Vocabulary Flashcards
lagniappe
Say you buy a dozen doughnuts and the baker throws an extra cruller in your box. You’ve just been given alagniappe, or a small gift from a merchant to a customer.
The wordlagniappetells a fascinating American story. Spanish speakers in the New World took a word from the indigenous Quechua language to makela ñapa, meaning “the gift.” Then in New Orleans, where Spanish and French mixed freely,la ñapagot Frenchified intolagniappe. In Louisiana it’s still used to refer to a bonus from a friendly merchant when you buy something. You could also call any nice little extra alagniappe
trajectory
If you stay on your currenttrajectoryof constant shopping, dining out, and yacht rentals, you’ll end up broke. Atrajectoryis the path of an object through space, or the path of life that a person chooses.
Trajectorycomes from the Latintrajectoria, which means “throw across.” The prefixtra-is short fortrans-, which means “across” (thinktransportandtransit) and thejectcomes fromjacere, which means “throw” and is also the root of the wordjet. If you wanted to describe the path of a jet through the sky, you could refer to the jet’s trajectory.
lollygag
To fool around and waste time
Tolollygagis to be slow or idle or lazy. You might say to your dawdling friends, “Don’tlollygag! We’ll miss our bus!”
You lollygag when you take you own sweet time walking to your piano teacher’s house, and you also lollygag when you lounge lazily in a hammock under a tree. The wordlollygagis an American invention, a slang term that’s sometimes spelledlallygagand may stem from the dialectical “tongue” meaning oflolly.
beatific
That blissful grin on your face? It could be described asbeatific, meaning it projects a peaceful sense of joy.
If you have a beatific smile on your face, then the happiness it shows is the real thing. This word doesn’t describe phony smiles or quick grins that show a little amusement. Usebeatificto describe something characterized by complete and perfect joy. It’s often used to describe a smile, but it can be used to describe anything in a state of bliss.
Anteroom
anteroomis a small room or entryway leading to a larger area. You might wait with a tour group in ananteroombefore beginning your tour of a castle.
You can use the wordanteroomas a fancy, old-fashioned way to say “waiting room” or “vestibule.” Museum visitors might pause in an anteroom before entering a large gallery, and the butler in an old movie might say, “Please wait in theanteroom.” Another word for an anteroom is anantechamber— in fact the French root of both isantichambre, from the Latinanticamera, “room in front
detritus
There aren’t many things more depressing than walking on a beautiful beach and discovering a stretch of it that’s covered indetritus.Detritusmeans trash or debris.
Usually,detritusrefers to waste or junk of some kind, but it can actually mean any accumulation of material, not only man-made stuff. Loose gravel, silt, and sand can all be called detritus, and so can decomposed organic matter, like piles of dead leaves. The Latin worddetritusliterally means “a wearing away.
- Optimum
Producing best possible result
Passel
parsel contains lot of things
A passel is a large number or amount of something
Inane
Absurd, silly, insane
Inane means “lacking significance, meaning, or point.” Synonyms are silly, empty, or insubstantial.
// The host of the show greeted the audience with inane, but laughingly memorable, remarks
Steadfast adj
Firm in belief, determination Or, adherence
The word was first used in battle contexts to describe warriors who stood their ground, which led to its “immovable” sense. That sense gave way to the word’s use as an adjective implying unswerving faith, loyalty, or devotion
Bevy ( noun)
Collection of Or large group
A bevy is a large group or collection.
// The gym offers a bevy of workout classes, including kickboxing and Zumba
Truncate verb
Shorten by or as if by cutting off
The earliest use of truncate is as an adjective describing something (such as a leaf or feather) with the end squared off as if it had been cut. It makes sense, then, that the verb refers to shortening things. The word comes from Latin truncare (“to shorten”), which traces to truncus (“trunk”).
Demagogue
thewordtookanegativeturn,suggestingone whousespowersofpersuasiontoswayandmislead.
A demagogue is a leader who makes use of popular prejudices and false claims and promises in order to gain power.
// The country’s voters ousted the demagogue who capitalized on the fears of the people.
Soporific adj ( sah-puh-RIFF-ik) Relying on repetition and rhyme, the text generates a gentle, soporific cadence as the little lions progress homeward…. The painterly, realistic illustrations create the feel of approaching night…. ."
Soporific means “causing sleep
comes from Latin sopor, which means “deep sleep.” That root is related to somnus, the Latin word for “sleep.” Despite its meaning, somnus has been active, giving English somnolence (sleepiness), somnambulism (sleepwalking), and many other “sleepy” words.
Inane (ih-NAYN) (adj)
And because the leader insists ‘There are no bad ideas,’ everyone pipes up with inane or irrelevant suggestions.” —
Inane means “lacking significance, meaning, or point.” Synonyms are silly, empty, or insubstantial
