Set 6 Flashcards
(12 cards)
abnegate
The verb abnegate means to deny or renounce something. Scientists abnegate the existence of little green spacemen from Mars.The verb abnegate also means to surrender a position of power. If you serve on too many committees, you may need to cut back. You could abnegate the treasurer position for P.T.A., in order to have more time to serve as president of Band Boosters. What’s the difference between abnegate and abdicate? Both mean to renounce power or authority, but abdicate is usually reserved for higher offices of power. The king abdicates the throne. The CEO, who gives up day-to-day responsibility? He abnegates responsibility.
acerbity
A lemon in your mouth, a mean-spirited neighbor, a roomful of sarcastic people: these are examples of acerbity, a type of harsh bitterness that can leave you stunned.The Latin word acerbus means “sour-tasting,” and that is acerbity in a nutshell: sour. Many foods have acerbity, like limes and pickles. Acerbity can also be a personality trait, like a professor who snaps at you if you talk in class. In Charles Dickens’s novel A Christmas Carol, the character Ebenezer Scrooge is a great example of acerbity. He is a bitter, stingy businessman who won’t help anyone but himself. Don’t worry; he learns his lesson in the end.
adjunct
Adjunct means something added on, but not part of the whole. An adjunct professor is someone who is hired by a college to teach but isn’t a full member of the faculty.This is a word you can figure out by taking it apart. From ad- “to” and -junct “join” (think “junction”), you can see that this is about joining something to another. “During lunch, Tim always sat the girls’ lacrosse-team lunch table, and they joked that he was an adjunct member of the team.”
adumbration
to foreshadow: An exquisite pose, girlish, fascinating, yet carrying with it an xxx of power
bon mot
a witty remark or comment; clever saying; witticism.
captious
If someone tends to be hypercritical and find fault with everything, you can describe that person as captious. Try not to be described as a captious person yourself, however. No one likes a carping individual!Captious comes from the Middle French word captieux, which is from the Latin word captiosus meaning fallacious or deceiving. This is, in fact, another meaning for the adjective captious, something is calculated to confuse or deceive — such as a captious explanation of the facts. When a person is described as captious, the sense is usually of nitpicking at faults or raising petty objections. It is usually used to imply a permanent character or personality flaw, as opposed to a momentary lapse in understanding.
Cassandra
a person who prophesies doom or disaster and goes unheeded
cause celebre
any controversy that attracts great public attention, as a celebrated legal case or trial.
colloquy
A colloquy is a formal talk, the opposite of a chat, such as the colloquy you have with your boss about a serious matter — far different from how you’ll talk to your friends about it afterward.To correctly pronounce colloquy, accent the first syllable: “KOLL uh kwee.” The word comes from the Latin prefix com-, meaning “together,” and loquium, meaning “speaking.” That adds up to “speaking together.” You probably recognize loqui, meaning “to speak,” in words like locution and colloquial, which also involve speaking.
collude
When you collude with someone you secretly plot together to do something bad. You might collude with your twin sister to find out where all the birthday presents are hidden.The word collude entered English in the 16th century from the Latin word colludere, meaning “have a secret agreement,” a combination of col-, meaning “together,” and ludere, meaning “to play.” When you collude with someone, it’s like you’re playing together on the same team for the purpose of getting something you want, typically something illegal or harmful. Companies may collude to keep prices high, or politicians may collude to keep damaging information secret.
ex post facto
Use the adjective ex post facto to describe something that influences events in the past, like an ex post facto pay raise, which reimburses you for work you’ve done already.Ex post facto is a Latin phrase that essentially means “retroactive,” or affecting something that’s already happened. You’re most likely to come across ex post facto in a legal context, since lawyers talk about ex post facto law, which can change the punishment for a crime that occurred before a law went into effect, for example. In Latin, it means “from what is done afterwards.”
indurate
become hard or harder; to make callous, stubborn, or unfeeling: transgressions that xxx the heart; to inure; accustom: to xxx oneself to privation and suffering
