In the Wild (C)

Question 1

Hagiography

Answer 1

noun.
The writing of the lives of saints, a biography that treats its subjects with undue reverence.

Offering 93 minutes of radiant rodent hagiography, Mickey: The Story of a Mouse is maybe the most polished of Disney+’s recent documercials.

From Greek ‘hagio’ (holy/saintly) + graph

Question 2

Conte

Answer 2

noun.
A short story as a form of literary composition.

Contes are more anecdotal than conventional short stories, coming out of the tradition of oral tales and often devoted to a single theme.

French, based on Latin computare ‘reckon, sum up’

Question 3

Elan

Answer 3

noun.
Energy, style, enthusiasm. (verve?)

With the white-tablecloth elan of a high-end steakhouse, Fogo de Chão is nevertheless fine with your shorts, your hat and your baby stroller.

mid 19th century: from French élan, from élancer ‘to dart’, from é- ‘out’ + lancer ‘to throw’.

Question 4

Peremptory

Answer 4

adj.
Final, not admitting appeal.
OR: (related), imperious, haughty
OR: exceedingly urgent/commanding.

In other words, bombs are blunter, more peremptory instruments.

late Middle English (as a legal term): via Anglo-Norman French from Latin peremptorius ‘deadly, decisive’, from perempt- ‘destroyed, cut off’, from the verb perimere, from per- ‘completely’ + emere ‘take, buy’.

Question 5

Garrulous

Answer 5

adj.
Annoyingly or pointlessly talkative.

Salman grew ever more garrulous as the yellow liquid in the bottle went down; Baal couldn’t recall when he’d last heard anyone talk up such a storm.

early 17th century: from Latin garrulus (from garrire ‘to chatter, prattle’)

Question 6

Mondegreen

Answer 6

noun.
A phrase resulting from the mishearing of something recited/sung (lyrics, poetry).

“Excuse me while I kiss this guy” substituted for Jimi Hendrix’s “Excuse me while I kiss the sky” remains one of the most widely reported mondegreens of all time.

1950s: from Lady Mondegreen, a misinterpretation of the phrase laid him on the green, from the traditional ballad ‘The Bonny Earl of Murray’.

Question 7

Sagacious

Answer 7

adj.
Discerning, wise, shrewd.

The winner is praised for his sagacious grasp of the hopes and anxieties of the public, the loser is excoriated for the many and obvious blunders that derailed his candidacy.

Google (OED) says: early 17th century: from Latin sagax, sagac- ‘wise’
But M-W says: sagacious comes from sagire, a Latin verb meaning “to perceive keenly.”

Question 8

Solecism

Answer 8

noun.
An ungrammatical combination of words/a minor blunder in speech, more generally a breach of the accepted order of things.

There is nothing overtly outrageous here, no solecisms or lapses in taste.

mid 16th century: from French solécisme, or via Latin from Greek soloikismos, from soloikos ‘speaking incorrectly’, from Soloi, a city where apparently people spoke ‘corrupted’ Greek.

Question 9

Dissemble

Answer 9

verb.
Hide under a false appearance, simulate

The doctors attending him are public servants and shouldn’t dissemble or strategize when answering questions that citizens are entitled to ask.

late Middle English: alteration (suggested by semblance) of obsolete dissimule, via Old French from Latin dissimulare ‘disguise, conceal’

Question 10

Mien

Answer 10

noun.
Appearance, demeanor (~vibe~)

With his deadpan mien and dark eyes that shift fluidly between blank and befuddled, Scott is a superb fit for Severance’s central everyman.

early 16th century: probably from French mine ‘expression’, influenced by obsolete demean ‘bearing, demeanour’

Question 11

Evince

Answer 11

verb.
Reveal, indicate.

These candidates also evince another hallmark of Trumpery: purveying dishonesty and disinformation.

late 16th century (in the sense ‘prove by argument or evidence’): from Latin evincere ‘overcome, defeat’

Question 12

Farrago

Answer 12

noun.
A confused mixture.

In the weeks after the November election, Dobbs had spent most of his prime-time hour on a farrago of conspiracy theories about how Donald Trump had actually defeated Joe Biden.

mid 17th century: from Latin, literally ‘mixed fodder’, from far ‘corn’.

Question 13

Sepulchral

Answer 13

adj.
Gloomy, dismal, relating to tombs or interment.

Morse was tall and thin and as gray and sepulchral as a church about to be condemned.

Middle English: via Old French from Latin sepulcrum ‘burial place’, from sepelire ‘bury’.

Question 14

Orotund

Answer 14

adj.
(Of a voice) resonant and imposing, (of a literary style) pompous and pretentious (tumid/tumescent)

Novoselov had a boisterous, orotund way of talking that even the interpreter seemed to have trouble making sense of.

late 18th century: from Latin ore rotundo ‘with rounded mouth’.

Question 15

Expostulate

Answer 15

verb.
Express strong disapproval or disagreement (remonstrate)

No Senator can match South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham in terms of heated, out-of-control expostulations.

mid 16th century (in the sense ‘demand how or why, state a complaint’): from Latin expostulat- ‘demanded’, from the verb expostulare, from ex- ‘out’ + postulare ‘demand’.

Question 16

Salmagundi

Answer 16

noun.
A dish of chopped meat, anchovies, eggs, onions, and seasoning
More generally: a mixture; a miscellaneous collection.

The book is a salmagundi-style gathering of thirty-nine essays.

from French salmigondis, of unknown origin.

Question 17

Arcane

Answer 17

adj.
Mysterious, esoteric

Zoning law — the arcane system of hyperlocal rules for what can be built where — isn’t usually a subject that people get fired up about.

mid 16th century: from Latin arcanus, from arcere ‘to shut up’, from arca ‘chest’.

Question 18

Fustian

Answer 18

noun.
Pompous or pretentious speech or writing, more generally anything ‘high-flown and affected’
Originally: a specific kind of cotton/linen fabric

Criticism of his earliest work accused the poet of being excessively fustian and florid

Perhaps from the fact that fustian was sometimes used to cover pillows and cushions, implying that the language was ‘padded’

Question 19

Brigandage

Answer 19

noun.
Highway robbery

Citizens are encouraged to avoid the bridge at night where possible, as it has been a locus of brigandage in the past.

late Middle English (also denoting an irregular foot soldier): from Old French, from Italian brigante, literally ‘(person) contending’, from brigare ‘contend’ (see brigade).

Question 20

Parochialism

Answer 20

adj.
Pettiness or narrowness (of opinion)

Another measure of parochialism is the percentage of Americans who have a passport, a number that is drastically lower than in many other countries in the global north.

late Middle English: from Old French, from ecclesiastical Latin parochialis ‘relating to an ecclesiastical district’, from parochia

Question 21

Algesia

Answer 21

noun.
The capacity to feel pain.

Super strength and advanced regeneration don’t equate to a lack of algesia; characters like Cap and Deadpool still feel pain.

early 18th century: from Greek algein ‘feel pain’.

Question 22

Educe

Answer 22

verb.
To bring out something latent.

While the interviewer had seemed mildly amused up to that point, this latest comment educed a proper laugh.

late Middle English: from Latin educere ‘lead out’, from e- (variant of ex- ) ‘out’ + ducere ‘to lead’.

Question 23

Accidie

Answer 23

noun.
(also Acedia)
Spiritual or mental sloth, apathy

Horowitz, though, is more interested in contemplating an older Bond filling up with accidie, wondering what it’s all for.

early 17th century: via late Latin from Greek akēdia ‘listlessness’, from a- ‘without’ + kēdos ‘care’.

Question 24

Vertiginous

Answer 24

adj.
Extremely high or steep, related to turning, related to vertigo.

The vertiginous slopes and sea cliffs of this five-square-mile island in the Caribbean don’t leave much space to land a plane.

early 17th century: from Latin vertiginosus, from vertigo ‘whirling about’, from vertere ‘to turn’

Question 25

Peculation

Answer 25

noun.
Embezzlement

That was a particularly vicious example of peculation having a ghastly impact on the country, but there have been others.

from Latin peculatus “misappropriation of property”

Question 26

Sybarite

Answer 26

noun.
One who is self-indulgent in their fondness for luxury.

Parks and Recreation’s Donna Meagle, the inventor of shopping in the name of self-care, is a sybarite in all the best ways.

mid 16th century, originally denoting an inhabitant of Sybaris, an ancient Greek city in southern Italy, noted for luxury

Question 27

Epicurean

Answer 27

noun, adj.
(One who is) sensitive + discriminating in taste/devoted to sensual pleasure

The biographer’s gift lay in fusing the personal and impersonal, his experience as an art student and jobbing critic, the stoic’s sense with an epicurean sensibility.

from Epicurus, Greek philosopher who believed in the pursuit of pleasure.

Question 28

Voluptuary

Answer 28

noun, adj.
(One who is) chiefly concerned with pleasure and luxury.

The image of Gauguin the voluptuary eating and screwing and painting naked Tahitian women might be a cliché, but the director, Edouard Deluc, has gone to the other extreme.

early 17th century: from Latin volupt(u)arius, from voluptas ‘pleasure’

Question 29

Prurient

Answer 29

adj.
Having or encouraging an excessive interest in sexual matters.

But part of the prurient thrill of reality TV is being invited to stay and see the squirmy interior lives of others.

late 16th century (in the sense ‘having a mental itching’): from Latin prurient- ‘itching, longing’ and ‘being wanton’, from the verb prurire

Question 30

Blench

Answer 30

verb.
Flinch
OR: whiten.

Purists may blench at the lack of musical reverence but it is a phenomenal performance.

Old English blencan ‘deceive’, of Germanic origin; later influenced by blink.

Question 31

Quondam

Answer 31

adj.
Former

By coincidence, the same day that Reichstag burned, Einstein wrote to his quondam mistress, Margarete Lenbach.

Latin

Question 32

Scabrous

Answer 32

adj.
Difficult/knotty, rough to the touch, indecent or salacious

Pop culture commentators belatedly began to applaud Armstrong’s scabrous depiction of the mega-rich and the comedic potential of the characters, including Tom and Greg.

late 16th century (first used to describe an author’s style as ‘harsh, unmusical, unpolished’): from French scabreux or late Latin scabrosus, from Latin scaber ‘rough’

Question 33

Demit

Answer 33

verb.
Resign.

Boris Johnson recently announced he would demit office with his head held high.

early 16th century (in the sense ‘dismiss’): from French démettre, from dé- ‘away from’ + mettre ‘put’

Question 34

Febrile

Answer 34

adj.
Showing the symptoms of a fever, characterized by nervous energy or excitement

mid 17th century: from French fébrile or medieval Latin febrilis, from Latin febris ‘fever’

mid 17th century: from French fébrile or medieval Latin febrilis, from Latin febris ‘fever’

Question 35

Sapid

Answer 35

adj.
Having a strong pleasant taste, or more generally pleasant/interesting

In keeping with the fusion theme, the resort’s restaurants also serve a sapid smorgasbord of Asian and Mediterranean treats

early 17th century: from Latin sapidus, from sapere ‘to taste’.