove of; condemn.

NYT:
But Julian and his reprobate colleagues would much rather spend their time drinking, fighting, and sporting with the implausibly young and beautiful prostitutes who staff the local brothel.

Front 25

RENEGADE

noun

Back 25

(n) - A person who deserts a party or his or her principles; a person who changes his or her allegiance; a turncoat.
(adj) Of a person: abandoning one religious faith for another; deserting one's principles, changing one's allegiance.

NYT:
Under Communist rule, many mainlanders regard Taiwan as a renegade province that should be taken back by force if necessary.