Words for Friday, Oct. 11

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, often with a connotation of fame or high regard.

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.

An imminent fire drill kept the teacher from giving a vocabulary quiz that day.

To assuage is to soothe, to comfort, to lessen the pain. Writers often use ‘assuage’ in the emotional sense.  (Pronounced:  'us-WAGE'.)

Kennedy sensed that there would be 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, usually in the sense of something above and beyond the realm of human beings.

“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 -- one who could hear Donne's plea.

In the following apostrophe, Hamlet bitterly complains about the women in his life: “Frailty, thy name is woman!”  (Here 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.  Verb form:  to allude.

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 her teacher’s head.

Credulity is a near-perfect synonym for ‘gullibility’. It refers to people’s willingness to believe things, often naively.  (adjectival form:  credulous.)

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

The credulous farmers bought phony medicine from the shady 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 cheap trailer-home.

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’ with 'invective').

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

The jury interpreted the woman's cruel invective on the witness not only as hostility but also as failed objectivity about the facts of the case.

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

A fine string of 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; (etc.)" (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)

Cistern could also be used metaphorically, to denote a supply or a repository of something.

"He postponed acting on the plan, patiently siphoning it into a cistern of ideas to be used another time."

 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 Danielle's reverie with a question about the algebra problem.

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