Note: Today’s vocabulary comes from my high school days, an actual English assignment I turned in one week, lo, oh-so-many years ago. My apologies 1. intrepid — dauntless The intrepid explorer carefully circuited around the yellow patch of snow as he neared the pole’s barber shop on his maggot-driven sled. 2. labyrinth — maze …
Tag Archives: vocabulary
Friday Vocabulary
1. stramineous — straw-like It is hardly worth responding to the stramineous arguments of my opponents, who apparently have never read the story of the the Three Little Pigs. 2. maudlin — foolishly tearful or sentimental Among the travellers of the Mormon Trail were several women poets, who composed fierce though maudlin elegies to …
Friday Vocabulary
1. nascent — beginning to exist or develop Though some pundits have pointed to a nascent sense of interdependence among the world’s people, more likely we’ll just see more of the same. 2. nescience — the state of not knowing Conspiracy theories may derive as well from a human tendency to insist upon “yes/no” …
Friday Vocabulary
1. myrmidon — blindly loyal follower and carryer-out of a leader’s orders If Hunstman refuses to sign the No Tax Increase pledge, the Tea Party myrmidons may exact their revenge by ensuring that he cannot gain the Republican nomination. 2. metempsychosis — transmigration of the soul The disavowal of spirit or soul (call it …
Friday Vocabulary
1. velleity — the merest wish, without any attempt to gain it For some, reading self-help books becomes an end in itself, substituting a velleity for a program. 2. hamartia — tragic flaw Bill Clinton’s sexual misadventures seem matched by the hubris of many politicians today, but they pale beside Nixon’s hamartia — a …
Friday Vocabulary
1. stound — a throbbing pain; ache Her unkind words left a stound in my heart. 2. calced — wearing shoes According to past popular misconception, the calced natives of the South consisted solely of the upper class. 3. feckless — irresponsible, unreliable The feckless attempts of politicians to fulfill their campaign promises …
Friday Vocabulary
1. dehiscence — bursting of a surgical closure; opening of seed-pod or fruits The vomitous debate about raising the debt ceiling threatens either the dehiscence of red ink across our children’s future or a return to the safety net of feudalism. 2. paltering — insincere, lying speech But your selfish tongue brings only paltering …