{"id":1413,"date":"2019-01-11T10:14:54","date_gmt":"2019-01-11T18:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/?p=1413"},"modified":"2019-08-11T11:39:43","modified_gmt":"2019-08-11T18:39:43","slug":"friday-vocabulary-36","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/?p=1413","title":{"rendered":"Friday Vocabulary"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n1. murmuration<\/strong> — flock of starlings (sometimes applied to other birds)\r\n

The gyring movement of the <\/em>murmuration resembled a gentle whirlpool in the air as the birds suddenly decided to quit their perches in the elm overhanging the river.<\/em><\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n2. dynamics<\/strong> — variation in volume of musical sounds\r\n

The quiet portion of the song “Shout!”, and the subsequent build-up back to the chorus, as seen in the movie <\/em>Animal House, is a classic example of <\/em>dynamics in a non-classical musical piece.<\/em><\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n3. cantle<\/strong> — rear part of a saddle, often curved upward\r\n

Attempting to do the Kirk Douglas leap onto the horse just below, he tripped on a loose board on the porch and instead of gracefully falling into the saddle found himself hurled groin-first onto the <\/em>cantle, which at least was not as painful as a collision with the saddle-horn would have been.<\/em><\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n4. sabretache<\/strong> — leather pouch attached to sword-belt of a cavalry officer\r\n

The young hussar affected quite the devil-may-care attitude, though we, his closest familiars, knew that in his <\/em>sabretache were every letter he had received from his aged mother, as well as the small pocket bible she had given him at his first communion.<\/em><\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n5. prevaricate<\/strong> — to deviate from straightforwardness, hence a) to lie or evade the truth, or b) to transgress\r\n

Despite my best intentions not to <\/em>prevaricate when the authorities came upon the bloody scene, I found myself making all manner of excuses for both my presence and my actions in that horrid melee.<\/em><\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n6. jauk<\/strong> — (Scots<\/em>) to dawdle\r\n

“Don’t be <\/em>jaukin’ along the road home from the Widow Green, but come home the instant you give her the news.”<\/em><\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n7. lithe<\/strong> — flexible, pliant, supple; gentle, meek\r\n

Tom Bombadil’s partner was so <\/em>lithe that she could lean herself backwards head-to-heel, from which position she used to pluck blackberries from the bush behind their cabin.<\/em><\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n8. mensural<\/strong> — pertaining to measure\r\n

In a pinch, I suppose, the slide rule could be used for <\/em>mensural duty, though you would have to do some further calculations to convert from the logarithmic indicium to a linear measure.<\/em><\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n9. coffer<\/strong> — sunken panel in a ceiling or soffit\r\n

Visitors to Washington, D.C. find the subway stations are all the same when one exits the train, each being a long arch of gray concrete decorated with dreary rectangular <\/em>coffers.<\/em><\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n10. grazier<\/strong> — person who grazes cattle for market\r\n

Though he often fed his cattle from the public weal of public lands, the British <\/em>grazier of the 19th Century rarely contributed to the public purse.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Bonus Vocabulary<\/h4>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

(slang, current 2018-2019)<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

to flex\u00a0on<\/strong> — to (sometimes subtly) put someone down by showing your superior skills, ability, or possession<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

He\u00a0should\u00a0have\u00a0known\u00a0better\u00a0than\u00a0to\u00a0try\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>flex on an\u00a0English\u00a0professor\u00a0by\u00a0correcting\u00a0her\u00a0grammar.<\/em><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1. murmuration — flock of starlings (sometimes applied to other birds) The gyring movement of the murmuration resembled a gentle whirlpool in the air as the birds suddenly decided to quit their perches in the elm overhanging the river.   2. dynamics — variation in volume of musical sounds The quiet portion of the song … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Friday Vocabulary”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[69],"class_list":["post-1413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vocabulary","tag-vocabulary","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1413\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}