| main | ongoing | archive | private |
- accrete (v) - to grow by accumulation or coalescence; to form (a composite whole or a collection of things) by gradual accumulation ("the collection of art he had accreted was to be sold")
- acolyte (n) - a person assisting the celebrant in a religious service or procession; an assistant or follower
- adulation (n) - obsequious flattery; excessive admiration or praise; worship, adoration ("unspoiled by all the adulation he's received")
- alcove (n) - a recess, typically in the wall of a room or of a garden; niche; nook; bay
- ambrose - name of Greek origin that means: immortal; divine
- analgesic (adj) - a remedy that relieves/alloys pain; causes analgesia
- apercu (n) - a brief survey or sketch; an immediate impression; a comment or brief reference that makes an illuminating or entertaining point
- apposition (n) - (technical) the positioning of things or the condition of being side by side or close together; (in grammar) a relationship between two or more words or phrases in which the two units are grammatically parallel and have the same referent (e.g., my friend Sue ; the first US president, George Washington)
- attrition (n) - the action or process of gradually reducing the strength or effectiveness of someone or something through sustained attack or pressure ("the council is trying to wear down the opposition by attrition"); wearing away by friction; abrasion ("the skull shows attrition of the edges of the teeth")
- auspice (n) - a prophetic sign, esp. a favorable sign
- baba ghanoush (n) - a thick sauce or spread made from ground eggplant and sesame seeds, olive oil, lemon, and garlic, typical of eastern Mediterranean cuisine
- becalmed (past-tense v) - to have left (a sailing vessel) unable to move through lack of wind; left motionless, still ("the boats remained becalmed")
- bravura (n) - great technical skill and brilliance shown in a performance or activity; virtuoso ("the recital ended with a blazing display of bravura"); the display of great daring
- brio (n) - vigor; vivacity; ("she told her story with some brio")
- bruit (v) to spread (a report or rumor) widely; ("I didn't want to have our relationship bruited about the office"); (n) a report or rumor
- burg (n) - an ancient or medieval fortress or walled town; (North American, informal) a town or city
- bush league (n)- (North American) a minor league of a professional sport, especially baseball ("their bush league image"); (adj) (informal) not of the highest quality or sophistication; second-rate
- caballero (n) - a Spanish or Mexican gentleman; a horseman
- cadence (n) - a modulation or inflection of the voice; intonation ("the measured cadences that he employed in the Senate"); rhythm ("the thumping cadence of the engines"); (music) a sequence of notes or chords comprising the close of a musical phrase ("the final cadences of the Prelude")
- cantor (n) - an official who sings liturgical music and leads prayer in a synagogue; (in formal Christian worship) a person who sings solo verses or passages to which the choir or congregation responds
- cathexis (n) - (psychoanalysis) the concentration of mental energy on one particular person, idea, or object (especially to an unhealthy degree)
- caveat (n) - a warning or proviso of specific stipulations, conditions, or limitations; warning; caution; (law) a notice, especially in a probate, that certain actions may not be taken without informing the person who gave the notice
- coalesce (v) - to come together and form one mass or whole; merge; fuse ("the puddles had coalesced into shallow streams"); combine (elements) in a mass or whole
- coda (n) - (music) the concluding passage of a piece or movement, typically forming an addition to the basic structure; the concluding section of a dance, especially of a pas de deux, or the finale of a ballet in which the dancers parade before the audience; a concluding event, remark, or section ("his new novel is a kind of coda to his previous books")
- coif (n) - a woman's close-fitting cap, now only worn under a veil by nuns; (v) style or arrange (someone's hair), typically in an elaborate way ("her elaborately coiffed hair")
- colloquy (n) - a conversational exchange; dialogue; conference; (formal) a conversation; ("they broke off their colloquy at once"); a gathering for discussion of theological questions
- complacency (n) - a feeling of smug or uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one's achievements; self-satisfaction; self-regard; ("the figures are better, but there are no grounds for complacency")
- conciliatory (adj) - intended or likely to placate or pacify; appeasing ("a conciliatory approach")
- conflate (v) - to combine (two or more texts, ideas, etc.) into one; mix; blend; integrate ("the urban crisis conflates a number of different economic and social issues")
- congenial (adj) - (of a person) pleasant because of a personality, qualities, or interests that are similar to one's own; hospital & genial; ("his need for some congenial company"); (of a thing) pleasant or agreeable because suited to one's taste or inclination; ("he went back to a climate more congenial to his cold stony soul")
- contrarian (n) - a person who opposes or rejects popular opinion, especially in stock exchange dealing; (adj) opposing or rejecting popular opinion; going against current practice; ("the comment came more from a contrarian disposition than moral conviction")
- cosmology (n) - the science of the origin and development of the universe; modern astronomy is dominated by the Big Bang theory, which brings together observational astronomy and particle physics; an account or theory of the origin of the universe
- crudities (n) - assorted raw vegetables served as an hors d'oeuvre, typically with a sauce into which they may be dipped (French "crudité" - ‘rawness, crudity,’ from Latin "crudus" - ‘raw, rough’)
- cuff (n) - a blow given w/ an open hand; (v) to strike (someone) with an open hand, especially on the head; ("he cuffed him playfully on the ear")
- denizen (n) - an inhabitant or occupant of a particular place; ("denizens of field and forest"); (British, historical) a foreigner allowed certain rights in the adopted country
- dextral (adj) - of or on the right side or the right hand (the opposite of sinistral), in particular; right-handed; (n) a right-handed person
- didactic (adj) - intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive; instructive & informative/educative; edifying; ("a didactic novel that set out to expose social injustice"); in the manner of a teacher, particularly so as to treat someone in a patronizing way; ("slow-paced, didactic lecturing")
- diffracted (past-tense v) - (physics) having caused to undergo diffraction; broken into pieces
- disingenuous (adj) - not candid or sincere, typically by pretending that one knows less about something than one really does; dishonest & deceitful; mendacious; ("that innocent, teary-eyed look is just part of a disingenuous act")
- duress (n) - threats, violence, constraints, or other action brought to bear on someone to do something against their will or better judgment; coercion, force, pressure; compulsion; ("confessions extracted under duress"); (law) constraint illegally exercised to force someone to perform an act
- ecumenical (adj) - representing a number of different Christian churches; univeral; nondenominational; all-inclusive; ("the local churches are sponsoring an ecumenical service on the green")
- elan (n) - energy, style, and enthusiasm; flair & confidence; ("a rousing march, played with great elan")
- emendation (n) - the process of making a revision or correction to a text; a correction or revision to a text; ("here are some suggested emendations")
- exultant (adj) - triumphantly happy; ("she felt exultant and powerful")
- fallow (adj) - of a light yellowish-brown color; left untilled or unsown after plowing; dormant & inactive ("to lie fallow")
- fantod (n) - (North American, informal) a state or attack of uneasiness or unreasonableness; ("the mumbo-jumbo gave me the fantods")
- farrago (n) - a confused mixture; hodgepodge; mishmash; jumble; ("a farrago of fact and myth about Abraham Lincoln"; "the decor was an appalling farrago of random items and mismatched colors")
- febrile (adj) - marked or caused by fever; flushed; ("a febrile illness"); having or showing a great deal of nervous excitement or energy; ("a febrile imagination")
- feint (n) - a deceptive or pretended blow, thrust, or other movement, especially in boxing or fencing; ("a brief feint at the opponent's face"); a mock attack or movement in warfare, made in order to distract or deceive an enemy; (v) to pretend to throw a (punch or blow) in order to deceive or distract an opponent; ("he feinted left, drawing a punch and slipping it");
- festoon (n) - a chain or garland of flowers, leaves, or ribbons, hung in a curve as a decoration; ("festoons of paper flowers"); (v) to adorn (a place) with ribbons, garlands, or other decorations; ("the room was festooned with balloons and streamers")
- flaccid (adj) - (of part of the body) soft and hanging loosely or limply, especially so as to look or feel unpleasant; ("she took his flaccid hand in hers"); (of plant tissue) drooping or inelastic through lack of water; lacking force or effectiveness; lackluster & lifeless; ("the flaccid leadership campaign was causing concern")
- flay (v) to peel the skin off (a corpse or carcass); exfoliate ("one shoulder had been flayed to reveal the muscles"); to beat/whip (someone/thing) so as to remove their skin; to criticize severely and brutally; ("he flayed the government for not moving fast enough on economic reform")
- flummoxed (adj) - bewildered or perplexed; ("he became flummoxed and speechless"); (v) to perplex (someone) greatly; bewilder
- frenetic (adj) - fast and energetic in a rather wild and uncontrolled way; ("the frenetic bustle of the city")
- Freytagian (adj) - Freytag = German author; Freytag's pyramid is also referred to as a plot diagram or triangle -- regardless, it deals with what is commonly called dramatic structure... according to Freytag, a drama is divided into five parts, or acts, which some refer to as a dramatic arc: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and dénouement
- furred (past-tense v) - covered with or made from a particular type of fur; (British) coated or clogged with a deposit; ("the stuff that furs up coronary arteries"); to fix strips of wood to (floor joists, wall studs, etc.) in order to level them or increase their depth
- galley (n) - a printer's proof in the form of long single-column strips, not in sheets or pages; (historical) a low, flat ship with one or more sails and up to three banks of oars, chiefly used for warfare, trade, and piracy; a long rowboat used as a ship's boat; the kitchen in a ship or aircraft
- gar (n) - the freshwater garfish of North America; any of various fishes that have an elongate body resembling that of a pike & long narrow jaws; needlefish
- garrulous (adj) - talkative; given to prosy, rambling, or tedious loquacity; pointlessly talkative; excessively talkative, especially on trivial matters; ("he is a foolish, garrulous old man")
- genuflect (v) - to lower one's body briefly by bending one knee to the ground, typically in worship or as a sign of respect to show deference or servility; ("she genuflected and crossed herself"); to show deference or servility; ("politicians had to genuflect to the far left to advance their careers")
- gonzo (adj) - (North American, informal) (of journalism/reporting) filled w/ bizarre or subjective ideas, commentary, or the like; crazy; eccentric; of or associated with journalistic writing of an exaggerated, subjective, and fictionalized style; bizarre or crazy
- gregarious (adj) - (of a person) fond of company; sociable & convivial; ("he was a popular and gregarious man"); (of animals) living in flocks or loosely organized communities; social/living in groups; ("gregarious species forage in flocks from colonies or roosts"); (of plants) growing in open clusters or in pure associations
- gyrate (v) - to move or cause to move in a circle or spiral, especially quickly; rotate; revolve; ("their wings gyrate through the water like paddle wheels"); to dance in a wild or suggestive manner; ("strippers gyrated to rock music on a low stage")
- hector (v) - to talk to (someone) in a bullying way; harass; browbeat; intimidate _("she doesn't hector us about giving up things"_)
- hedonism (n) - the pursuit of pleasure; sensual self-indulgence; the ethical theory that pleasure (in the sense of the satisfaction of desires) is the highest good and proper aim of human life
- heliotrope (n) - a plant of the borage family, cultivated for its fragrant purple or blue flowers, which are used in perfume; a light purple color, similar to that typical of heliotrope flowers
- hermeticism (n) - a religious and philosophical tradition based primarily upon writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus ("Thrice Great")
- hovel (n) - a small, squalid, unpleasant, or simply constructed dwelling; shack; slum
- hypoglycemic (adj) - relating to hypoglycemia, an abnormally low level of the sugar glucose in the blood, usually a complication of diabetes, in which the body does not produce enough insulin to fully metabolize glucose
- in loco parentis (adv & adj) - (Latin) (of a teacher or other adult responsible for children) in the place of a parent; (law) in the place of a parent; ("he was used to acting in loco parentis")
- incrementalism (n) - belief in or advocacy of change by degrees; gradualism
- inculcate (v) - to instill (an attitude, idea, or habit) by persistent instruction; ("the failures of the churches to inculcate a sense of moral responsibility"); to teach (someone) an attitude, idea, or habit by persistent instruction
- inveterate (adj) - having a particular habit, activity, or interest that is long-established and unlikely to change; ingrained & deep-seated; ("he was an inveterate gambler"); (of a feeling or habit) long-established and unlikely to change; confirmed & hardened
- iteration (n) - the repetition of a process or utterance; repetition of a mathematical or computational procedure applied to the result of a previous application, typically as a means of obtaining successively closer approximations to the solution of a problem; a new version of a piece of computer hardware or software
- jockey (n) - a person who rides in horse races, especially as a profession; rider; horseman; an enthusiast or participant in a specified activity; (v) to struggle by every available means to gain or achieve something; ("both men will be jockeying for the two top jobs"); handle or manipulate (someone or something) in a skillful manner; ("Jason jockeyed his machine into a dive")
- Kokopeli (n) - a fertility deity, usually depicted as a humpbacked flute player (often with feathers or antenna-like protrusions on his head), who has been venerated by some Native American cultures in the Southwestern United States; like most fertility deities, Kokopelli presides over both childbirth and agriculture
- laconic (adj) - (of a person, speech, or style of writing) using very few words; brief; concise; terse; ("his laconic reply suggested a lack of interest in the topic")
- lapis lazuli (n) - a bright blue metamorphic rock consisting largely of lazurite, used for decoration and in jewelry; a bright blue pigment formerly made by crushing this, being the original ultramarine
- lassitude (n) - a state of physical or mental weariness; lack of energy; lethargy; languor; apathy; ("she was overcome by lassitude and retired to bed");
- leery (adj) - cautious or wary due to realistic suspicions; guarded; ("a city leery of gang violence")
- leitmotif (n) - a recurrent theme throughout a musical or literary composition, associated with a particular person, idea, or situation (German)
- limn (v) - to depict/describe in painting or words; illustrate; ("his earlier works limned violence"); to suffuse or highlight (something) with a bright color or light; ("a crescent moon limned each shred with white gold")
- locution (n) - a word or phrase, especially with regard to style or idiom; a person's style of speech; ("his impeccable locution"); an utterance regarded in terms of its intrinsic meaning or reference, as distinct from its function or purpose in context
- louche (adj) - disreputable or sordid in a rakish or appealing way; ("the louche world of the theater")
- lull (v) - to calm or send to sleep, typically with soothing sounds or movements; to cause (someone) to feel deceptively secure or confident; ("the rarity of earthquakes there has lulled people into a false sense of security"); to allay (a person's doubts, fears, or suspicions), typically by deception; (of noise or a storm) to abate or fall quiet; ("conversation lulled for an hour"); (n) a temporary interval of quiet or lack of activity; pause or respite
- malaise (n) - a general feeling of discomfort, illness, or uneasiness whose exact cause is difficult to identify; ("a society afflicted by a deep cultural malaise")
- marquee (adj) - superlative; headlining (e.g., "a marquee basketball player")
- masonry (n) - stonework; free masonry
- mea culpa (n) - (Latin) "through my fault/responsibility"; an acknowledgment of one's fault or error; ("“Well, whose fault was that?” “Mea culpa!” Frank said")
- metonym (n) - a word, name, or expression used as a substitute for something else with which it is closely associated (for example, Washington is a metonym for the federal government of the US)
- millennial (adj) - denoting or relating to a period of a thousand years; denoting or relating to an anniversary of a thousand years; ("the millennial anniversary of Leif Eiriksson's voyage to the New World"); denoting those people reaching young adulthood around the year 2000; ("most social networking groups are dominated by the millennial generation"); (n) a person reaching young adulthood around the year 2000; a Generation Yer; ("the industry brims with theories on what makes millennials tick")
- minutiae (n) - the small, precise, or trivial details of something; ("the minutiae of everyday life")
- modal (adj) - of or relating to mode or form as opposed to substance; (grammar) of or denoting the mood of a verb; relating to a modal verb; (statistics) of or relating to a mode; occurring most frequently in a sample or population; (music) of or denoting music using melodies or harmonies based on modes other than the ordinary major and minor scales; (logic) (of a proposition) in which the predicate is affirmed of the subject with some qualification, or which involves the affirmation of possibility, impossibility, necessity, or contingency; (n) (grammar) a modal word or construction
- molder (v) - to slowly decay or disintegrate, especially because of neglect; decompose; ("there was a mushroomy smell of disuse and moldering books"); to spoil or putrefy; ("bags of garbage are moldering on the hot sidewalks"); (n) a person or thing that molds something; ("a molder of public opinion")
- monstre sacre (n) - a celebrity whose eccentricities or indiscretions are easily forgiven by admirers; [1980–85; translation of French "monstre sacré"]
- mull (v) - to grind or mix thoroughly: pulverize; to consider at length : ponder — often used with over; to heat, sweeten, and flavor (as wine or cider) with spices
- neaurasthena (n) - a psychological disorder marked especially by easy fatigability and often by lack of motivation, feelings of inadequacy, and psychosomatic symptoms — compare chronic fatigue syndrome; nervous debility and exhaustion occurring in the absence of objective causes or lesions
- neophyte (n) - a person who is new to a subject, skill, or belief; beginner; novice; ("four-day cooking classes are offered to neophytes and experts"); a new convert to a religion; a novice in a religious order, or a newly ordained priest
- nihilism (n) - the rejection of all religious and moral principles, often in the belief that life is meaningless; skepticism, negativity, cynicism, pessimism; (philosophy) extreme skepticism maintaining that nothing in the world has a real existence; (historical) the doctrine of an extreme Russian revolutionary party circa 1900, which found nothing to approve of in the established social order; [from Latin - "nihil" - "nothing" + "ism"]
- noir (n) - a genre of crime film or fiction characterized by cynicism, fatalism, and moral ambiguity; ("his film proved that a Brit could do noir as darkly as any American"); a film or novel in the noir genre; ("he says he's making a noir")
- obfuscation (n) - something made more difficult to understand/confusing
- obsequious (adj) - obedient or attentive to an excessive or servile degree; fawning; unctuous
- oeuvre (n) - the works of a painter, composer, or author regarded collectively; ("the complete oeuvre of Mozart"); a work of art, music, or literature; ("an early oeuvre"); [French, literally "work"]
- pabulum (n) - bland or insipid intellectual fare, entertainment, etc.; pap; intellectual sustenance; something (as writing or speech) that is insipid, simplistic, or bland; insipid intellectual nourishment: ("TV... gobbled up comedy material and spat it out as pabulum); also- food; especially: a suspension or solution of nutrients in a state suitable for absorption
- palisades (n) - a fence of wooden stakes or iron railings fixed in the ground, forming an enclosure or defense; fence; paling; barricade; stockade; ("sentries were posted along the palisade"); (US) a line of high cliffs; a ridge of high basalt cliffs that line the western side of the Hudson River, in New Jersey and in New York, beginning across from New York City in New Jersey and extending north to Newburgh in New York
- parrv (v) - to ward off (a weapon or attack), especially with a countermove; ("he parried the blow by holding his sword vertically"); to answer (a question or accusation) evasively; evade; sidestep; avoid; dodge; ("he parried questions from reporters outside the building")
- partisan (n) - a strong supporter of a party, cause, or person; adherent; devotee; a member of an armed group formed to fight secretly against an occupying force, in particular one operating in enemy-occupied Yugoslavia, Italy, and parts of eastern Europe in World War II; guerilla; freedom fighter; (adj) prejudiced in favor of a particular cause; biased; ("partisan attitudes")
- pastiche (n) - an artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period; imitation or parody; ("a pastiche of eighteenth-century style"); an artistic work consisting of a medley of pieces taken from various sources; ("a pastiche of literary models"); (v) to imitate the style of (an artist or work)
- patina (n) - film or incrustation, usually green, produced by oxidation on the surface; a green or brown film on the surface of bronze or similar metals, produced by oxidation over a long period; a gloss or sheen on wooden furniture produced by age and polishing; an impression or appearance of something; ("he carries the patina of old money and good breeding"); a surface appearance of something grown beautiful especially with age or use
- paucity (n) - the presence of something only in small or insufficient quantities or amounts; scarcity; lack; sparseness; ("a paucity of information"); deficiency; ("the police cannot act with such a paucity of evidence")
- penitent (adj) - feeling or showing sorrow and regret for having done wrong; repentant; ("a penitent expression"); a person who repents their sins or wrongdoings and (in the Christian Church) seeks forgiveness from God; (in the Roman Catholic Church) a person who confesses their sins to a priest and submits to the penance that he imposes
- penning (n) - any of various instruments for writing or drawing with ink or a similar substance; a detachable metal penpoint, filled by dipping or with a quill; nib
- perspicuous (adj) - (of an account or representation) clearly expressed and easily understood; lucid; ("it provides simpler and more perspicuous explanations than its rivals"); (of a person) able to give an account or express an idea clearly; [from Latin "perspicuus" - ‘transparent, clear’; (from the verb "perspicere" - ‘look at closely’) + -ous]
- phantasm (n) - a figment of the imagination; an illusion or apparition; ("the cart seemed to glide like a terrible phantasm"); an illusory likeness of something; ("every phantasm of a hope was quickly nullified")
- philander (v) - (of a man) to make love w/ a woman one can't/won't marry; carry on flirtations w/; (of a man) readily or frequently enter into casual sexual relationships with women; ("they accepted that their husbands would philander with other women")
- poetess (n) - a female poet
- pollyanna (n) - someone who thinks good things will always happen & finds goods in everything; a person characterized by optimism & a tendency to find something good in everything; an excessively cheerful or optimistic person; origin: early 20th century: the name of the optimistic heroine created by Eleanor Hodgman Porter (1868–1920), American author of children's stories
- prenominate (adj) - previously mentioned; mentioned beforehand
- prescient (adj) - having or showing knowledge of events before they take place; prophetic; visionary; ("a prescient warning")
- priapic (adj) - of, relating to, or resembling a phallus; ("priapic carvings"); of or relating to male sexuality and sexual activity; ("priapic cartoons");
- prolegomenon (n) - a critical or discursive introduction to a book; [via Latin from Greek, passive present participle (neuter) of prolegein - ‘say beforehand,’ from pro - ‘before’ + legein - ‘say’]
- prolix (adj) - extended to great, unnecessary, or tedious length; long & wordy; (of speech or writing) using or containing too many words; tediously lengthy; long-wided, verbose; ("he found the narrative too prolix and discursive")
- prometheus (n) - a Titan who stole fire from Olympus and gave it to humankind, for which Zeus chained him to a rock and sent an eagle to eat his liver, which grew back daily the father of Deucalion and brother of Atlas and Epimetheus, who taught humankind various arts
- purloin (v) - to steal (something); ("he must have managed to purloin a copy of the key")
- purveyor (n) - a person who sells or deals in particular goods; seller, vendor; ("a purveyor of large luxury vehicles"); a person or group that spreads or promotes an idea, view, etc.; ("a purveyor of traditional Christian values")
- pyrotechnics (n) - a fireworks display; a brilliant performance or display, especially of a specified skill; _("he thrilled his audience with vocal pyrotechnics"); the art of making or displaying fireworks
- recidivist (n) - repeated or habitual relapse, as into crime or antisocial behavior; a convicted criminal who reoffends, especially repeatedly; (adj) denoting a person who repeatedly reoffends; ("recidivist male prisoners"); [late 19th century: from French récidiviste, from récidiver ‘fall back,’ based on Latin recidivus ‘falling back,’ from the verb recidere, from re- ‘back’ + cadere ‘to fall’]
- recursion (n) - (mathematics, linguistics) the repeated application of a recursive procedure or definition; a recursive definition
- recursive (adj) - characterized by recurrence or repetition, in particular; (mathematics & linguistics) relating to or involving the repeated application of a rule, definition, or procedure to successive results; (computing) relating to or involving a program or routine of which a part requires the application of the whole, so that its explicit interpretation requires in general many successive executions
- reprise (n) - a repeated passage in music; a repetition or further performance of something; ("a reprise of his earlier performance"); (v); repeat (a piece of music or a performance); [early 18th century: French, literally ‘taken up again’]
- rococo (adj) - (of furniture or architecture) of or characterized by an elaborately ornamental late baroque style of decoration prevalent in 18th-century Continental Europe, with asymmetrical patterns involving motifs and scrollwork; extravagantly or excessively ornate, especially (of music or literature) highly ornamented and florid; (n) the rococo style of art, decoration, or architecture
- roiling (adj) - upsetting; agitating; moving in a violent & confused way; roil (v) to make (a liquid) turbid or muddy by disturbing the sediment; ("winds roil these waters"); (of a liquid) to move in a turbulent, swirling manner; ("the sea roiled below her")
- rubicund (adj) - (especially of someone's face) having a ruddy complexion; high-colored; having red or pink skin; [from Latin rubicundus, from rubere ‘be red’]
- rummies (n) - drunkards
- saguaro (n) - a giant cactus that can grow to 66 feet (20 m) in height and whose branches are shaped like candelabra, native to Mexico and the southwestern US; its reddish-purple fruit can be used for food and drink; [from Mexican Spanish]
- sardonic (adj) - grimly mocking or cynical; satirical; sarcastic; ("Starkey attempted a sardonic smile"); [from French sardonique, earlier sardonien, via Latin from Greek sardonios ‘of Sardinia,’ alteration of sardanios, used by Homer to describe bitter or scornful laughter]
- satyriasis (n) - Don Juanism; syndrome occurring in males of excessive preoccupation w/ sexual gratification or conquest & leading to persistently transient & sometimes exploitative relationships; uncontrollable or excessive sexual desire in a man;
- savant (n) - a learned person, especially a distinguished scientist; intellectual; scholar; sage; [French, literally ‘knowing (person)’]
- scabrous (adj) - having a rough surface because of minute points or projections; indecent/scandalous; obscene
- screed (n) - a long speech or piece of writing, typically one regarded as tedious
- sedulous (adj) - showing dedication & diligence; meticulous
- self-flagellation (n) - the act of hitting yourself w/ a whip as a way to punish yourself or as part of a religious ritual; extreme criticism of oneself
- semiotic (adj) -
- sepsis (n) -
- slated -
- slough (v) -
- smarmy (adj) -
- solecism (n) -
- solipsism (n) - the theory that only the self exists, or can be proved to exist; extreme preoccupation w/ & indulgence of one's feelings, desires, etc.
- souffle (n) -
- strafe (v) - to attack (ground troops) by airplanes w/ machine gun fire; to reprimand viciously
- stymied (adj) -
- supernal (adj) -
- tartan (n) - traditional Scottish cloth pattern of stripes in different colors & widths that cross each other to form squares
- tautology (n) - needless repetition of an idea, esp. in words other than those of the immediate context, w/o imparting additional force/clearness (e.g., "widow woman")
- temporize (v) -
- titration (n) -
- tome (n) - a very large, thick book
- trill -
- ukase -
- unctuous (adj) -
- ungainly (adj) - awkward; not graceful; clumsy
- vagaries -
- vapid (adj) - not lively or interesting; dull or boring; lacking liveliness; flat & w/o force
- venal (adj) - willing to do dishonest things in return for money
- viand (n) -
- vis a vis -
- volley (n) - a number of bullets, arrows, or other projectiles discharged at one time; barrage; battery; bombardment
- wheedle (v) - to endeavor to influence by flattering, beguiling, persuasion
- winnow (v) -
- writ (n) -
- zeitgeist (n) - the spirit of the time; general trend of thought or feeling characteristic of the particular period of time (German)
sep 29 2015 ∞
mar 28 2024 +
mar 28 2024 +