Set 7 Flashcards
(12 cards)
coalesce
Waiting for a plan to come together? You’re waiting for it to coalesce. Coalesce is when different elements of something join together and become one.In coalesce, you see co-, which should tell you the word means “together.” The other half of the word, alesce, appears in expressions having to do with growth. So if you are trying to start up a photography club at school, once you have an advisor, some interested students and support from the administration, things will be coalescing or growing together. Another way to remember that? An adolescent is one who is growing. A lot!
corrigible
capable of being corrected or set right
credulous
eople who believe things easily without having to be convinced are credulous. Sales people are always hoping that someone credulous picks up the phone during a sales call.Credulous comes from the 16th-century Latin credulus, or “easily believes.” A synonym for credulous is gullible, and both terms describe a person who accepts something willingly without a lot of supporting facts. Calling someone credulous can imply that the person is naive and simple. An individual isn’t necessarily insulted by being called credulous, though, because some objects of belief, like religions and unicorns, come with a willing leap of faith for believing in what is unseen.
de facto
De facto is Latin for “of fact,” meaning “in reality,” and it’s usually contrasted with “de jure,” which means “of law,” or “officially.”If you’re the de facto mayor of your town, you’re acting as mayor, even though you weren’t legally elected. You may be just helping out while the official mayor — the de jure mayor, the person who was officially elected — is out of town or ill. Or it might be more sinister — you seized power from the true mayor and locked him in the basement of town hall, and now you’ve made yourself the de facto mayor.
demur
Your mother asks you to pick up your room. You refuse: you demur. Your friend wants to go to the Death Metal Forever concert, but you hesitate: you demur. Whether you strongly object, politely disagree, or hesitate to agree, you demur. If Aunt Tilly offers to knit you a sweater, you might politely demur, being reluctant to accept. When she describes the bunnies she plans for the sweater, you would want to strongly demur, explaining that you plan to move to Texas next week and will no longer need sweaters. And if you find yourself the defendant in a civil suit, you might file a demurrer to object to the plaintiff’s complaint. When you file that demurrer, you demur.
deprecate
To deprecate is to show disapproval or to make someone feel unimportant by speaking to them disrespectfully, like seniors who deprecate younger students just for fun.To deprecate is to diminish, or to oppose, like when someone deprecates your dream of climbing Mt. Everest by calling it “a little walk up a hill.” Some people deprecate themselves, which is called being self-deprecating. People who do are self-deprecating play down their abilities because they are humble — or want to appear that way. So if you do climb Everest and you are self-deprecating, you’ll say it wasn’t such a big deal, even if it was the proudest moment of your life.
educe
When you educe you first see the potential in something and then develop it. An artist sketching on scratch paper might later educe a painting from the casual sketches.Educe can also be used as a synonym for deduce, meaning “to reach a conclusion.” Suppose members of a jury have to decide whether someone is guilty of stealing. They use the facts in the case to educe the thief’s motivation. Educe comes from the Latin word ducere, meaning “lead.” Think of educe as leading to something else.
fallacious
Something fallacious is a mistake that comes from too little information or unsound sources. Predictions that the whole state of California will snap off from the rest of North America and float away have proven to be fallacious — for now, anyway.Fallacious comes ultimately from the Latin fallax, “deceptive.” The word fallacious might describe an intentional deception or a false conclusion coming from bad science or incomplete understanding. “Her assumption that anyone that old — over 20 — could understand her tween dilemma was fallacious; her sister had been young once too.
internecine
Prepare yourself, because internecine is a gloomy word. It’s an adjective you’d use to describe a bloody battle where both sides are badly hurt. On a lighter note, it can also mean a conflict that tears an organization apart.A combination of the Latin inter- (“among”) and necare (“to kill”), internecine conflicts are full of blood and death, and they end up destroying everyone involved, which sounds fair but also awful. Many wars are internecine, as are most Shakespearean tragedies and Hollywood action films. An internecine meeting would be one where everyone gets mad, says really horrible things, and then suddenly leaves, plotting revenge. It’s probably the last meeting for that group, which might be a good thing.
lubricious
A lubricious movie is one that your mother probably wouldn’t want you to see, no matter how old you are. Something that’s lubricious is inappropriately or offensively sexual.Something that’s lewd or lascivious, like dirty pictures or skimpy clothing, can be described as lubricious. Occasionally lubricious is also used to mean tricky or sly, like a slick or lubricious used car salesman. A related meaning is “oily or slippery,” like a lubricious bar of soap sitting in a puddle of water. This is actually the original meaning of the word, from the Latin root lubricus, “to make slippery or smooth.”
sang-froid
If you have sang-froid, you can keep your cool, even under stress. Your feathers aren’t easily ruffled.This foreign-sounding word is another way of saying “poise under pressure.” We borrowed it from French, where it literally means “cold blood.” Great athletes who do well in the last two minutes of a game have sang-froid. James Bond definitely has sang-froid. You better have sang-froid when you’re taking the SATs. If you’re worried, nervous and starting to crack, you’ve pretty much lost your sang-froid.
vindicate
Vindicate means to justify, prove, or reinforce an idea — or to absolve from guilt. If your family thinks you hogged the last piece of pie on Thanksgiving, you’ll be vindicated when your younger brother fesses up.Vindicate derives from the Latin vindicatus, which is the past tense of vindicare, meaning “lay claim to” or “avenge.” When a physicist proves a theory that his colleagues derided, he vindicates it. When a lawyer clears her client’s name in a trial, she vindicates him. Machiavelli argued that the results he got vindicated his tactics — in other words, the ends justified the means.
