Term
aberrant \a-BERR-unt; AB-ur-unt\ |
|
Definition
|
Markedly different from an accepted norm; Deviating from the ordinary or natural type; abnormal. Example: These characters are so wild and aberrant they are close to appearing lunatics.
-- Bosley Crowther, "Who's Afraid of Audacity?", New York Times, July 10, 1966
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
Clothing in general; garments; -- usually singular in form, with a collective sense. Example: Agog with expectation, Stella opened her package and found not the golden raiment of a queen or a princess, but the drab uniform of a cook. She wept for the rest of the day.
-- William Weaver, "Almost Irresistible Stella", New York Times, March 4, 1984
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
Being a substitute or imitation, usually an inferior one. Example: Meanwhile, a poor copy was erected in the courtyard; many an unsuspecting traveler paid homage to that ersatz masterpiece.
-- Edith Pearlman, "Girl and Marble Boy", The Atlantic, December 29, 1999
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
Cheerful readiness, promptness, or willingness. Example: We accepted the invitation with alacrity.
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
A piece of furniture used for kneeling on during prayer which includes a desk for the elbows or book.
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
A lecherous dissipated man, a rake.
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
A lightweight, French dagger used in the middle ages and Renaissance.
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
Full of, expressing, or causing pain or sorrow; grievous; mournful: a dolorous melody; dolorous news.
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
A short, heavy wooden club with a knob on one end, used esp. by native peoples of South Africa for striking and throwing.
|
|
|
Term
copacetic \koh-puh-SET-ik\, adjective |
|
Definition
|
Very satisfactory; fine. Although all will seem copacetic on the CBS broadcast from Madison Square Garden in New York, there will be a big black cloud hanging over the glitzy proceedings.
-- Patrick MacDonald, "Major labels struggling with huge slump out of tune with listeners", Seattle Times, February 20, 2003
|
|
|
Term
perdurable \pur-DUR-uh-bul; pur-DYUR-\, adjective |
|
Definition
|
Very durable; lasting; continuing long. The idea of a classic is historically bound up with the view . . . that there are certain perdurable human truths and values, immune from geographical or historical vitiation.
-- John Romano, "A Novel of Hope and Realism", New York Times, April 4, 1982
|
|
|
Term
amative \AM-uh-tiv\, adjective |
|
Definition
|
Pertaining to or disposed to love, especially sexual love; full of love; amorous. In the spring a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of another nap even more often than it does to amative imaginings, Tennyson to the contrary notwithstanding.
-- "Touch of Spring Fever Makes Whole World Kin", Science News, May 23, 1931
|
|
|
Term
virago \vuh-RAH-go; vuh-RAY-go\, noun |
|
Definition
|
1. A woman of extraordinary stature, strength, and courage.
2. A woman regarded as loud, scolding, ill-tempered, quarrelsome, or overbearing. This virago, this madwoman, finally got to me, and I was subjected to the most rude, the most shocking violence I can remember.
-- José Limón, An Unfinished Memoir
|
|
|
Term
pestiferous \pes-TIF-uh-ruhs\, adjective |
|
Definition
|
1. Bearing or bringing disease.
2. Infected with or contaminated by a pestilential disease.
3. Morally evil or dangerous to society; pernicious.
4. Bothersome; troublesome; annoying. What is the most correct, the politest, the best
Way to get rid of this pestiferous unwanted 'guest'?
-- James Michie, "Dear Mary", The Spectator, September 28, 1996
|
|
|
Term
sine qua non \sin-ih-kwah-NON; -NOHN; sy-nih-kway-\, noun |
|
Definition
|
An essential condition or element; an indispensable thing. However we choose to define a classic, a sine qua non is that the material lend itself to reinterpretation in the light of changing circumstances.
-- Matthew Gurewitsch, "A Country of Lesser Giants", New York Times, April 4, 1999
|
|
|
Term
abominate \uh-BOM-uh-nayt\, transitive verb |
|
Definition
|
To hate in the highest degree; to detest intensely; to loathe; to abhor. I had no wish to study or learn anything, and as for Latin, I abominated it.
-- Charles Tyng, Before the Wind
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
Loose in morals and conduct; marked by indulgence in sensual pleasures or vices. Example: I had heard talk that Tosca, for all the dissolute life she led, was a pious person who frequented churches with scrupulous regularity, yet in this conduct I had always suspected a pose, an affectation.
-- Paola Capriolo, Floria Tosca (translated by Liz Heron)
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
Causing irritation, vexation, or distress. Example: Unlike important men of affairs, novelists can turn midnight into sunrise and solve nettlesome world problems wherever their imaginations decree.
-- Herbert Mitgang, "Tales of a Tortured Holy Land", New York Times, August 16, 1988
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
1. To burst in forcibly or suddenly; to intrude.
2. (Ecology) To increase rapidly in number. Example: What happens in these flashes of inspiration is a kind of transcendence in science in which a new concept, something that has never been dreamt or thought of before, irrupts into the scientist's imagination.
-- Roy Bhaskar, Reflections on Meta-Reality
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
1. Limber; supple; flexible.
2. Light and quick in action; nimble; agile; active. Example: Raphaelle Boitel moves with the lissom, contortionist plastique of a snake-woman. -- Nadine Meisner, "Clowns real and imagined", Independent,April 20, 2001
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
Assurance of manner or of action; self-possession; confidence; coolness. Example: Then, unexpectedly, she picked up a microphone and began to sing. She sang several songs, handling herself with the aplomb of a professional entertainer.
-- "Rediscovering Japanese Life at a Bike's Pace", New York Times, April 24, 1988
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| 1. | understood by or meant for only the select few who have special knowledge or interest; recondite: poetry full of esoteric allusions. |
| 2. | belonging to the select few. |
| 3. | private; secret; confidential. |
| 4. | (of a philosophical doctrine or the like) intended to be revealed only to the initiates of a group: the esoteric doctrines of Pythagoras. |
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
Complete and confirmed integrity; uprightness. Unless some light is shed on shady dealings and some probity restored, more young lives will be blighted and careers choked off.
-- Norman Lebrecht, Who Killed Classical Music?
|
|
|
Term
recherche \ruh-sher-SHAY\, adjective |
|
Definition
|
1. Uncommon; exotic; rare.
2. Exquisite; choice.
3. Excessively refined; affected.
4. Pretentious; overblown. She was mocking the pretensions of the cookery writer who insists on recherche ingredients not because of their qualities but their snob value.
-- Angela Carter, Shaking a Leg
|
|
|
Term
garrulous \GAIR-uh-lus; GAIR-yuh-\, adjective |
|
Definition
|
1. Talking much, especially about commonplace or trivial things; talkative.
2. Wordy. Without saying a single word she managed to radiate disapproval . . . the air seemed to grow heavy with it and the most garrulous talker would wilt and fall silent.
-- Mark Amory, Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric
|
|
|
Term
amanuensis \uh-man-yoo-EN-sis\, noun |
|
Definition
|
A person employed to take dictation or to copy manuscripts. On this blue day, I want to be
nothing more than an amanuensis
to the birds, transcribing all the bits
and snatches of song riding in on the wind.
-- Barbara Crooker, "Transcription (Poem)", Midwest Quarterly, March 22, 2003
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
1.to accustom to hardship, difficulty, pain, etc.; toughen or harden; habituate (usually fol. by to): inured to cold. "If all the deaths had failed to inure them to grief, it had certainly alerted them to the wondrous necessity of life." --Mayflower, Nathaniel Philbrick
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
1.deserving praise; praiseworthy; commendable: Reorganizing the files was a laudable idea.
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
a moving force; impulse; stimulus Example: The grant for building the opera house gave impetus to the city's cultural life.
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
1. An excessive amount or supply.
2. Overindulgence, as in food or drink.
3. Disgust caused by overindulgence or excess.
4. To feed or supply to excess. Example: They were accustomed to eat till they became surfeited, and to drink till they were sick.
-- Derek Brown, "Millennium: 1082-1083", The Guardian, September 1998
|
|
|
Term
minatory \MIN-uh-tor-ee\, adjective |
|
Definition
|
Threatening; menacing. Example: Then, abruptly on the last page, he lapses into a kinder, gentler tone, as if wanting to leave us with a less minatory impression of himself.
|
|
|
Term
potentate \POH-tuhn-tayt\, noun |
|
Definition
|
One who possesses great power or sway; a ruler, sovereign, or monarch. Example: The shah of Persia, although he had to acknowledge that the sultan was a worthy rival, still considered himself a mighty potentate, as did the sultan himself.
|
|
|
Term
lachrymose \LAK-ruh-mohs\, adjective |
|
Definition
|
1. Generating or shedding tears; given to shedding tears; suffused with tears; tearful.
2. Causing or tending to cause tears. Example: At the farewell party on the boat, Joyce was surrounded by a lachrymose family.
|
|
|
Term
bagatelle \bag-uh-TEL\, noun |
|
Definition
|
1. A trifle; a thing of little or no importance.
2. A short, light musical or literary piece.
3. A game played with a cue and balls on an oblong table having cups or arches at one end. Example: Don't worry about that, a mere bagatelle, old boy!
|
|
|
Term
countermand \KOWN-tuhr-mand; kown-tuhr-MAND\, transitive verb |
|
Definition
|
1. To revoke (a former command); to cancel or rescind by giving an order contrary to one previously given.
2. To recall or order back by a contrary order.
3. A contrary order.
4. Revocation of a former order or command.
|
|
|
Term
harridan \HAIR-uh-din\, noun |
|
Definition
|
A worn-out strumpet; a vixenish woman; a hag. Example: As the vulgar, scornful, desperate Martha, Miss Hagen makes a tormented harridan horrifyingly believable.
-- Howard Taubman, "The Theater: Albee's 'Who's Afraid'", New York Times, October 15, 1962
|
|
|
Term
patina \PAT-n-uh; puh-TEEN-uh\, noun |
|
Definition
|
1. The color or incrustation which age gives to works of art; especially, the green rust which covers ancient bronzes, coins, and medals.
2. The sheen on any surface, produced by age and use.
3. An appearance or aura produced by habit, practice, or use.
4. A superficial layer or exterior.
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
1. A man of elevated rank or station.
2. In Spain or Portugal, a nobleman of the first rank. Example: Jack Byron still harbored delusions of being a local grandee, attempting to influence district politics; as the final humiliation, in the parliamentary election of 1786 his vote was disallowed.
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
1 a: anxiety arising from awareness of guilt <compunctions of conscience> b: distress of mind over an anticipated action or result <showed no compunction in planning devilish engines of…destruction — Havelock Ellis> 2: a twinge of misgiving : scruple <cheated without compunction>
|
|
|
