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."