Vocabulary Harvest #1, for Monday, Sept. 15, 2014

accolade(s) – honor, awards, kudos, acclaim.  (often in the plural)

Her performance on the field was so strong that she earned accolades from her opponents and their coaches.

jaundiced – (literally:  yellow)  Most often:  cynical, envying, or hostile.

He had heard his boss contradict herself many times, and as a consequence, he had a jaundiced view about her latest announcement to the staff.

equivocate – to go back and forth; to “flip-flop.”

She tried to pin him down about their relationship, but all he could do was equivocate -- he couldn't commit!

fastidious – according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, there are three “layers” to this definition:

a : having high and often capricious standards : difficult to please.b : showing or demanding excessive delicacy or care.
c : reflecting a meticulous, sensitive, or demanding attitude.

For purposes of Friday's quiz, I suggest that you focus on definition c:  “reflecting a meticulous, sensitive, or demanding attitude.” 

The piano teacher favored students who were fastidious in their rehearsal of scales and arpeggios.

ostracize – to reject; to leave out; to spurn.

Dan, Fred, Ian, and Charlie had been friends throughout eighth grade, but in ninth grade Ian was ostracized by the other three for reasons that never became public.

Spartan – evincing qualities of exceptional self-discipline and courage.

She adopted a Spartan diet after her doctor warned her that she could suffer heart disease as a consequence of being overweight.

vile – abhorrent, obnoxious, distasteful, disgusting,

1.    a vile and cowardly act

2.    What is that vile odor?

3.    His comments were positively vile.

4.    She has a vile temper.         ~  Merriam-Webster Dictionary online.

analogy – a comparison that stresses the similarities of two distinct processes or entities; often, a comparison between two comparisons.

He made an effective analogy when he compared the hard-working men of our church with the fighting American Marines in World War II.  

                3 / 6 ~ = ~ 4 / 8 

Bargain hunters congregate around the main doorway to the mall in much the same way that bees gather at the entrance of a bee-hive.

evince – to reveal; to display; to show outward evidence of.

She evinced a strong interest in piano music at an early age.

The teenager caught shoplifting seemed to evince no remorse.  (Merriam-Webster)

poignant – painfully or powerfully affecting the feelings; touching; moving.

The final movement of the symphony, with its folksongs and dance themes, creates a poignant reminder of the composer’s home in Czechoslovakia.  

(P.S.  Poignant can also mean “pungently pervasive” as in the case of a strong perfume or odor.  ~  Merriam-Webster)

Glossary of Definitions for Vocabulary Harvest #7

hyperbole (n.) – deliberate exaggeration designed to achieve a rhetorical effect

anaphora (n.) – repetition of the same word or words at the beginnings of sentences.  [King makes regular anaphora “In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted on the Negro… In the midst of a mighty struggle…” (p. 271)]  or [“I doubt that you would have so warmly commended the police… I doubt that you would so quickly commend the policemen… (pp. 272-273]   Look for other examples of anaphora in King’s “Letter.”

antimetabole (n.)  -- a “mirror-image” sentence such as JFK's famous “Ask not what your country can do for you; instead ask what you can do for your country.”

pernicious (adj.)  -- harmful or injurious in a way that is not easily noticed;  subtly or secretly harmful

paternalistic (adj.) – from a father’s perspective, often condescendingly

precipitate (v.) – to cause, to incite, to trigger

elegy (n.) – a song or poem expressing sorrow or lamentation when someone has died.  (...not to be confused with 'eulogy', which is a speech delivered when someone dies.)

repudiate (v.) – to reject, to spurn, to refuse to accept.  “Dr. King publicly repudiated the values and principles espoused by city officials of Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963.”

pious (adj.) – devoutly observant of religious principles; sanctimonious

infanticide (n.) – the murder of children

sublime (adj.) – extraordinarily beautiful or profound

scintillating (participial adj.) – fascinating, sparkling, brightly shining.

Glossary for Vocabulary #6: Words pertaining to the law, fairness, argument, and knowledge.

arbiter (n.) – one who is selected to judge in settling a dispute; a referee.  “David’s father was a perfect arbiter for our disagreement, because David himself had not been a party to the dispute in the Scrabble game.”

biased (adj.) – characterized by prejudice, favoritism, or predisposition.  ‘bias’ is often used in connection with the pronouns ‘toward’ or ‘against’, as in “The coach showed his bias against female referees by refusing to hire any for the coming season.”

exculpate (v.), and exculpatory (adj.)  -- to exculpate means to clear someone, making him free of a charge of guilt or shame.  “By establishing that Tom Robinson’s right arm was lame, Atticus brought exculpatory evidence:  clear proof that Tom was innocent of wrongdoing.”  “Video cameras can sometimes exculpate people, but they can also incriminate people.”

impartial (adj.) – unbiased, neutral, objective, fair.  “It’s very important that the moderator at the speech contest remain impartial, allowing the judges to come to their own conclusions.”

incontrovertible (adj.) – absolute, final, unable to be changed.  (Often used with the words ‘evidence’ or ‘knowledge’.)  “Despite the incontrovertible facts that Atticus had raised throughout the case, the jury declared Tom guilty.”

integrity (n.) –  adherence to ethical values; honesty; soundness of moral character.  “The young man’s well-documented personal integrity made him seem like a good candidate to train for the ministry.”   

(The word ‘integrity’ can also refer to the wholeness or soundness of a structure – e.g., “the integrity of the ship’s hull.” or "the integrity of the space capsule's infrastructure.")

objectivity (n.) – fairness; impartiality; the condition of being unbiased.

plausible (adj.) – believable, credible, especially in connection with hypothetical or unconfirmed circumstances.  “His alibi seemed plausible, especially because eye-witnesses could confirm that he was miles away when the crime was committed.”  “The fact that weather professionals had predicted twenty-two-degree-below-zero temperatures was a plausible reason for district officials to cancel school.”

substantiate (v.) – to prove a claim using facts and evidence.  (An unsubstantiated claim is a claim that has yet to be proved true using facts and evidence.)

vindicate(-d) – to establish, against opposition, that a claim or a cause is correct and justifiable.  “The outcome of the American Revolution vindicated the rights set forth in the Declaration of Independence.”

acquired (participial adj., as in ‘an acquired tasted’) – ‘acquired’, in this sense, means learned deliberately (as opposed to learned automatically, by nature or intuition).  “His taste for cigars was an acquired taste – as a child he had hated the smell.”  “His understanding of chess openings wasn’t intuitive, it was an acquired skill:  he had studied the moves for years.”

conviction (n.) -- in this context:  heartfelt belief; certainty.  "Mormon evangelists are well known for their friendly and unshakable conviction regarding Mormon history and values."

dogmatic (adj.) -- adhering to strict principle or dogma; "by the books."  "I wish you wouldn't be so dogmatic about the rules & procedures when we play tennis -- it's just a friendly game!"

enlightening (participial adj.) -- educational, inspiring, enlivening.  "The jury found the expert witness's testimony to be enlightening."  "My philosophy professor gave an enlightening lecture on Neitsche last week."

impression (n.) -- an intuitive or incomplete sense about a concrete experience.  "I had the impression that it was you behind the wheel, but I couldn't tell for sure." (impression can also mean a memorable example, as in "You made a good impression on my mother."  In show business, an 'impression' is an impersonation, as in "Tina Fey does a funny impression of Sarah Palin.")

misconception (n.) -- the wrong idea; a view that is incorrect based on faulty reasoning.  "Leonid Fridman flaunts the misconception that young American intellectuals are nerds and geeks, rising above anti-intellectual prejudice in 1990, bravely reminding New York Times readers that in our brightest students reside the highest hopes of our nation to compete and thrive in the international marketplace."