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63 Cards in this Set
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distrait \dis-TRAY\, adjective:
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Divided or withdrawn in attention, especially because of anxiety.
Yet when she stopped for a cup of coffee, finding herself too distrait to begin work, the picture was in the course of being removed from the window. -- Anita Brookner, Falling Slowly <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375704248/ref=nosim/lexico> He had painfully written out a first draft, and he intoned it now like a poet delicate and distrait. -- Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553214861/ref=nosim/lexico> Virtually nobody noticed a more private and simultaneous cameo in a little bay in West Cork: of a delicate, somewhat distrait, gentleman of middle age being swept into the turbulent waters off Kilcrohane. -- Kevin Myers, "An Irishman's Diary", Irish Times <http://www.ireland.com/> , July 21, 1999 Distrait is from Old French, from distraire, "to distract," from Latin distrahere, "to pull apart; to draw away; to distract," from dis- + trahere, "to draw, to pull." It is related to distraught and distracted, which have the same Latin source. |
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redoubtable \rih-DOW-tuh-buhl\, adjective:
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1. Arousing fear or alarm; formidable.
2. Illustrious; eminent; worthy of respect or honor. He had been particularly involved in and articulate over policy toward East Asia, stressing the threat from China after the Communists won power there in 1949, and had made dramatic impressions of competence and coolness on two occasions -- under the physical threat of a crowd in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1958, and in a dramatic kitchen debate in the Soviet Union in 1959 with the redoubtable Nikita Khrushchev. -- William Bundy, A Tangled Web <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0809016249/ref=nosim/lexico> The prospect was daunting, not least because Evelyn was still a redoubtable figure on campus whom I saw almost every day and to whom I went for advice almost as regularly. -- Keith Stewart Thomson, The Common But Less Frequent Loon and Other Essays <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0300056303/ref=nosim/lexico> At the head of the table, as committee chair, sat the redoubtable Howard Mumford Jonesa teacher famed even at Harvard for his fierce authority, his wide-ranging erudition, and his intolerant exacting preciseness. -- Nicholas Delbanco, The Lost Suitcase <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0231115423/ref=nosim/lexico> Redoubtable derives from Old French redouter, "to dread," from Medieval Latin redubitare, "to fear," literally "to doubt back at," from Latin re- + dubitare, "to doubt." |
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paroxysm \PAIR-uhk-siz-uhm\, noun:
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1. (Medicine) A sudden attack, intensification, or recurrence of a disease.
2. Any sudden and violent emotion or action; an outburst; a fit. But when he's on target -- and more often than not he is -- he can send you into paroxysms of laughter. -- William Triplett, "Drawing Laughter From a Well of Family Pain", Washington Post <http://www.washingtonpost.com/> , June 13, 2002 Dickens had a paroxysm of rage: 'Bounding up from his chair, and throwing his knife and fork on his plate (which he smashed to atoms), he exclaimed: "Dolby! your infernal caution will be your ruin one of these days!"' -- Edmund Wilson, "Dickens: The Two Scrooges", The Atlantic <http://www.theatlantic.com/> , April/May 1940 Mrs. Bumble, seeing at a glance that the decisive moment had now arrived, and that a blow struck for mastership on one side or another, must necessarily be final and conclusive, dropped into a chair, and with a loud scream that Mr. Bumble was a hard-hearted brute, fell into a paroxysm of tears. -- Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist Paroxysm is from Greek paroxusmos, from paroxunein, "to irritate, provoke or excite (literally to sharpen excessively)," from para-, "beyond" + oxunein, "to sharpen, to provoke." |
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exiguous \ig-ZIG-yoo-us\, adjective:
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Extremely scanty; meager.
They are entering the market, setting up stalls on snowy streets, moonlighting to supplement exiguous incomes. -- Michael Ignatieff, "Rebirth of a Nation: An Anatomy of Russia", New Statesman, February 6, 1998 Among the pressures provoking these distresses were a father's financial inadequacy and a growing awareness that, by finding employment himself, he could ameliorate the family's exiguous circumstances. -- Terence Brown, The Life of W. B. Yeats: A Critical Biography <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0631228519/ref=nosim/lexico> Exiguous comes from Latin exiguus, "strictly weighed; too strictly weighed," hence "scanty, meager," from exigere, "to determine; to decide; to weigh." |
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facetious \fuh-SEE-shuhs\, adjective:
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1. Given to jesting; playfully jocular.
2. Amusing; intended to be humorous; not serious. J. K. Morley was being both serious and facetious when he claimed that "the world's greatest water power is woman's tears." -- Tom Lutz, Crying: The Natural and Cultural History of Tears <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393047563/ref=nosim/lexico> He was by all odds the liveliest, most genial man in the group--"a most engaging and entertaining companion of a sweet, even and lively temper, full of facetious stories always applied with judgment and introduced apropos." -- Richard M. Ketchum, Saratoga: Turning Point of America's Revolutionary War <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805061231/ref=nosim/lexico> Facetious comes from French facetieux, from Latin facetia, "wit," from facetus, "witty." |
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maladroit \mal-uh-DROYT\, adjective:
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Lacking adroitness; clumsy; awkward; unskillful; inept.
Do you know someone who . . . loves quiet conversations about feelings or ideas, and can give a dynamite presentation to a big audience, but seems awkward in groups and maladroit at small talk? -- Jonathan Rauch, "Caring for Your Introvert", The Atlantic <http://www.theatlantic.com/> , March 2003 Dodging these equally maladroit skiers in a small area is pretty tough going -- especially when our few seconds of downhill glory are followed by minutes spent in an ungainly queue as learners, by and large, fail to connect with the drag lift. -- Gwyn Topham, "Skiing is for show-offs", The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/> , January 28, 2003 And she has been battling the perception that she is a maladroit campaigner prone to missteps amid New York's complex ethnic politics. -- Martha T. Moore, "Clinton leans on old ideas, unveils new", USA Today <http://www.usatoday.com/> , February 7, 2000 There was a time when the Left stood up for the underdog-for the worker against the boss, the maladroit against the polished, the lone individual against the state. -- John Derbyshire, "Elian Nation - He makes our battlefield plain as day", National Review <http://www.nationalreview.com/> , May 22, 2000 Maladroit comes from French, from mal-, "badly" + adroit, from à droit, "properly," from à, "to" (from Latin ad) + droit, "right," from Latin directus, "straight, direct," past participle of dirigere, "to lead or guide." |
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physiognomy \fiz-ee-OG-nuh-mee; -ON-uh-mee\, noun:
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1. The art of discovering temperament and other characteristic qualities of the mind from the outward appearance, especially by the features of the face.
2. The face or facial features, especially when regarded as indicating character. 3. The general appearance or aspect of a thing. According to the latest rumours, he is now immersed in the science of physiognomy, the divining of a person's character by the shape of their features, and is preparing a paper on the subject for the inaugural meeting of the Van Diemen's Land Scientific Society. -- Tom Gilling, The Sooterkin <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0141002018/ref=nosim/lexico> Pasteur seems to have been most interested in capturing the actual looks of his subjects, and his portraits form a gallery showing all kinds of physiognomies that are observed with almost clinical patience. -- Patrice Debré, Louis Pasteur <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0801865298/ref=nosim/lexico> (translated by Elborg Forster) Over my crib hung a piece of tin embossed with the stern physiognomies of Vladimir Ilich Lenin and Leon Trotsky. -- William Herrick, Jumping the Line <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1902593421/ref=nosim/lexico> It was an urban physiognomy different, Bourget thought, "from every other since the foundation of the world," an unvarying flatland of industrial neighborhoods that rolled on -- backward from the horizon -- for miles and miles until it climaxed in a silhouette of towers tightly wedged between river, rail lines, and lake. -- Donald L. Miller, City of the Century <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684831384/ref=nosim/lexico> Physiognomy comes from Greek physiognomonia, from physiognomon, "judging character by the features," from physis, "nature, physique, appearance" + gnomon, "one who knows, hence an examiner, a judge," from gignoskein, "to know." |
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slake \SLAYK\, transitive verb:
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1. To satisfy; to quench; to extinguish; as, to slake thirst.
2. To cause to lessen; to make less active or intense; to moderate; as, slaking his anger. 3. To cause (as lime) to heat and crumble by treatment with water. 4. To become slaked; to crumble or disintegrate, as lime. My companions never drink pure water and the . . . beer serves as much to slake their thirst as to fill their stomachs and lubricate conversation. -- Philippe Descola, The Spears of Twilight <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1565844386/ref=nosim/lexico> She had the money he gave her (never enough to slake her anxieties). -- Nuala O'Faolain, Are You Somebody <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805056645/ref=nosim/lexico> Slake comes from Middle English slaken, "to become or render slack," hence "to abate," from Old English slacian, from slæc, "slack." |
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palindrome \PAL-in-drohm\, noun:
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A word, phrase, sentence, or verse that reads the same backward or forward.
A few examples: * Madam, I'm Adam. (Adam's first words to Eve?) * A man, a plan, a canal -- Panama! (The history of the Panama Canal in brief.) * Able was I ere I saw Elba. (Napoleon's lament.) * Mom, Dad. Palindrome comes from Greek palindromos, literally "running back (again)," from palin, "back, again" + dromos, "running." |
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truckle \TRUHK-uhl\, intransitive verb:
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To yield or bend obsequiously to the will of another; to act in a subservient manner.
Only where there was a "defiance," a "refusal to truckle," a "distrust of all authority," they believed, would institutions "express human aspirations, not crush them." -- Pauline Maier, "A More Perfect Union", New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , October 31, 1999 The son struggled to be obedient to the conventional, commercial values of the father and, at the same time, to maintain his own playful, creative innocence. This conflict could make him truckle in the face of power. -- Dr. Margaret Brenman-Gibson, quoted in "Theater Friends Recall Life and Works of Odets," by Herbert Mitgang, New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , October 30, 1981 I am convinced that, broadly speaking, the audience must accept the piece on my own terms; that it is fatal to truckle to what one conceives to be popular taste. -- Sidney Joseph Perelman, quoted in "The Perelman Papers," by Herbert Mitgang, New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , March 15, 1981 Truckle is from truckle in truckle bed (a low bed on wheels that may be pushed under another bed; also called a trundle bed), in reference to the fact that the truckle bed on which the pupil slept was rolled under the large bed of the master. The ultimate source of the word is Greek trokhos, "a wheel." |
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agglomeration \uh-glom-uh-RAY-shuhn\, noun:
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1. The act or process of collecting in a mass; a heaping together.
2. A jumbled cluster or mass of usually varied elements. Female biologists such as Lynn Margulis have suggested that symbiosis is the origin of complex life and that, if artificial intelligence comes about, it will do so by an agglomeration and binding up of functions, rather than through some Frankensteinian hauling down of a single power switch. -- Roz Kaveney, "The Eight Technologies of Otherness", New Statesman <http://www.newstatesman.com/> , January 9, 1998 Upon closer inspection, it revealed itself to be an agglomeration of differently shaped and colored prescription eyeglasses, inserted into a thin wall built in front of a window. -- Susan Harris, "Jean Shin at Frederieke Taylor", Art in America <http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/> , October, 2004 On flat farmland outside the town of Paulding, Ohio, sits an agglomeration of storage tanks, conveyors and long, rotating kilns that burn 60,000 tons of hazardous waste a year. -- David Bowermaster, "The cement makers' long sweet ride", U.S. News & World Report <http://www.usnews.com/> , July 19, 1993 Agglomeration is the noun form of agglomerate, "to gather into a ball or mass," which derives from the past participle of Latin agglomerare, "to mass together; to heap up," from ad- + glomerare, "to form into a ball," from glomus, glomer-, "ball." |
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impervious \im-PUR-vee-uhs\, adjective:
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1. Not admitting of entrance or passage through; impenetrable.
2. Not capable of being harmed or damaged. 3. Not capable of being affected. Shipboard Internet communications will not be ubiquitous for several years, in part because it is expensive and complicated to rewire ships, and in part because the companies want systems that are impervious to such potential Internet problems as hackers, software viruses and pornography. -- Peter H. Lewis, "From: Noah@Ark. Subject: Rain.", New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , October 3, 1999 The building is tremorproof, fireproof and impervious to even the most powerful tornado. -- Michael D'Antonio, "Bunker Mentality", New York Times Magazine <http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/> , March 26, 2000 He was wearing a red ronko, a "war vest," which, he said, made him impervious to bullets. -- Jeffrey Goldberg, "A Continent's Chaos", New York Times Magazine <http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/> , May 21, 2000 As it turns out, digital signals are so robust and impervious to interference that the station has picked up a viewable signal 65 miles away from the tower. -- Joel Brinkley, "TV Goes Digital: Warts and Wrinkles Can't Hide", New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , March 3, 1997 Impervious comes from Latin impervius, from in-, "not" + pervius, with a way through, hence penetrable, from per-, through + via, way. |
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purblind \PUR-blynd\, adjective:
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1. Having greatly reduced vision.
2. Lacking in insight or discernment. Add to this that the work seems unsure of its audience, providing no footnotes or exact references, but concluding with a bizarre parade of bibliographical essays running to 59 pages; that it gives the date only about once every 100 pages (and then not always the right date...) and leaves us feeling as if we were wandering purblind in some deep cave. -- James R. Kincaid, "The Sum Of His Oddities", New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , January 13, 1991 Those changes, whose pressing necessity by the end of the 1980s was surely evident to all but the most purblind, would have taken place in any case. -- Bryan Gould, "Mandy", New Statesman <http://www.newstatesman.com/> , January 29, 1999 But something is fundamentally wrong at Leeds, something that even the most ardent supporters -- and other purblind apologists -- must surely come to recognise. -- Kevin Mitchell, "How Leeds lost it", The Observer <http://www.observer.co.uk/> , March 10, 2002 On and on the weary litany of purblind negativity proceeds. -- Eric Evans, "The Theory Man.", History Today <http://www.historytoday.com/> , June 1997 Purblind derives from Middle English pur blind, wholly blind, from pur, pure + blind. In time it came to mean something less than wholly blind. |
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quotidian \kwoh-TID-ee-uhn\, adjective:
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1. Occurring or returning daily; as, a quotidian fever.
2. Of an everyday character; ordinary; commonplace. Erasmus thought More's career as a lawyer was a waste of a fine mind, but it was precisely the human insights More derived from his life in the quotidian world that gave him a moral depth Erasmus lacked. -- "More man than saint", Irish Times <http://www.ireland.com/> , April 4, 1998 She also had a sense of fun that was often drummed out under the dull, quotidian beats of suburban life. -- Meg Wolitzer, Surrender, Dorothy <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671042548/ref=nosim/lexico> Quotidian is from Latin quotidianus, from quotidie, "daily," from quotus, "how many, as many, so many" + dies, "day." |
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extant \EK-stunt; ek-STANT\, adjective:
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Still existing; not destroyed, lost, or extinct.
Why, then, did the joint House-Senate committee insert a maximum? The lack of extant records of the committee's deliberations requires us to speculate. -- Akhil Reed Amar, The Bill of Rights <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0300082770/ref=nosim/lexico> The fossil record shows clearly that ancient life was very different from extant life. -- Paul Davies, The Fifth Miracle <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/068486309X/ref=nosim/lexico> Extant comes from Latin exstare, "to stand out, to project, hence to be prominent, to be visible, to exist," from ex-, "out" + stare, "to stand." |
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abscond \ab-SKOND\, intransitive verb:
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To depart secretly; to steal away and hide oneself -- used especially of persons who withdraw to avoid arrest or prosecution.
The criminal is not concerned with influencing or affecting public opinion: he simply wants to abscond with his money or accomplish his mercenary task in the quickest and easiest way possible so that he may reap his reward and enjoy the fruits of his labours. -- Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0231114699/ref=nosim/lexico> Pearl, now an orphan (her father having absconded shortly after her conception), has been taken to live with her great-aunt Margaret in the north of England. -- Zoe Heller, Everything You Know <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0743411951/ref=nosim/lexico> Abscond comes from Latin abscondere, "to conceal," from ab-, abs-, "away" + condere, "to put, to place." |
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beholden \bih-HOHL-duhn\, adjective:
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Obliged; bound in gratitude; indebted.
Kate was quite fond of him and knew he was grateful to her for all the help and hospitality she and Oliver had given him during his period of gloom and puzzlement after his wife's defection, but she did not want him to feel beholden to her. -- Mary Sheepshanks, Picking Up the Pieces <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312970374/ref=nosim/lexico> The likely new government, which draws only a negligible level of support from rural areas, will be much less beholden to the farming interests than any government in the past two decades. -- "Reforming The EU Budget", Irish Times <http://www.ireland.com/> , October 8, 1998 Peter did not intend to be beholden to any of his relatives unless they proved their worth. -- Lindsey Hughes, Russia in the Age of Peter the Great <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0300082665/ref=nosim/lexico> Beholden is derived from Old English behealden, "to hold firmly," from be-, intensive prefix + healden, "to hold." |
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jocund \JOCK-uhnd; JOH-kuhnd\, adjective:
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Full of or expressing high-spirited merriment; light-hearted; mirthful.
His careless manners and jocund repartees might well seem incompatible with anything serious. -- William Prescott, History of the Conquest of Mexico <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375758038/ref=nosim/lexico> There was once a widow, fair, young, free, rich, and withal very pleasant and jocund, that fell in love with a certain round and well-set servant of a college. -- Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0766181804/ref=nosim/lexico> (translated by Thomas Shelton) Many a glad good morrow and jocund laugh from the young folk Made the bright air brighter. -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "Evangeline" Jocund is from Old French jocond, from Latin jucundus, "pleasant, agreeable, delightful," from juvare, "to please, to delight." |
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oblation \uh-BLAY-shuhn; oh-\, noun:
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1. The act of offering something, such as worship or thanks, especially to a deity.
2. (Usually capitalized) The act of offering the bread and wine of the Eucharist. 3. Something offered in a religious rite or as a charitable gift. There is another kind of spiritual courage as well, quieter and less celebrated, but just as remarkable: that of making each day, in its most conventional aspects -- cooking, eating, breathing -- an oblation to the absolute. -- Philip Zaleski, "A Buddhist From Dublin", New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , July 24, 1994 These aren't flowers randomly snatched from the garden; these are florist's flowers, purchased as an offering, an oblation. -- Carol Shields, Dressing Up for the Carnival <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0141001917/ref=nosim/lexico> And that day we also celebrate the memory of his goodness in sending a star to guide the three wise men from the east to Bethlehem, that they might there worship, and present him with their oblation of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. -- Izaak Walton, The lives of John Donne and George Herbert <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0854171657/ref=nosim/lexico> Oblation derives from Latin oblatio, from oblatus, past participle of offerre, "to carry to, to bring to, to offer," from ob-, "to" + ferre, "to bring." |
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flummery \FLUHM-uh-ree\, noun:
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1. A name given to various sweet dishes made with milk, eggs, flour, etc.
2. Empty compliment; unsubstantial talk or writing; mumbo jumbo; nonsense. He had become disturbed by the number of listeners phoning in with such flummery as tales of self-styled clairvoyants' uncannily correct forecasts. -- Suzanne Seixas, "One Man's Finances", Money, September 1, 1986 One reason there is so much flummery in the global warming debate is that the weather in the Northeast United States, where the opinion-makers live, has a disproportionate effect on whether greenhouse concerns are taken seriously. -- Gregg Easterbrook, "Warming Up", New Republic <http://www.thenewrepublic.com/> , November 8, 1999 It is Dr. August's claim that he receives inspiration from spirits, that through his music the departed can speak to those they left behind. Although this is sometimes unabashed flummery, there are moments when Fitz seems to make a real connection with those who have crossed over. -- Paul Quarrington, "Psychic Hotline", New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , September 3, 2000 Flummery comes from Welsh llymru, a soft, sour oatmeal food. |
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recidivism \rih-SID-uh-viz-uhm\, noun:
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A tendency to lapse into a previous condition or pattern of behavior; especially, a falling back or relapse into prior criminal habits.
Mr. Atrens's basic argument is that it's physiologically almost impossible for many people to lose weight, as evidenced by a high recidivism rate and the unflagging profitability of diet paraphernalia, from liquid concoctions to surgeons' staples. -- Karen Stabiner, review of Don't Diet, by Dale M. Atrens, New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , March 27, 1988 I was engaged in a major research project that involved twenty-six countries, studying how to prevent recidivism in juvenile delinquents released from prison. -- Peggy Claude-Pierre, The Secret Language of Eating Disorders <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375750185/ref=nosim/lexico> According to the best available estimates, the . . . program has reduced the recidivism rate among participants to roughly half that of the general prison population in the state. -- James McQueeny, "And a Prison Helps Out, Too", New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , February 7, 1982 Recidivism derives from Latin recidivus, "falling back," from recidere, "to fall back," from re-, "back" + cadere, "to fall." One who relapses or who is an incorrigible criminal is a recidivist. |
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stentorian \sten-TOR-ee-uhn\, adjective:
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Extremely loud.
Around his family, Sergeant Charles Mingus Sr. was easily angered and often violent and closemouthed the rest of the time, except when he gave orders in a stentorian voice that carried the assumption of command. -- Gene Santoro, Myself When I Am Real <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195097335/ref=nosim/lexico> He broke the tradition of stentorian tenors, whose big voices and melodramatic high notes were needed to fill the concert halls and vaudeville houses. -- Richard Corliss, "The Book on Bing Crosby", Time <http://www.time.com/> , May 17, 2001 Then a stentorian voice blared an all-points bulletin: "Calling the G-men! Calling all Americans to war on the underworld!" -- Strobe Talbott, "Resisting the Gangbusters Option", Time <http://www.time.com/> , October 15, 1990 The bearded, often curmudgeonly Knoller can be found in the press filing center on most every presidential trip, his stentorian voice booming out 35-second takes for radio -- as many as 20 a day -- and shaping the day's news for dozens of journalists who can't help but hear him. -- Dana Milbank, "Bush by the Numbers, as Told by a Diligent Scorekeeper", Washington Post <http://www.washingtonpost.com/> , September 3, 2002 Stentorian comes from Stentor, a Greek herald in the Trojan War. According to Homer's Iliad, his voice was as loud as that of fifty men combined. |
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bravado \bruh-VAH-doh\, noun;
plural bravados or bravadoes \bruh-VAH-dohz\: |
A real or pretended show of courage or boldness.
While the popular mood in Belgrade remains defiant, unease beneath the bravado is growing. -- "No end in sight", The Economist <http://www.economist.com/> , April 15, 1999 His guerrilla operations, near Kabul, were known for their bravado and a level of organization unusual among the rather haphazard mujahedeen. -- Lisa Schiffren, "Remembering Abdul Haq: The Taliban executes an Afghan patriot", The Weekly Standard <http://www.weeklystandard.com/> , November 12, 2001 The company's culture of swashbuckling bravado encouraged risk taking without accountability. -- Ram Charan and Jerry Useem, "Why Companies Fail", Fortune <http://www.fortune.com/> , May 27, 2002 His mom was a nurse, incredulous at his bravado. "Why would anybody want to go to war?" she asked. -- Mark Bowden, Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140288503/ref=nosim/lexico> The students often compared public schools to prisons, with fear in their voices mixing with bravado. -- Alissa Quart, "Classroom Consciousness", The Nation <http://www.thenation.com/> , June 10, 2002 Bravado derives from Spanish bravada and French bravade, "swagger, bravery," and is related to brave, "bold, courageous," bravura, "a brilliant style or performance," and the Italian interjections bravo! and brava! used when expressing approval of male and female performers respectively. |
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impecunious \im-pih-KYOO-nee-uhs\, adjective:
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Not having money; habitually without money; poor.
Her father, Bronson, was a respected but impecunious New England transcendentalist who had 'no gift for money making', according to [Louisa May] Alcott's journal.' -- "Blood and Thunder in Concord", New York Times <https://www.nytimes.com/> , September 10, 1995 He had gotten to know Garibaldi during the impecunious soldier's last years and would send him woolen socks, underwear, and money. -- Tag Gallagher, The Adventures of Roberto Rossellini <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0306808730/ref=nosim/lexico> It may be urged that an impecunious defendant would be unable to bear the expense of an appeal and would have to let it go by default. -- Charles C. Nott Jr., "Coddling the Criminal", The Atlantic <http://www.theatlantic.com/> , February 1911 Impecunious is derived from Latin im-, in-, "not" + pecuniosus, "rich," from pecunia, "property in cattle, hence money," from pecu, "livestock." |
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valetudinarian \val-uh-too-din-AIR-ee-un; -tyoo-\, noun:
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1. A weak or sickly person, especially one morbidly concerned with his or her health.
2. Sickly; weak; infirm. 3. Morbidly concerned with one's health. He is the querulous bedridden valetudinarian complaining of his asthma or his hay fever, remarking with characteristic hyperbole that "every speck of dust suffocates me." -- Oliver Conant, review of Marcel Proust, Selected Letters: Volume Two 1904-1909, edited by Philip Kolb, translated by Terrence Kilmartin, New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , December 17, 1989 All this from a wasted valetudinarian, who . . . once referred to "this long convalescence which is my life." -- Michael Dirda, "Devil or Angel", Washington Post <http://www.washingtonpost.com/> , March 31, 1996 Other than the Holy Scripture, he cared for no book as well as the book of decay, its truths written in the furrows scored on the brows of old men and women; in the sagging timbers of decrepit barns; in the lichenous masonry of derelict buildings; in the mangy fur of a valetudinarian lion. -- Simon Schama, Rembrandt's Eyes <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375709819/ref=nosim/lexico> Valetudinarian derives from Latin valetudinarius, "sickly; an invalid," from valetudo, "state of health (good or ill)," from valere, "to be strong or well." |
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terminus \TUR-muh-nuhs\, noun:
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1. The finishing point; the end.
2. A boundary; a border; a limit. 3. A post or stone marking a boundary. 4. Either end of a railroad or other transportation line; also, the station house, town, or city at that place. Rather their train would come up from Southampton to Paddington railway station, the terminus for Queen Victoria's special train whenever she traveled to London from Windsor. -- Jonathan Schneer, London 1900 <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0300089031/ref=nosim/lexico> Roth had reached a kind of terminus -- the end of the beginning, as it were. -- Jason Cowley, "The Nihilist", The Atlantic <http://www.theatlantic.com/> , May 2001 Terminus is from the Latin word meaning "limit or boundary." It is related to term, "a limited period of time," and terminate, "to bring to an end." |
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myrmidon \MUR-muh-don; -duhn\, noun:
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1. (Capitalized) A member of a warlike Thessalian people who followed Achilles on the expedition against Troy.
2. A loyal follower, especially one who executes orders without question, protest, or pity. He risked assassination, torture or . . . retaliation, the defining signatures of Mr. Milosevic and his ultranationalist myrmidons. -- Bruce Fein, "Follow U.S. war crimes advice?", Washington Times <http://www.washingtontimes.com/> , May 10, 2001 Those who created EMU [(European) Economic and Monetary Union] -- mainly politicians and their myrmidons in the offices and conference rooms of Brussels -- portray a beckoning landscape of wealth, liberty and economic power that will rival the United States and surpass Asia. -- James O. Jackson, "The One-Way Bridge", Time <http://www.time.com/time/> , May 11, 1998 Myrmidon derives from Greek Myrmidones, a warlike people of ancient Thessaly. |
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politic \POL-ih-tik\, adjective:
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1. Of or pertaining to polity, or civil government; political (as in the phrase "the body politic").
2. (Of persons): Sagacious in promoting a policy; ingenious in devising and advancing a system of management; characterized by political skill and ingenuity; hence, shrewdly tactful, cunning. 3. (Of actions or things): Pertaining to or promoting a policy; hence, judicious; expedient; as, "a politic decision." Plato, in Aristotle's judgment, confused and treated as one the diverse elements that make up the body politic -- household, community (village), and state. -- Richard Pipes, Property and Freedom <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375704477/ref=nosim/lexico> It also occurred to me then that members of the circle around Peres thought that since negotiations with Syria were bound to continue, it would be more politic to present the concessions that would have to be made as having been made by the late Rabin. -- Itamar Rabinovich, The Brink of Peace <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0691058687/ref=nosim/lexico> I, on the other hand, loathed Philby . . . but it hardly seems politic to say this to my host. -- John le Carre, "My New Friends in the New Russia: In Search of A Few Good Crooks, Cops and Former Agents", New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , February 19, 1995 It didn't seem too politic to give voice to this thought. -- Lesley Hazleton, Driving To Detroit <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684839873/ref=nosim/lexico> Politic derives from Greek politikos, from polites, "citizen," from polis, "city." |
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sciolism \SY-uh-liz-uhm\, noun:
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Superficial knowledge; a superficial show of learning.
Religion was mostly superstition, science for the most part sciolism, popular education merely a means of forcing the stupid and repressing the bright, so that all the youth of the rising generation might conform to the same dull, dead level of democratic mediocrity. -- Charles Waddell Chesnut, Conjure Tales and Stories of the Color Line <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0141185023/ref=nosim/lexico> American classics teachers' choice in the early national period to focus on gammer rather than other aspects of the classical inheritance resulted from their primary pedagogical goals: to mold gentlemen who navigated between sciolism and pedantry, ministers who could intelligently read the Bible, and citizens who were moral and dutiful. -- Caroline Winterer, The Culture of Classicism <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0801867991/ref=nosim/lexico> Sciolism comes from Late Latin sciolus, "a smatterer," from diminutive of Latin scius, "knowing," from scire, "to know." One who has only superficial knowledge is a sciolist. |
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woolgathering \WOOL-gath-(uh)-ring\, noun:
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Indulgence in idle daydreaming.
Similarly, in the meadow, if you laze too late into the fall, woolgathering, snow could fill your mouth. -- Edward Hoagland, "Earth's eye", Sierra <http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/> , May 1999 It would be easy to slip off into woolgathering and miss a deadline. -- Jeraldine Saunders, Washington Post <http://www.washingtonpost.com/> , March 4, 2004 Plagued by guilt, they took refuge in wine, women, and woolgathering. -- Brennan Manning, Ruthless Trust <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0062517090/ref=nosim/lexico> The soprano roused Fergus from his woolgathering. -- Sandra Brown, Where There's Smoke <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0446600342/ref=nosim/lexico> Woolgathering derives from the literal sense, "gathering fragments of wool." |
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bete noire \bet-NWAHR\, noun:
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Something or someone particularly detested or avoided; a bugbear.
Even more regrettable, as far as Dame Edna is concerned, is the presence of her old bete noire, the extravagantly disgusting Sir Les Patterson. -- "The Dame's New Man", Daily Telegraph <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/> , April 18, 1998 Never an exceptional student, Andrews somehow managed to navigate the academy's rigorous courses with satisfactory grades, though all forms of mathematics were agonizing to him, remaining what he called his "bete noire" throughout life. -- Charles Gallenkamp, Dragon Hunter: Roy Chapman Andrews and the Central Asiatic Expeditions <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0670890936/ref=nosim/lexico> Bête noire is French for "black beast." |
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fealty \FEE-uhl-tee\, noun:
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1. Fidelity to one's lord; the feudal obligation by which the tenant or vassal was bound to be faithful to his lord.
2. The oath by which this obligation was assumed. 3. Fidelity; allegiance; faithfulness. He was re-elected Governor in 1855, and his administration of the State affairs, both in that and the preceding term of office, was marked by a regard for the public interest rather than party fealty. -- "Andrew Johnson Dead", New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , August 1, 1875 Barbour believed Christian conservatives represented a critical constituency, and he looked for opportunities to display his fealty to them. -- Dan Balz and Ronald Brownstein, Storming the Gates <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316080381/ref=nosim/lexico> The aristocratic O'Sullivans were enriched in return for their promise of fealty to the mighty Democratic party and its rising new leader. -- Edward L. Widmer, Young America <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195140621/ref=nosim/lexico> Whether exploited by traditional religions or political religions, psychological totalism -- the unquestioning fealty to one God, one truth, and one right, embodied in one faith, one cause, one party -- has everywhere provided the tinder of persecution. -- Jack Beatty, "The Tyranny of Belief", The Atlantic <http://www.theatlantic.com/> , September 13, 2000 Fealty comes from Old French fealté, from Latin fidelitas, "fidelity," from fidelis, "faithful," from fides, "faith," from fidere, "to trust." |
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ameliorate \uh-MEEL-yuh-rayt\, transitive verb:
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1. To make better; to improve.
2. To grow better. Among the pressures provoking these distresses were a father's financial inadequacy and a growing awareness that, by finding employment himself, he could ameliorate the family's exiguous circumstances. -- Terence Brown, The Life of W. B. Yeats: A Critical Biography <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0631228519/ref=nosim/lexico> In the socially fluid and (until the crash of 1837) economically expansive 1830s, the legislature frequently appropriated public money to investigate social problems, forestall dependency, and ameliorate human suffering. -- Elisabeth Gitter, The Imprisoned Guest <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374117381/ref=nosim/lexico> Ameliorate is derived from Latin ad + meliorare, "to make better," from melior, "better." |
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polyglot \POL-ee-glot\, adjective:
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1. Containing or made up of several languages.
2. Writing, speaking, or versed in many languages. 3. One who speaks several languages. Yes, Burgess loved to scatter polyglot obscurities like potholes throughout his more than 50 novels and dozens of nonfiction works. He could leap gaily from Welsh to French to Malay to Yiddish in one breath. -- "Byrne", Chicago Sun-Times <http://www.suntimes.com/index/> , August 24, 1997 There should be polyglot waiters who can tell us when the train starts in four or five languages. -- Hamerton, Intelligent Life My parents are both polyglots--they speak five Indian languages each, I speak seven--and they would encourage my reading. -- Lawrence Weschler, A Wanderer in the Perfect City <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1886913250/ref=nosim/lexico> Polyglot derives from Greek polyglottos, from poly-, "many" + glotta, "tongue, language." |
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mercurial \mur-KYUR-ee-uhl\, adjective:
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1. [Often capitalized] Of or pertaining to the god Mercury.
2. [Often capitalized] Of or pertaining to the planet Mercury. 3. Having the qualities of shrewdness, eloquence, or thievishness attributed to the god Mercury. 4. Changeable in temperament or mood; temperamental; volatile. 5. Of, pertaining to, or containing mercury. 6. Caused by the use of mercury. Most of his New England cronies, accustomed to Brownson's frequent changes of opinion, treated him as a mercurial spirit who had finally stepped off the edge of the world rather than as a role model. -- Patrick Allitt, Catholic Converts <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0801486637/ref=nosim/lexico> The bulky, white-thatched Georgia congressman was a mercurial, impulsive personality; a brilliant visionary one moment, a petulant, uncontrollable four-year-old the next. -- Dan Balz and Ronald Brownstein, Storming the Gates <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316080381/ref=nosim/lexico> Mercurial comes from Latin Mercurius, "Mercury," the Roman god of commerce and messenger of the gods. |
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gesticulate \juh-STIK-yuh-layt\, intransitive verb:
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1. To make gestures or motions, especially while speaking or instead of speaking.
2. To indicate or express by gestures. In between clearing flooded masks or removing our air supplies, we would gesticulate wildly to point out the giant barracuda hovering nearby, its ugly jaws snapping. -- Gwyn Topham, "Deep space", The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/> , November 2, 2002 In conversation, Ferry is friendly and animated, frequently rising to his feet to pace and gesticulate as he talks. -- Barbara Ellen, "The life of Bryan", The Observer <http://observer.guardian.co.uk/> , May 13, 2001 South Africa's attack allowed a miserly two runs per over yesterday, apart from Makhaya Ntini who went for 4 and caused the wicketkeeper Boucher to gesticulate his disapproval. -- David Hopps, "England's luck changes with order of the boot for Smith", The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/> , August 16, 2003 Gesticulate is from Latin gesticulatus, past participle of gesticulari, "to gesticulate," from gesticulus, diminutive of gestus, "gesture, action." |
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perfervid \puhr-FUR-vid\, adjective:
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Ardent; impassioned; marked by exaggerated or overwrought emotion.
Good movies evaporate, while the market is flooded with inanity. Critics can't do much to stop this, but when you read perfervid reviews of the latest commercial offerings it's plain that they do little to cool things down. -- Armond White, "Best Movies, Saddest Culture", New York Press <http://www.nypress.com/> , July 5, 2000 Years ago Philip Roth published a perspicacious essay on the pitfalls of writing satire, the gist of which was that the daily absurdities in our morning newspapers too often outdid even a novelist's most perfervid imaginings. -- Mordecai Richler, "Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind", New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , April 11, 1999 Or under the button-down exterior of a familiar Westchester suburbanite was there a giant cockroach eager to mud-wrestle a man in black? Or was this merely a quirk of Miss Polk's perfervid imagination? -- Mel Gussow, "Novelist Fires Off Opening of Fictional Relay on Net", New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , August 2, 1997 Perfervid is from Latin per-, "through, thoroughly" + fervidus, "boiling," from fervere, "to boil." |
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flaneur \flah-NUR\, noun:
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One who strolls about aimlessly; a lounger; a loafer.
Burrows and Wallace show how New York embraced the idea of the flaneur -- of the disinterested, artistically inclined wanderer in the city, of what they call "city watching." -- Jed Perl, "The Adolescent City", New Republic <http://www.thenewrepublic.com/index.html> , January 22, 2001 The restricted hotel lobby has replaced the square or piazza as a public meeting place, and our boulevards, such as they are, are not avenues for the parade and observation of personality, or for perusal by the flaneur, but conveyor belts to the stores, where we can buy everything but human understanding. -- Anatole Broyard, "In Praise of Contact", New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , June 27, 1982 Baudelaire saw the writer as a detached flaneur, a mocking dandy in the big-city crowd, alienated, isolated, anonymous, aristocratic, melancholic. -- Ian Buruma, "The Romance of Exile", New Republic <http://www.thenewrepublic.com/> , February 12, 2001 Flaneur comes from French, from flâner, "to saunter; to stroll; to lounge about." |
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aggrandize \uh-GRAN-dyz; AG-ruhn-dyz\, transitive verb:
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1. To make great or greater; to enlarge; to increase.
2. To make great or greater in power, rank, reputation, or wealth; -- applied to persons, countries, etc. 3. To make appear great or greater; to exalt. All over the country, trial lawyers and activist judges are locked into an embrace cemented by their mutual contempt for democratic self-government and their desire to aggrandize their own power at its expense. -- Rich Lowry, "The Gore Hard Core", National Review <http://www.nationalreview.com/> , November 20, 2000 It looks to me instead that one rising power center . . . is seeking to aggrandize itself by discrediting the principal alternative. -- David Frum, "Diary", National Review <http://www.nationalreview.com/> , April 30, 2003 I think that using your public-sector contacts to aggrandize yourself when you leave . . . creates a view that the public sector is for sale. -- Marcy Kaptur, quoted in "Connections and Then Some," by Greg Schneider, Washington Post <http://www.washingtonpost.com/> , March 16, 2003 These small worlds periodically featured pageants or fetes to aggrandize local despots as they celebrated such occasions as empire-building marriages or the birth of an heir. -- Robert Greskovic, Ballet 101 <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0786881550/ref=nosim/lexico> Aggrandize comes from French agrandir, from Old French, from a-, "to" (from Latin ad-) + grandir, "to grow larger," from Latin grandire, from grandis, "large." |
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restive \RES-tiv\, adjective:
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1. Impatient under restriction, delay, coercion, or opposition; resisting control.
2. Unwilling to go on; obstinate in refusing to move forward; stubborn. He turned restive at the least attempt at coercion. -- Ouida, Held in Bondage Broadcasters, along with the commercial gambling industry, have grown increasingly restive under the advertising prohibition. -- Linda Greenhouse, "Justices Strike Down Ban on Casino Gambling Ads", New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , June 15, 1999 The people remarked with awe and wonder that the beasts which were to drag him to the gallows became restive, and went back. -- Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James II <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1404306315/ref=nosim/lexico> He proved as ready a scholar as he had been indocile and restive to the pedant who held the office of his tutor. -- William Godwin, Caleb Williams <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140432566/ref=nosim/lexico> Restive comes from Medieval French restif, from rester, "to remain," ultimately from Latin restare, "to stand back, to remain behind," from re-, "back" + stare, "to stand." |
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comport \kum-PORT\, transitive verb:
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1. To conduct or behave (oneself) in a particular manner.
2. To be fitting; to accord; to agree -- usually followed by 'with'. Considered friendly and funny in private, the queen has a formal, remote air in public that some people attribute to shyness and others say is a reflection of her belief that, as monarch, she should comport herself with dignity and restraint. -- Sarah Lyall, "Tradition and Personality Keep Elizabeth Far From Her Subjects", New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , September 5, 1997 Her aides comport themselves like members of a cult, their faces a jittery mix of adoration and fear. -- Maureen Dowd, "Siamese Senators", New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , May 26, 1999 It comports with the clear meaning of the U.S. Constitution. -- "Making War the Legal Way", Denver Rocky Mountain News <http://InsideDenver.com/> , March 26, 1998 Fairchild says he decides cases "to comport with previous law and also with justice." -- Cary Segall, "Fairchild Keeps on Judgin'", Wisconsin State Journal <http://www.madison.com/> , August 1, 1999 Comport comes from Medieval French comporter, "to conduct," from Latin comportare, "to carry, to bring together," from com-, "with, together" + portare, "to carry." |
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flout \FLOWT\, transitive verb:
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1. To treat with contempt and disregard; to show contempt for.
2. To mock, to scoff. 3. Mockery, scoffing. The thorough training in the fine points of lyric writing that he has received from Hammerstein has made Sondheim highly critical of those lyricists who flout the basic techniques of the craft. -- "Sondheim: Lyricist and Composer", New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , March 6, 1966 Seth and Dorothy were completely mystified by Janis's determination to flout as many social conventions as she could. -- Alice Echols, Scars of Sweet Paradise <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805053948/ref=nosim/lexico> Who put your beauty to this flout and scorn By dressing it in rags. -- Tennyson, Idylls of the King Flout comes from Middle English flouten, "to play the flute." |
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extirpate \EK-stur-payt\, transitive verb:
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1. To pull up by the stem or root.
2. To destroy completely. 3. To remove by surgery. A plant growing where it shouldn't is a weed. An object for which you have no need or sentimental attachment is garbage. Extirpate the one, toss the other. -- Philip Kennicott, "The Symphony's Misbegotten 'Moon'", Washington Post <http://www.washingtonpost.com/> , January 14, 2000 There had been no great missionary impulse in the Turkish incursions, no urge to extirpate the old ways. -- Fouad Ajami, "The Glory Days of the Grand Turk", New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , May 2, 1999 If Soviet espionage or capitalist plots against the Soviet Union are malignant growths, it requires a professional to extirpate them by methods as unkind to random bystanders as radiation may be to healthy tissue. -- Robert Leachman, "Super Thrillers and Super Powers", New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , February 19, 1984 Extirpate derives from Latin ex(s)tirpare, "to tear up by the root, hence to root out, to extirpate," from ex-, "from" + stirps, "the stalk or stem or a tree or other plant, with the roots." |
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wiseacre \WY-zay-kuhr\, noun:
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One who pretends to knowledge or cleverness; a would-be wise person; a smart aleck.
All across the United States, journalists and other wiseacres would soon have a field day with the popular mayor's personal problems and public trials. -- Herbert Mitgang, Once Upon a Time in New York <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684855798/ref=nosim/lexico> A wiseacre on the Oakland to Los Angeles shuttle this week said the next technological leap would be implanting cell phones into people's heads. He was kidding -- we think. -- Chuck Raasch, "California is November prize for candidates", USA Today <http://www.usatoday.com/usafront.htm> , August 24, 2000 Wiseacre comes from Middle Dutch wijssegger, "a soothsayer," from Old High German wissago, alteration of wizago, "a prophet." |
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deipnosophist \dyp-NOS-uh-fist\, noun:
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Someone who is skilled in table talk.
At the age of six his future as a deipnosophist seemed certain. Guzzling filched apples he loved to prattle. Hogging the pie he invariably piped up and rattled on. -- Ellis Sharp, "The Bloating of Nellcock" Deipnosophist comes from the title of a work written by the Greek Athenaeus in about 228 AD, Deipnosophistai, in which a number of wise men sit at a dinner table and discuss a wide range of topics. It is derived from deipnon, "dinner" + sophistas, "a clever or wise man." |
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postprandial \post-PRAN-dee-uhl\, adjective:
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Happening or done after a meal.
A gourmand who zealously avoids all exercise as "seriously damaging to one's health," he had caviar for breakfast and was now having oysters for lunch, whetted with wine, as he fueled himself for a postprandial reading at the Montauk Club in Brooklyn. -- Mel Gussow, "The Man Who Put Horace Rumpole on the Case", New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , April 12, 1995 When I wake up in the morning, I can have my usual breakfast -- a slightly bizarre concoction of three kinds of cold cereal topped with grapes and a cup of decaf -- and then stagger back to bed for a postprandial snooze. -- Sylvan Fox, "It's Less Hectic Staying Put In One Place", Newsday <http://newsday.com/> , April 3, 1994 Postprandial is from post- + prandial, from Latin prandium, "a late breakfast or lunch." |
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somniferous \som-NIF-uhr-uhs\, adjective:
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Causing or inducing sleep.
He has gone outside the usual channels of stodgy academic journals and somniferous lectures. -- David Gibson, "Separating Christ from Christianity", The Record <http://www.bergen.com/> (Bergen County, NJ), June 9, 1996 And some cities are eschewing <http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2002/05/10.html> the somniferous art museum to invent newer, hipper institutions that honor our fascination with contemporary culture: technology, space flight, and even rock 'n' roll. -- Heidi Landecker, "Art Transplant", Architecture <http://www.architecturemag.com/> , March 1998 Filmed on location in England and using quotes from letters and other documents of Pilgrim leaders, this video is rich in detail and information. Its major drawback--and one that may affect its effectiveness with its intended student audience--is that it's as dull as dillweed, primarily due to a somniferous narration. -- J. Carlson, "The Mayflower Pilgrims", Video Librarian <http://www.videolibrarian.com/> , November 11, 1996 Somniferous comes from Latin somnifer, "sleep-bringing," from somnus, "sleep" + ferre, "to bring." |
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recumbent \rih-KUM-bunt\, adjective:
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1. Reclining; lying down.
2. Resting; inactive; idle. While the lovers' intricately carved tombs -- with their host of angels surrounding the recumbent figures of the deceased -- draw crowds, the soaring space of the Gothic cathedral and the peaceful abbey cloisters seem to swallow and silence the busloads of visitors. -- Jill Knight Weinberger, "Monuments To Love's Labors", New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , August 15, 1999 Winser was still recumbent but in his frenzy he was trying to writhe his way back onto his knees, kicking and twisting like a felled animal, struggling to wedge his heels under him, half rising, only to topple back again onto his side. -- John le Carré, Single & Single <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684859262/ref=nosim/lexico> Mr. Bloom, semi-recumbent on a reclining chair, speaks in long sentences, interrupting himself with long parenthetical remarks that contain parentheses of their own. -- Richard Bernstein, "A Perennial Scrapper Takes On God and the Bible", New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , October 24, 1990 Recumbent comes from the present participle of Latin recumbere, "lie back, to recline," from re-, "back" + -cumbere "to lie." |
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foundling \FOWND-ling\, noun:
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A deserted or abandoned infant; a child found without a parent or caretaker.
Some of her desires were more altruistic: she wanted to "send Phyllis to school for a year, take Auntie May for a winter in the Isle of Pines," and "raise foundlings." -- Tim Page, Dawn Powell: A Biography <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805063013/ref=nosim/lexico> Then one day her daughter returns home with a foundling, an abandoned baby boy. -- Charles R. Larson, Washington Post <http://www.washingtonpost.com/> , September 26, 1999 Foundling comes from Old English foundling, fundling, from finden, "to find" + the suffix -ling. |
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kvetch \KVECH\, adjective:
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1. To complain habitually.
2. A complaint. 3. A habitual complainer. People kvetched when someone else wouldn't relinquish his position. -- Barry Lopez, "Before the Temple of Fire.", Harper's Magazine <http://www.harpers.org/> , January 1998 They begin to look like malcontents who kvetch about the weather so much that they don't notice the sun coming out. -- David Shenk, "Slamming Gates", The New Republic <http://www.thenewrepublic.com/> , January 26, 1998 Time for my biennial kvetch about the West End theatre. -- Simon Hoggart, "Hose bans, petrol mania: saying 'don't panic' always triggers chaos", The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian> , November 4, 2000 He's just a very up person, she says, which is odd, because he is also a big complainer, a class-A kvetch. -- Penny Wolfson, "Moonrise", The Atlantic <http://www.theatlantic.com/> , December 2001 He had difficulty getting American publishers for his later novels, partly because of his self-created image by then as a crusty old kvetch. -- Geoffrey Wheatcroft, "What Kingsley Can Teach Martin", The Atlantic <http://www.theatlantic.com/> , September 2000 Kvetch comes from Yiddish kvetshn, "to squeeze, to complain," from Middle High German quetzen, quetschen, "to squeeze." |
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incongruous \in-KONG-groo-us\, adjective:
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1. Lacking in harmony, compatibility, or appropriateness.
2. Inconsistent with reason, logic, or common sense. I have since often observed, how incongruous and irrational the common Temper of Mankind is. -- Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375757325/ref=nosim/lexico> She made nightdresses and petticoats in the old-fashioned mode and sold them to a shop in the market town -- one of those exclusive little shops with a single garment and something imaginatively incongruous -- a monkey's skull or an old boot -- arranged in the window. -- Alice Thomas Ellis, Fairy Tale <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1888173408/ref=nosim/lexico> They made an incongruous pair as they walked on: one was slight and dapper, some thirty-five years in age, with long, clipped mustaches, and dressed in the height of modern elegance, complete with pearl buttons and gold watch chain. The other, ambling a few paces behind, was a towering fellow with grizzled mutton-chop whiskers, whose ill-fitting frock coat barely contained a barrel chest. -- Ben Macintyre, The Napoleon of Crime <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385319932/ref=nosim/lexico> Incongruous comes from Latin incongruus, from in-, "not" + congruus, "agreeing, fit, suitable," from congruere, "to run together, to come together, to meet." |
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hirsute \HUR-soot; HIR-soot; hur-SOOT; hir-SOOT\, adjective:
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Covered with hair; set with bristles; shaggy; hairy.
The Bear . . . makes the rounds of the clubs "disguised" in trench coat and broad-brimmed hat, hoping (successfully, it seems) to be mistaken for a rather hirsute human. -- Richard M. Sudhalter, "The Bear Comes Home': Composing the Words That Might Capture Jazz", New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , August 29, 1999 First of all, your nose is nearly covered with your bloody moustache and your beard, Mr Gogarty replied. Mr Allen apologised for his "hirsute" appearance. -- Paul Cullen, "No ambush sprung on returning Gogarty", Irish Times <http://www.ireland.com/> , March 23, 1999 He was incredibly hirsute: there was even a thick pelt of hair on the back of his hands. -- Tama Janowitz, By the Shores of Gitchee Gumee <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0517702983/ref=nosim/lexico> Hirsute comes from Latin hirsutus, "covered with hair, rough, shaggy, prickly." |
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malapropos \mal-ap-ruh-POH\, adjective:
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1. Unseasonable; unsuitable; inappropriate.
2. In an inappropriate or inopportune manner; unseasonably. Such malapropos wise cracks are driven home with a relentlessly upbeat soundtrack which serenades scenes of human tragedy with bouncy, Disneyesque melodies. -- Steve Rabey, "Noah's Ark' hits bottom: Miniseries suffers from lack of accuracy", Arlington Morning News <http://www.dallasnews.com/metro/arlington/> , May 2, 1999 As an on-air radio pronouncer, I am quite familiar with the hazard of opening the mouth before the brain is in gear. It is very easy to fire-off a malapropos statement in the heat of trying to make a point and the result is some funny things are said, but perhaps not meant. -- Gerry Forbes, "Foot-in-Mouth Afflictions", Calgary Sun <http://www.calgarysun.com/> , March 18, 2001 Malapropos comes from French mal à propos, "badly to the purpose." |
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cavalcade \kav-uhl-KAYD; KAV-uhl-kayd\, noun:
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1. A procession of riders or horse-drawn carriages.
2. Any procession. 3. A sequence; a series. Behind him he sensed the progress of the cavalcade as one by one the carriages wheeled off the Dublin road. -- Stella Tillyard, Citizen Lord: The Life of Edward Fitzgerald, Irish Revolutionary <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374123837/ref=nosim/lexico> Last week, Seoul pleaded for immediate financial assistance from the United States and Japan, following a cavalcade of bad economic news. -- Steven Butler and Jack Egan, "No magic won for Korea", U.S. News <http://www.usnews.com/> , December 22, 1997 Cavalcade derives from Old Italian cavalcata, from cavalcare, "to go on horseback," from Late Latin caballicare, from Latin caballus, "horse." |
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vicissitude \vih-SIS-ih-tood; -tyood\, noun:
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1. Regular change or succession from one thing to another; alternation; mutual succession; interchange.
2. Irregular change; revolution; mutation. 3. A change in condition or fortune; an instance of mutability in life or nature (especially successive alternation from one condition to another). This man had, after many vicissitudes of fortune, sunk at last into abject <http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=abject> and hopeless poverty. -- Thomas Macaulay Max had rescued his father's gold watch through every vicissitude, but as it didn't go I took it to a watchmaker. -- Edith Anderson, Love in Exile <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1883642671/lexico> :An American Writer's Memoir of Life in Divided Berlin It has come about that this writer, who at the beginning might have appeared in unique occupation of a marginal and peripheral world, is instead writing from the center of a historical vicissitude, utterly contemporary. -- Elizabeth Hardwic, "Meeting V. S. Naipaul <http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=V.%20S.%20Naipaul> " Vicissitude comes from Latin vicissitudo, from vicissim, in turn, probably from vices, changes. |
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soporific \sop-uh-RIF-ik; soh-puh-\, adjective:
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1. Causing sleep; tending to cause sleep.
2. Of, relating to, or characterized by sleepiness or lethargy. 3. A medicine, drug, plant, or other agent that has the quality of inducing sleep; a narcotic. Hamilton's voice droned on, hypnotic, soporific, the gloom beyond the windows like the backdrop of a waking dream. -- T. Coraghessan Boyle, Riven Rock <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/014027166X/ref=nosim/lexico> They were almost an hour behind in their daily schedule, and both women looked tired after a soporific afternoon of three executive meetings. -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, News of a Kidnapping <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140269444/lexico> Happily, these three lullaby books offer the sort of comforting bedtime soporific that has delivered generations of children, young and older, into deep, safe slumber. -- Lisa Shea, New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> , January 30, 1994 Soporific is from French soporifique, from Latin sopor, "a heavy sleep" + -ficus, "-fic <http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=-fic> ," from facere, "to make." |
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profuse \pruh-FYOOS; proh-\, adjective:
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1. Pouring forth with fullness or exuberance; giving or given liberally and abundantly; extravagant.
2. Exhibiting great abundance; plentiful; copious; bountiful. Lo and behold, when the time came to pay the check, it turned out that my pants had been torn by a nail strategically located under the table. Profuse apologies and "please don't pay for this dinner" followed. -- George Lang, Nobody Knows the Truffles I've Seen <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679450947/ref=nosim/lexico> Thickets of brambles and vines grew in profuse, obscuring tangles between our house and the road. -- Reeve Lindbergh, Under a Wing <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385334443/ref=nosim/lexico> Profuse comes from Latin profusus, past participle of profundere, "to pour forth," from pro-, "forth" + fundere, "to pour." |
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tarradiddle \tair-uh-DID-uhl\, noun:
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1. A petty falsehood; a fib.
2. Pretentious nonsense. Oh please! Even in the parallel universe, tarradiddles of this magnitude cannot go unchallenged. -- "Taxation in the parallel universe", Sunday Business, June 11, 2000 Mr B did not tell a whopper. This was no fib, plumper, porker or tarradiddle. There was definitely no deceit, mendacity or fabrication. -- "Looking back", Western Mail, May 11, 2002 Other amendments, such as a chef at the birthday party, a dancing bear in the hunting scene, and a brief solo for the usually pedestrian Catalabutte, seemed more capricious, and the synopsis suggested further changes had been planned but perhaps found impractical. Some tarradiddle with roses for death and rebirth also necessitated different flowers for the traditional Rose Adagio. -- John Percival, "The other St Petersburg company", Independent <http://www.independent.co.uk/> , November 22, 2001 Tarradiddle is of unknown origin. |
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deracinate \dee-RAS-uh-nayt\, transitive verb:
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1. To pluck up by the roots; to uproot.
2. To displace from one's native or accustomed environment. In the People's Republic, communism's utilitarian bent first poisoned the culinary arts and then, in the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, tried to deracinate what were regarded as the insidious strains of China's former culture. -- Benjamin and Christina Schwarz, "Going All Out for Chinese", The Atlantic <http://www.theatlantic.com/> , January 1999 He was a Jew who was never given a chance to belong anywhere, a deracinated intellectual. -- David Cesarani, Arthur Koestler: The Homeless Mind <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684867206/lexico> Deracinate comes from Middle French desraciner, from des-, "from" (from Latin de-) + racine, "root" (from Late Latin radicina, from Latin radix, radic-). The noun form is deracination. |
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surly \SUR-lee\, adjective:
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1. Ill-humored; churlish in manner or mood; sullen and gruff.
2. Menacing or threatening in appearance, as of weather conditions; ominous. Voters may be turned off by candidates who play dirty, but nothing gets a campaign reporter going like the smell of blood on the trail. Part of it has to do with boredom: journalists can only listen for so long to a candidate blather on about "a world of possibilities guided by goodness" before they get surly. -- Michelle Cottle, "Nice Try", New Republic <http://www.thenewrepublic.com/> , February 14, 2000 Maggie drank a little too much and got surly and made snide comments during the final toast. -- John L'Heureux, Having Everything <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0802137326/ref=nosim/lexico> Surly is from Middle English sirly, "lordly," from sir, "lord," which eventually came to mean "arrogant or haughty," whence the more negative modern sense. |
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mendicant \MEN-dih-kunt\, noun:
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1. A beggar; especially, one who makes a business of begging.
2. A member of an order of friars forbidden to acquire landed property and required to be supported by alms. 3. Practicing beggary; begging; living on alms; as, mendicant friars. Money has ever posed problems. Not even love, said Gladstone, has made so many fools of men. Throughout time the most obvious but universal dilemma -- that there is never enough of it -- has confounded everyone, from mendicants to monarchs, and their ministers. -- Janet Gleeson, Millionaire <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/068487296X/ref=nosim/lexico> She was well dressed, obviously not a mendicant. -- William Safire, Scandalmonger <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0156013231/ref=nosim/lexico> Mendicant derives from Latin mendicare, "to beg," from mendicus, "beggar." |
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rapprochement \rap-rosh-MAWN\, noun:
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The establishment or state of cordial relations.
Mikhail Gorbachev and his team of self-described reformers were publicly heralding a new era of rapprochement with the West. -- Ken Alibek with Stephen Handelman, Biohazard <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385334966/ref=nosim/lexico> The documentary record of initial White House-level efforts to initiate rapprochement with China . . . remains slim. -- William Burr, The Kissinger Transcripts <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1565844807/ref=nosim/lexico> But I have no desire for some kissy rapprochement. -- Zoë Heller, Everything You Know <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0743411951/ref=nosim/lexico> Rapprochement comes from the French, from rapprocher, "to bring nearer," from Middle French, from re- + approcher, "to approach," from Old French aprochier, from Late Latin appropire, from Latin ad- + propius, "nearer," comparative of prope, "near." |
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perspicacity \pur-spuh-KAS-uh-tee\, noun:
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Clearness of understanding or insight; penetration, discernment.
His predictions over the years have mixed unusual aristocratic insight with devastating perspicacity. -- "Why fine titles make exceedingly fine writers", Independent <http://www.independent.co.uk/www/> , November 3, 1996 Doubtless these thumbnail sketches, like everything else Stendhal wrote, were intended ultimately to relate to his own notion of himself as a creature of invincible perspicacity and sophistication. -- Jonathan Keates, Stendhal <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0786705450/ref=nosim/lexico> Perspicacity comes from Latin perspicax, perspicac-, "sharp-sighted," from perspicere, "to look through," from per, "through" + specere, "to look." |
