Holiday Vocabulary Extravaganza

advent (n.)  Arrival.  This noun often refers to the appearance of someone or something important.

bupkis (n. pl.) literally, little brown beans; figuratively, “nothin’,” as in “I got nothin’.”  (Yiddish expr.)

yuletide (adj.) pertaining to Christmas or the Christmas season.

ethereal (adj.)  literally, pertaining to ether (i.e., the atmosphere); figuratively, heavenly or idealistic.

wassail (v. / n.) Literally, as a verb, it means “Waes Hail,” a toast in Old English (some students decide that wassail is the very first word they ever learned in Old English; however, that’s not quite true, as the word ‘gold’ is actually a complete cognate of the Old English word ‘gold’ – to wit, they are identical).  Anyway, ‘wassail’ can mean “I toast you in the hall with a glass of mulled cider!”  In subsequent years, the word has come to mean the mulled cider itself – thus, the noun ‘wassail,’ or cider.  (I take pains to parse this distinction, because of the song “Wassail! Wassail!,” in which the word is used as a toast.

Hanukkah (n.) traditional Jewish holiday, closely associated with lighting candles – a commemoration of some miraculous battle survivors in 2^nd Maccabees, also known as the Festival of Lights.  Hanukkah is an eight-day celebration.  Modern celebrations of Hanukkah include meals, singing songs, lighting candles, and giving gifts to children.

magi (n. pl.) The wise men – sorcerers? magicians? kings? – from the East who visited the birth of Jesus Christ in biblical times.

mistletoe (n.)  The common name for a parasitical shrub that attaches itself to trees and produces berries.  (See Wikipedia for details.)  Sprigs of mistletoe are traditionally hung at Christmas-time in English and American households as a prompt for people to… embrace!

down (n.)  As a noun, this fine word refers to the “fluffy part” – the cottony, fibrous part of any plant (at Christmas, for many, the down of a thistle-tree plant).

Study Guide for Vocabulary Quiz #4

Magnanimity is a fairly close synonym for generosity, and the two are sometimes used interchangeably.  However, the word also goes beyond ordinary generosity, to “(n)obility or generosity of spirit; superiority to petty resentment or jealousy; noble or generous disregard of insults or injuries; an instance of any of these” (Oxford English Dictionary Online).  (‘magna’ is the Latin root for great; ‘anima’, the Latin word for spirit.)

• ·      “It made her grow in spiritual stature—to know the extent of her own magnanimity in her love for so uninspiring an object.” (from The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand)

•        “The fact that the local planning authority has allowed him to build… is largely due to the magnanimity of the building inspector.”  (OED online)
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Affect (v. and n.)  As a verb, affect means to influence, to change the status of:

• ·      The damp and rainy day affected Harry’s mood.
• ·      The loud music on your boom-box affects my concentration.

(As a noun, affect is pronounced AF-fect, and it commonly refers to one’s demeanor or outward expression:

·      His flat affect made him a good poker player.

·      Her rude affect made it difficult for others to trust her.)

Effect (n. and v.)  As a noun, effect commonly means ‘a result’:

• ·      The effect of the rainy day was to dampen Harry’s mood.
• ·      The effect of your loud music is annoyance!  It wrecks my concentration.

(As a verb – used quite rarely – effect means to bring about something, to cause it to occur.

·      The queen effected a change in the housing laws.

·      His goal as president was to effect new policies for the economy.

Reiterate (v.) means ‘to repeat’ or 'restate', usually to achieve emphasis or to make a lasting impression.

• ·      Allow me to reiterate our policy:  no dogs allowed.
• ·      The teacher used several blog entries to reiterate the importance of memorizing ten words

Unrequited means ‘unrepaid’ or ‘unreturned’.  It is often – but not always – used in connection with lost or frustrated affection!

• ·      Kim, my dear lost Kim… the unrequited love of my youth.
• ·      His last-minute attempts to please his teacher were unrequited:  he received an F for the term.

Insulate (v.) literally means ‘to create an island’, as the Latin word for island is insula.  Most often, we create “islands” of warmth, insulating our homes or our bodies with enclosures of warm air.

• ·      His father decided to insulate the family’s attic in order to create an extra bedroom at home.
• ·      Anticipating cold temperatures on our trip to Lutsen, my mother bought me an insulated parka.

Analogy is a form of comparison in which the common features of two separate processes are compared.  Some analogies include the features of similes (i.e., because simile is actually a form of analogy).

• ·      My piano teacher made an analogy between the way I use my arms while playing the piano and the way a chicken flaps its wings.
• ·      "If you want my final opinion on the mystery of life and all that, I can give it to you in a nutshell. The universe is like a safe to which there is a combination. But the combination is locked up in the safe."  (Peter De Vries, Let Me Count the Ways. Little Brown, 1965)  (copied from Grammar.About.Com, by Richard Nordquist).
• ·      "Cameron's house is like a museum. It's very cold, and very beautiful, and you're not allowed to touch anything."  (Grammar.About.Com)

Vernacular speech is “(t)he language of a particular group, profession, region, or country, especially as spoken rather than formally written” (Grammar.About.Com). 

• ·      Some people call it Ebonics, but professional linguists call it African American Vernacular Speech.
• ·      A person in the audience might say, “He forgot his lines”; but another actor, familiar with backstage vernacular, would say, “He went up.”

Tumult (n.) is uproar or commotion.  (‘tumultuous’ is the adjectival form of the word.)

• ·      The sound of the thunderstorm was tumultuous.
• ·      I heard a loud argument in the hallway, so I opened my door to discover the source of the tumult.

Patronize (v.) can have both positive and negative connotations.  As a positive word, it can mean ‘to be a customer’ of something or someone.

• ·      We happily patronized our neighborhood movie theater.
• ·      My family patronizes the arts:  we go to plays, dance recitals, and art museums.

In its negative connotation, however, ‘patronize’ can also mean ‘to adopt an air of condescension toward’ someone or something – to treat haughtily or coolly.

• ·      “For the court to come around, at this late date, to acknowledging our existence as ‘free persons’ is shockingly patronizing; it's condescension that has been cast as liberation.” —John Cloud, Time, 7 July 2003 (Merriam-Webster Dictionary online).
• ·      He hated being patronized and pitied by those who didn’t believe his story.  (Merriam-Webster.)

Vocabulary Words for Quiz #3 on Tuesday, Sept. 25

Eminent is an adjective that nearly always goes ahead of its noun – “an eminent statesman” is a prominent statesman. Eminent is nearly always used to convey something positive or valued.

If I had known that my science professor was an eminent biologist, soon to be nominated for a Nobel Prize, I would have asked for his autograph before the course ended.

“Her eminent good sense made her a godsend to our project.” (adapted from Wiktionary)

Imminent is an adjective used for describing a moment when something is about to happen.  (If you can use the word 'impending', then you already know how to use 'imminent'.)

The greedy heirs awaited the imminent death of their wealthy old uncle.

The imminent likelihood of a fire drill kept the teacher from giving a vocabulary quiz that day.

To assuage is to soothe, to comfort, to lessen the pain. Use ‘assuage’ in the emotional sense.

Kennedy felt that there was a diplomatic way to assuage Russia’s concerns.

Tom had been dumped by his girlfriend; it was impossible to assuage his feelings of grief and loss.

Apostrophe is a literary device that pertains to addressing someone or something that is absent.

“Judge, oh you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him” is a good example of apostrophe in Shakespeare’s plays.  (Caesar addresses the gods.)

John Donne invokes death in the apostrophe “Oh, Death, be not proud,” almost as if Death were a character in a play.  (Donne speaks to Death as though Death were a human listener.)

In the following apostrophe, Hamlet bitterly complains about the women in his life: “Frailty, thy name is woman!”  (Hamlet addresses Frailty as if it were a person who could hear, speak, respond, etc.)

Allusion – an indirect reference to something that many readers or listeners are likely to know.

With his line about storming the beach-heads and pushing back the jungle, Kennedy alludes to Pacific-island warfare during World War II .

The girl's allusions to hip-hop lyrics went straight over the teacher’s head.

Credulity is a near-perfect synonym for ‘gullibility’. It refers to people’s tendency to believe.

Her credulity made her a good candidate for the man who claimed he could hypnotize people.

The credulous farmers bought the phony medicine from the traveling salesman.

The greedy real estate agent played on the credulity of prospective buyers, showing them pictures of a lavish mansion when all he really had to sell was a log cabin.

Invective is a formal reference to cursing or foul language. In this sense, ‘invective’ is a collective adjective – it doesn’t really have a plural form (i.e., don’t say ‘invectives’). Also, in this sense, it is not used with an article (don’t use ‘the’ or ‘an’).

The coach’s foul invective along the sidelines got him kicked out of the game.

Danielle's cruel invective on the witness stand nearly got her removed from the courtroom.

Invective can also mean a rant. In this case, it’s OK to use ‘the’ or ‘an’.

A fine invective in Shakespeare occurs in King Lear, when Kent calls Oswald “A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, super-serviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir to a mongrel bitch: one whom I will beat into clamorous whining if thou deni'st the least syllable of thy addition." (King Lear, Act II, sc. 2)

A cistern is a large barrel or metal tank of liquid – most often, water. The word is nearly always used in connection with water supply, irrigation, drainage, or the engineering of water.

“The city water line feeds into a rain-water cistern.” (rainwater.sustainablesources.com)

“Some people use rain-water collected in cisterns to water their gardens.” (earthsystemsnw.com)

 nostalgia is a yearning for the past.

The Park H.S. coach expressed his nostalgia for the days when he had a winning team.

reverie is a good synonym for day-dreaming.

The teacher interrupted her reverie with a question about the algebra problem.

I sometimes get lost in reverie about my days as a wilderness canoe guide.

Helpful Little Books for Students who Intend to Write about Literature

Writing About Literature (brief 11th ed.), by Edgar V. Roberts.

They Say / I Say, by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein.

Glossary of Literary Terms, by M.H. Abrams and Geoffrey Galt Harpham.

The Elements of Style, by William Strunk, Jr., and E.B. White.

Six Keepers from 2011 and 2012.

Vary sentence lengths.

Vary sentence types.

Make ample use of introductory phrases and clauses.

“Get the first sentence right, and the rest will follow.” ~ Hugh Kenner.

Write with that rare balance of mental energy, sheer exuberance, and strategic reserve.

Always remember to ask, “Where is the love?”

Notes on the Words in Vocabulary Harvest #10

inextricable  (adv.:  inextricably) 

This word refers to knots, mazes, puzzles, and difficult situations.  Inextricable means “so intricate or complicated that no means of exit can be discovered” (OED online).   Also, “incapable of being cleared up or put straight” (OED).

Whereas abstruse refers to a text that's difficult to understand – a wordy paragraph, a vexing math problem -- inextricable refers to the unresolvable condition of challenging problems or situations. Sample sentences:  “In the years leading up to the Civil War, American policy towards slavery was in a state of inextricable confusion.”   “The long and winding forest road seemed inextricable to all but the most experienced guides.”  Poet John Donne (Yemi’s poet!) wrote, “There is no perplexity in thee, my God; no inextricableness in thee.”

didactic (adj.)  (Greek:  didaktik – ‘apt to teaching’)

In its simplest form and derivation, didactic means “having the manner or character of a teacher” (OED online).  In 1860, however, Ralph Waldo Emerson – a great teacher himself – inadvertently launched the negative (i.e., pejorative) sense of didactic when he said (much to the chagrin of teachers everywhere):  “Life is rather a subject of wonder, than of didactics.”  

So… didactic can also mean ‘preachy’ or, worse, boring (because something is preachy).  Thus, it is a great tone word for texts or statements that overexert themselves in their efforts to teach.  “The didactic air of this essay on vocabulary words is putting me to sleep.”  Or… “Mr. Bratnober told us that Toni Morrison is a fine author, but some of us found her elevated diction and syntax to be didactic:  she's working too hard to teach us anything useful or memorable!!”  (P.S. An auto-didact is someone who is self-taught.)

omniscient (adj.)

Omniscient means ‘all-knowing’ – the exact same thing that its Latin roots would preordain.  “The omniscient narrator of Lord of the Flies seems to understand what each of the boys experiences on the island.”

warble (v.)

To warble is obviously something that a bird does.  (“The robin warbled in the nearby tree.”)  However, warble is also a great word to use when human beings make certain sounds.  It’s been used as a word for singing: – “Emmy…began to warble that stanza from a favorite song…” (Thackeray).  It’s also been used as a synonym for poetic speech: “Or would you have me turn a sonneteer, And warble those brief-sighted eyes of hers?” (Tennyson).  

Warble is also used to characterize the sounds of high-pitched human voices, especially in crowds:  “...[G]irls are there warbling his name, and, just as he promised, he's delighted to dish out the autographs.”  (See also, the word 'chirp'!!)  (Dictionary site online.)

instigate (v.)

This is a strong synonym for foment, an earlier AP vocabulary word.  Just like foment, instigate means “to initiate,” or “to cause.”  (OED:  “to spur” or “to stir up” or “to provoke.”  )  Sample sentences:  “He instigated a riot with his inflammatory speech.”  “It was spring – in fact, it was the last day of school – when the 8^th graders instigated a food fight in the cafeteria.”

invert (v.)

This means “to reverse the position” (OED) of something -- to move something from outside-in to inside-out.  It often means to reverse something from its familiar or expected position.  Sample sentences:  “Yoda inverts familiar syntax in English when he says things like, ‘Strong am I in the Force’ or – memorably –  ‘When nine hundred years you reach, look as good, you will not’.”  In a visual context:  "the number 9 looks like an inverted number 6." 

covert (adj.)

Covert means ‘secret’ or ‘stealthy’.  “The U.S. Special Forces' covert mission to assassinate Osama bin Laden infuriated the Pakistani government.”

elegiac (adj.)

This is another good tone word.  Elegiac refers to the tone of a eulogy – a funeral speech or sermon.  It’s also used to connote something is that or mournful or respectful or earnest or spiritual in tone. 

Sample sentences.  “The King, posing as Harvey Wilks, tried to achieve an elegiac tone with his remarks about the ‘diseased’.”   “Part of the tension in Elizabeth Bishop’s brilliant poem, “One Art,” derives from the speaker’s resistance against sharing an elegiac voice – instead, she does her best to sound nonchalant in the face of her losses, both trivial and profound.  It is only when she makes the demand of herself to “(Write it)” that readers recognize how devastated she has been by the ‘disaster’ of personal loss.”  “The sad, earnest  music near the end of the piece reinforces the elegiac mood.”

laudatory (adj.)

Laudatory means filled or imbued with praise.  (“Expressive of praise” – OED)  “Mr. Bratnober’s laudatory comments gave me hope that I’d do OK on the AP exam.”  “An artist is not apt to speak in a very laudatory style of a brother artist” (Hawthorne); but “Mr. Bratnober has an unapologetically laudatory view of student writers in the Woodbury Class of 2013!!” 

Usage Guide for Vocabulary Harvest #9 (March 26, 2012)

lugubrious (adj.)
This word pertains to people or things that are mournful, even exaggeratedly mournful. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary says, “Mournful – especially exaggeratedly or affectedly mournful.” Sample sentences: “The Addams Family offers a cast of lugubrious characters.” “Huckleberry Finn notices the lugubrious tone of Emmeline poetry and art.”

Lugubrious can also mean dismal. “Washington Irving creates a lugubrious setting with his descriptions of the swampy New England landscape in 'The Devil and Tom Walker'.”

veneration (n.) (venerable (adj.) = worthy of veneration)
Merriam-Webster defines veneration as “respect or awe inspired by the dignity, wisdom, dedication, or talent of a person.” Sample sentence: “Two characters in Huckleberry Finn who earn veneration among their fellow citizens are Judge Thatcher and Col. Sherburn. The judge earns his on the strength of his character; the colonel earns his with help from guns.”

qualms (n. pl.)
Qualms are feelings of uneasiness, doubt, or even nausea. To ‘have qualms’ means to tender doubts or uncertainties, especially in the moral sense. Sample sentence: “There are several scenes in Huckleberry Finn where Huck has qualms about harboring a runaway slave.”

repugnance (n.) (repugnant = adjective for people, places or things that evince qualities of repugnance.)
Merriam-Webster calls repugnance “the quality or fact of being contradictory or inconsistent.”  However, the word also means a “strong dislike, distaste, or antagonism” (Merriam-Webster), and this is its most common usage. Sample sentence: “As they learned more about the Ku Klux Klan, students felt nothing but repugnance for the group's violent history.”

choleric (adj.)
This word means hot-tempered, or given to quick and easy anger. Sample sentences: “Pap’s choleric outbursts keep Huck on edge.” “The cool, soothing and rational tone of ‘A Modest Proposal’ is only a mask for Swift’s underlying choleric view toward the British colonial masters of Ireland.”

inflammatory (adj.)
Although this too goes to anger, the word inflammatory pertains to the ability to incite anger, tumult, or outrage in other people. Sample sentence: “His inflammatory rhetoric incited the mob to violence.”

abstruse (adj.)
This word simply means “difficult to comprehend” (Merriam-Webster). It usually refers to ideas or texts that are complex or layered (i.e., it’s used in relation to things, not people). Sample sentence: “No matter how many times my teacher tried to explain it, I found Einstein’s Theory of Relativity to be abstruse.”

saturnine (adj.)
This adjective pertains to a certain attitude -- an attitude expressed in writing, speech or demeanor. It means “cold and steady in mood : slow to act or change” (Merriam-Webster). It can also mean “of a gloomy or surly disposition” or “having a sardonic aspect” (M-W).  Sample sentence:  "The men awaiting interrogation by the police shared a saturnine silence."

acrimony (n.) (acrimonious (adj.) = given to acrimony)
Acrimony is a synonym for harsh, angry, or bitter speech. Merriam-Webster defines acrimony as “harsh or biting sharpness, especially of words, manner, or disposition.” Sample sentences: “The preacher’s sermon on brotherly love did little to affect the acrimonious behavior of the Grangerfords and the Sheperdsons.”  "Acrimony is the prevailing theme of the marriage in the film Kramer vs. Kramer."