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."

From George Orwell, the author of 1984

i) Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to
seeing in print.
(ii) Never use a long word where a short one will do.
(iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
(iv) Never use a passive where you can use the active.
(v) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
(vi) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

(“Politics and the English Language”)

Vocabulary Usage Guide for October 6 in AP English Lang and Comp

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.

John Donne invokes death in the apostrophe “Oh, Death, be not proud,” almost as if Death were a character in a play.

In the following apostrophe, Hamlet bitterly complains about the women in his life: “Frailty, thy name is woman!”

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.

The witness’s hostile invective on the 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)

[That's it.  Now you know them all!  ~  PRB]

Usage Guidelines for the Vocabulary Quiz on Tuesday, Sept. 27

Use ‘terse’ to describe or characterize brevity in writing or speech.

He was not long-winded; on the contrary, he expressed himself in terse statements, pausing to compose his thoughts after each utterance.

Use ‘circumspect’ for diplomacy or restraint in a person’s behavior, attitude or speech.

The congresswoman had stated that the Air Force general was sure to be indicted, but today she was more circumspect in her comments about the case. (adapted from an example on superiorvocabulary.com)

Use ‘amorphous’ to describe an attitude, a statement, or an object that is indistinct.

Most people found the cloud to be amorphous, but Paul insisted that it closely resembled the shape of a turtle.

Use ‘evoke’ as a near-synonym for the word ‘express’, especially in the sense of emitting a certain aura, feeling, reminder, attitude or idea.

Her thoughtful words evoked the wisdom of Socrates.

'Music is used to evoke a particular mood.' (adapted from Australia Network)

Fitzgerald’s writing evokes the spirit of the Roaring Twenties.

Use ‘invoke’ for the act of calling on a higher authority, especially in connection with writing, speech, religion, or the law.

The witness invoked his 5th Amendment right to remain silent.

His poetry invokes the subtle interior rhythms of Shakespeare’s sonnets.

Use the verb ‘to cleave’ to express the act of slicing or splitting.  (The past tense of ‘cleave’ is ‘cleft’ or (still more confusingly) ‘cloven’.)

He can cleave a thick steak into two equal portions with a single blow of his hatchet.

Conversely, use the expression “cleave to” as a synonym for “cling to” or “adhere to,” especially with respect to unwavering loyalty in human relationships.

The faithful husband cleaves to his wife.

To feign means “to pretend,” but the word is used a particular way:

He feigned ignorance as a way to avoid testifying in court.

Please don’t try to feign modesty; I know you are quietly gloating on the inside.

(The latter example comes from http://vocabulary-vocabulary.com/dictionary/feign.php)

Originally used to describe ancient texts excluded from the Bible (‘apo’ = beyond or outside of; ‘cryph’ = scripture), the word ‘apocryphal’ is used today to characterize statements that are outlandishly false or misleading.

Some people claim that the story of George Washington and the cherry tree is apocryphal – a myth designed to inspire children’s patriotism.

The traveling salesman made apocryphal claims about the healing powers of the medicines he sold to pharmacists.

Four Steps toward Mastery in Writing

RECOGNITION: I can recognize the occurrences of certain literary “moves.”

For example, when Hamlet calls his uncle Claudius a “bloody, bawdy villain” (Hamlet, II.2), I notice right away that the two adjectives in this phrase begin with the letter ‘b’. This seems like a deliberate move!

DEFINITION: I can use a term that helps me to identify this move -- or, even if I don't remember the name of the term, I can confidently describe the move:

A writer's name for the repetition of initial consonant sounds in neighboring words such as 'bloody' and 'bawdy' is alliteration.

ANALYSIS: As I cite my example, I can also say what is achieved.

“Hamlet’s bold alliteration links the bloodiness of Claudius – which is to say, his homicidal sinfulness – to the man’s bawdiness: his promiscuity. Just as the two words share an explosive ‘b’-sound, giving voice to Hamlet’s anger, they also overlap in their meanings: criminal homicide and sexual excess are conjoined in Hamlet’s dual indictment of his devious uncle.”

APPLICATION: I can make this same move in my own writing.

“…dual (indictment!) ... devious..."

The Greek term ‘syndeton’ refers to connection.

When you add ‘poly-‘ to ‘syndeton’ the resulting word means many connections.

Polysyndeton (pah-lee-SIN-di-ton)
“Maggie and Millie and Molly and Mae…” (e.e. cummings)

“And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.” (King James version of the Bible. Genesis 7:22-24)

"[The train] came boring out of the east like some ribald satellite of the coming sun howling and bellowing in the distance and the long light of the headlamp running though the tangled mesquite brakes and creating out of the night the endless fenceline down the dead straight right of way and sucking it back again wire and post mile on mile into the darkness after where the boilersmoke disbanded slowly along the faint new horizon and the sound came lagging and he stood still holding his hat in his hands in the passing ground shudder watching it till it was gone." (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses)

"Tender as my years may be," said Caspian, "I believe I understand the slave trade from within quite as well as your Sufficiency. And I do not see that it brings into the islands meat or bread or beer or wine or timber or cabbages or books or instruments of music or horses or armour or anything else worth having." C. S. Lewis, "The Voyage of the 'Dawn Treader'" (Book 3 in The Chronicles of Narnia)

When you add the prefix ‘a-‘ to ‘syndeton’ the resulting word means without any connections.

Asyndeton (uh-SIN-di-ton)

“Veni, vidi, vici.” (Julius Caesar) (“I came, I saw, I conquered.”)

"We must... hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends." (U.S. Declaration of Independence)

"Anyway, like I was saying, shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That--that's about it." (Bubba in Forrest Gump, 1994)

"Cold; tempest; wild beasts in the forest. It is a hard life. Their houses are built of logs, dark and smoky within. There will be a crude icon of the virgin behind a guttering candle, the leg of a pig hung up to cure, a string of drying mushrooms. A bed, a stool, a table. Harsh, brief, poor lives." (Angela Carter, "The Werewolf." The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, 1979)