Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Vocabulary: Fall List #3



1. Encomium:  Glowing and warmly enthusiastic praise/ Bruce Lee was encomiumed for the way he thought and the way he fought.
2. Coherent:  Having clarity or intelligibility/ He proposed the most coherent plan to improve the schools.
3. Belabor:  To attack verbally, to explain or insist on excessively/ Her habit of belaboring the obvious makes her a very boring speaker.
4. Eschew:  To avoid habitually especially on moral or practical grounds/ They now eschew the violence of their past.
5. Acquisitive: Strongly desirous of acquiring and possessing/ Acquisitive developers are trying to tear down the historic home and build a shopping mall.
6. Emulate: To strive to equal or excel/ She grew up emulating her sports heros.
7. Arrogate: To claim or seize without justification/ They’ve arrogated to themselves the power to change the rules arbitrarily.
8. Banal: Lacking originality/ He made some banal remarks about the weather.
9. Excoriation: To wear off the skin of/ He was excoriated as a racist.
10. Congeal: To change from a fluid to a solid state by or as if by cold/ The gravy began to congeal in the pan.
11. Carping: Marked by or inclined to querulous and often perverse criticism/ I was carped by many people.
12. Substantiate: To establish by proof or competent evidence/ Mr. MacGregor couldn’t substantiate that it was Peter, and not some other rabbit.
13. Temporize: To act to suit the time or occasion: yield to current or dominant opinion/ Pressured by voters on both sides of the issue, the congressmen temporized.
14. Largesse: Liberal giving (as of money) to or as if to an inferior/ He relied on the largesse of friends after he lost his job.
15. Tenable: Capable of being held, maintained, or defended/ The soldiers’ encampment on the open plain was not tenable, so they retreated to higher ground.
16. Insatiable: Incapable of being satisfied/ Her desire for knowledge was insatiable.
17. Reconnaissance: A preliminary survey to gain information; especially: an exploratory military survey of enemy territory/ There are two helicopters available for reconnaissance.
18. Germane: Being at once relevant and appropriate/ My personal opinion isn’t germane to our discussion of the facts of the case.
19. Ramify: To split up into branches or constituent parts/ The rise of cable television ramified the audience.
20. Intransigent: Characterized by refusal to compromise or to abandon an extreme position or attitude/ He has remained intransigent in his opposition to the proposal.
21. Taciturn: Temperamentally disinclined to talk/ A somewhat taciturn young man.
22. Invidious: Tending to cause discontent, animosity, or envy/ The boss made invidious distinctions between employees.


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