Lords of Finance Flashcards
(13 cards)
warren
an overcrowded residential area; a maze of passageways or small rooms
a colony of rabbits; a series of connected underground tunnels occupied by rabbits
When Bugs Bunny outruns Elmer Fudd and vanishes down his rabbit hole, he’s escaping into a warren — a network of underground tunnels where rabbits live.
A warren isn’t just the maze-like tunnels where rabbits live. You may encounter a warren of subway tunnels or a warren of interconnected bomb shelters. Bring those narrow paths above ground and cluster them with homes and you have another kind of warren, or a maze-like residential area.
What’s now Cadman Plaza Park used to be a dense warren of interlaced rail lines, elevated train tracks, commercial buildings and light manufacturing.
New York TimesMay 20, 2020
grandee
a man of elevated rank or station; especially, a nobleman of highest rank in Spain or Portugal
The center was founded three decades ago, after Governor Mario Cuomo urged the local grandees to find a way to provide health services for the burgeoning Orthodox population.
The New YorkerAug 26, 2019
gadfly
any of various large flies that annoy livestock
a persistently annoying person
A gadfly is an irritating person, a nuisance who will often ask too many questions or lob lots of criticisms in order to get his or her way.
Gadfly can also refer to an actual fly. The next time you see a cow swatting at the air with her tail, look closer because she might actually be shooing away an annoying gadfly. This is any kind of fly that likes to pester, and even bite, livestock. The prefix gad is an old word for “spike” or “pointed stick” which can be thought of, in this case, as similar to a stinger. So if your office mate is continuously buzzing around your desk with stinging comments, call him a gadfly and try to shoo him back to his own desk.
occult
hidden and difficult to see
“an occult fracture”
SYN: invisible
hide from view
“The lids were occulting her eyes”
SYN: conceal, hold back
become concealed or hidden from view or have its light extinguished
“The beam of light occults every so often”
SYN: change
cause an eclipse of (a celestial body) by intervention
“Planets and stars often are occulted by other celestial bodies”
SYN: eclipse
bellicosity
a natural disposition to fight
SYN: aggressiveness, belligerence, pugnacity
His supporters, for the most part, follow his example, displaying an unusual commitment to avoiding the fearmongering and bellicosity of Trump-era politics.
The New YorkerJul 18, 2019
perspicacious
mentally acute or penetratingly discerning
“much too perspicacious to be taken in by so spurious an argument”
SYN: clear-eyed, clear-sighted, discerning
What secured the nomination were two things: the movie’s extraordinary quality and the perspicacious marketing department at Netflix’s documentary division.
New York TimesMar 9, 2017
phlegmatic
showing little emotion
“a phlegmatic…and certainly undemonstrative man”
SYN: phlegmatical, unemotional
“He is a representation of what we British imagine we are like: stoic, phlegmatic and we just see it through with Churchillian spirit,” Mr. Holland said.
New York TimesMay 15, 2020
Yes, phlegmatic has roots in that colorless, mucousy stuff called phlegm, but people who are phlegmatic aren’t called that because they have lots of mucus. They are just a little dull in expressing feelings or showing emotion.
It may be their training more than their natural behavior, but those palace guards who wear the red coats and big hats and show absolutely no expression on their faces are phlegmatic. Attempts to make them laugh, smile, or twist their faces in irritation won’t work, because being phlegmatic is important to their role as stone-faced keepers of the palace. Phlegmatic people show less emotion on the outside — but who knows, they may be jumping up and down on the inside.
laconic
brief and to the point; effectively cut short
SYN: crisp, curt, terse, concise
He shouldn’t; he’s one of the best living American writers, and his laconic understatement is much more powerful than excess.
New York TimesAug 2, 2020
Laconic is an adjective that describes a style of speaking or writing that uses only a few words, often to express complex thoughts and ideas. A more laconic way to write that last sentence might be this: laconic means brief.
There’s a friend of yours who doesn’t talk very much, and when he does, he says maybe three words and then becomes quiet again. You could describe that friend as laconic. The word comes from Laconia, a region in ancient Greece where the local Spartan rulers gave very short speeches. Being laconic can be bad when it sounds rude to be so brief, but it can be good if you’re in a rush to get somewhere.
feckless
generally incompetent and ineffectual
SYN: inept, incompetent
not fit to assume responsibility
SYN: irresponsible
The story follows the feckless, peerlessly lazy nobleman Brás Cubas as he reflects on his life from beyond the grave.
New York TimesJun 16, 2020
If a newspaper editorial describes a politician as feckless, you might wonder, “What is feck, and why doesn’t he have any?” In fact, the columnist is accusing the politician of being irresponsible and incompetent. Did you know that most varieties of English are in fact “feck”-less? They don’t contain a word feck, only the negative counterpart feckless. The “feck” in feckless began as a short form of effect used in the Scots dialect. So feckless essentially means “ineffective,” but is also used to describe someone who is irresponsible, incompetent, inept, or without purpose in life.
anodyne
capable of relieving pain
“the anodyne properties of certain drugs”
SYN: analgesic, analgetic, moderating
not causing disapproval
SYN: innocuous, unobjectionable, inoffensive
The novel’s formal gambits and transgressive literary figures lend a bit of highbrow window dressing to an otherwise anodyne romance.
New York TimesAug 11, 2020
When your back is killing you from helping your friend move furniture into his new apartment, you need to take an anodyne, a painkiller.
An anodyne doesn’t have to be actual medicine. If the pure joy of helping your friend is soothing enough to make you forget your aching back, that counts as an anodyne too (though perhaps an unlikely one). Anodyne can also be used as an adjective to describe something that relieves pain, or is at least inoffensive. When you’re stressed out or unhappy, try looking at anodyne pictures of kittens. Er, unless you had a bad experience with a cat once.
mandarin
a high public official of imperial China
any high government official or bureaucrat
SYN: functionary, official
a member of an elite intellectual or cultural group
SYN: elitist
Rather, liberalism unraveled amid the subsequent nationwide wave of crime, unrest and disorder, which liberal mandarins and liberal machine politicians alike were unable to successfully manage or contain.
New York TimesMay 30, 2020
Use the noun mandarin when you’re talking about a powerful member of a government, company, or cultural group. In other words, don’t mess with the mandarin.
You can use mandarin to mean “bureaucrat,” or an official who tends to make things complicated and who wields a lot of power. Another kind of mandarin is a respected cultural or academic figure: “My favorite philosophy professor is considered a mandarin on campus.” Mandarin with a capital “M” refers to the language spoken in China. Originally, this word meant simply “Chinese official,” from the Hindi root word mantrī, “counselor.”
vociferous
conspicuously and offensively loud; given to vehement outcry
“a vociferous mob”
SYN: blatant, clamant, clamorous, strident, noisy
The checkpoints arrive during a time of vociferous debate over the role of law enforcement in the city.
New York TimesAug 5, 2020
Vociferous describes loudmouths, such as the vociferous mob at the soccer game.
Vociferous is from the Latin vociferari, meaning “to shout, yell.” If you break it down to the first part, take vox, meaning “voice” and add it to ferre, meaning “to carry,” then vociferous describes voices that carry; you can hear a vociferous person from across the room at a dance party. Vociferous isn’t just loud, but annoying, too, like when the vociferous fans of the opposing team chant insults in unison. Try yanking a cookie out of a little kid’s hand if you want to hear a vociferous reaction.
helot
(Middle Ages) a person who is bound to the land and owned by the feudal lord
SYN: serf, villein
But the other more important logical point is that if we’re all starving helots without jobs or cash, then who the heck are the capitalists going to sell the production of the robots to?
ForbesFeb 10, 2015
