People u wouldn't want to meet Flashcards
(5 cards)
Martinet
Not to be confused with a doll dangled on strings (that’s a marionette), a martinet is a person who is a strict disciplinarian. Think of a drill sergeant who barks an order and a platoon of cadets jump to attention—the slightest misstep and its toilet duty. If anything, the martinet is the one holding the strings
This military example is no coincidence; martinet is an eponym, meaning a word derived from a person’s name. The guilty party in this case is the 17th Century French drillmaster Jean Martinet.
The job seemed perfect to Rebecca, until she found out that her boss was a total martinet; after each project the boss would come by to scrutinize—and inevitably criticize—every little detail of the work Rebecca had done.
Curmudgeon
Probably one of my favorite GRE words—it’s great for describing certain folk and it’s fun to say. A curmudgeon is a grouchy, surly person, one who is always sulking as they grumble about something or another.
Uncle Mike was the family curmudgeon so on Thanksgiving he was plied with copious amounts of wine so that he would finely lose the grouchy demeanor and break into a faint smile.
Misanthrope
a person who dislikes humankind and avoids human society.
hater of mankind—walks down the street spewing vitriol at all those who walk by.
College campuses are famous for misanthropes, those disheveled types who haunt coffee shops, muttering balefully as students pass by.
Hamilton had been deceived so many times in his life that he hid behind the gruff exterior of a
misanthrope, lambasting perfect strangers for no apparent reason.
Reprobate
This word comes from reprove, a popular GRE word, which means (nope, not to prove again) to express disapproval of. A reprobate is a noun and is the recipient of the disapproval.
Reprobate is a mildly humorous word, meaning that you would use it to describe some no good soul, but one you have a fondness for.
an unprincipled person.
*Those old reprobates drinking all day down by the river –they are not going to amount to much.
his neighbours reprobated his method of proceeding (disapproval)
he had to present himself as more of a lovable reprobate than a spirit of corruption (unprincipled person)*
Virago
This word has a real cool origin – the vir- comes from the Latin man. Virago, however, was coined during the medieval period to describe heroic female warriors. Today virago does not have such a noble connotation – it describes an ill-tempered and sometimes violent woman. If you’ve ever had an old lady scream at you for no good reason, then you’ve had an encounter with a virago.
Poor Billy was the victim of the virago’s invective—she railed at him for a good 30-minutes about how he is the scum of the earth for speaking loudly on his cellphone in public.
