Mahattan Vocabulary

apportioned

Distributed.

herald

A herald is a sign of things to come. A chilly day in October is a herald of the coming winter. Years ago, a herald was an official who announced important news to the people. This is why many newspapers today have herald in their name. Nowadays, the noun herald refers to an early indicator that something is about to happen. Herald can also be used as a verb meaning "to praise" or "to greet enthusiastically." If you've been away from home for a long time, your family might herald your return, especially if you come bearing gifts.

apologist

An apologist is a person who argues in favor of something unpopular. If you're an apologist for deep sea oil drilling, you would argue that drilling in the ocean is necessary and the benefits make up for any environmental damage. Apologists tend to be seen in a negative light, as defensive people who make excuses. The word apologist comes from the Greek word apologia, meaning "speaking in defense." Not all apologists are bad news; some just defend an unpopular idea. Even though apologist is similar to apology, don't confuse them — if you make an apology you're admitting to being wrong. But if you're an apologist, you justify your belief or action, and would do it all again!

omnipotent

If you want to describe someone who can do absolutely anything, reach for the adjective omnipotent. Omnipotent comes from the Latin words for total (omni) and power (potent). Omnipotent is frequently used for deities, but can apply to any exaggerated description of power. If you think that love rules the world, then to you, love is omnipotent. On the other hand, if you think that brute force wins, then maybe your idea of an omnipotent person is a mob boss. The stress is on the second syllable: om-NIP-uh-tent.

astute

Someone who is astute is clever and has good judgment. The kid running around with a bucket stuck on his head? Not so astute. Astute (from Latin) is a formal and flattering adjective for someone with a good head on their shoulders. It differs from its synonym shrewd in placing less emphasis on hardheadedness than on sensitivity: we talk about a shrewd bargainer but an astute interpretation. Other synonyms are perceptive (emphasizing insight) and discerning (emphasizing an ability to distinguish).

demarcate

To demarcate is to set or draw a boundary, like that of a country. It can also mean to separate clearly in other ways. When you demarcate, you're creating a boundary. Election officials who create or change boundaries between districts are demarcating. Demarcating usually starts with making lines on a map, but those lines have power in the world, as they change the size of a district, state, country, or other place. The word can be used more broadly for creating other types of separation. At work, a boss could demarcate which employees are responsible for which work, which is another kind of separation.

demonize

make into a demon

trumpet

proclaim on, or as if on, a trumpet

trembling

vibrating slightly and irregularly; as e.g. with fear or cold or like the leaves of an aspen in a breeze

paradoxical

"You have to spend money to make money." That's a paradoxical statement used by people in business, and it seems to say two opposite things that contradict each other, but if you think about it, it's actually kind of true. Paradoxical is an adjective that describes a paradox, something with two meanings that don't make sense together. Its Greek roots translate to "contrary opinion," and when two different opinions collide in one statement or action, that's paradoxical. In Shakespeare's play "Hamlet," Hamlet's mother marries the man who killed Hamlet's father, but she doesn't know it. As Hamlet plots to kill the murderer to protect his mother, he says this paradoxical phrase: "I must be cruel to be kind."

chore

A chore is a duty or task you're obligated to perform, often one that is unpleasant but necessary. Washing the dishes is a chore, and so is completing a homework assignment you aren't excited about. Sometimes a thing that you wanted to do can become a chore if it ceases to be fun or interesting. Maybe Napoleon felt that conquering nations had become a chore by the time he was defeated in the Battle of Waterloo. The noun chore dates from the 18th century, when there were fewer appliances and more household tasks that needed to be done.

coda

A coda is a concluding segment of a piece of music, a dance, or a statement. It's usually short and adds a final embellishment beyond a natural ending point. Like this. Coda comes from the Italian word couda, and it's good to think of it as a tail tacked onto something that in and of itself is already a whole. If you tell a story about your crazy experience getting lost in the country and sleeping at a farmer's house, you might add, as a coda, that the farmer ended up visiting you too, a year later.

delusion

A delusion is a belief that has no evidence in fact — a complete illusion. The cook at the hot dog stand who thinks he is the best chef in the world? That opinion is definitely a delusion. The noun delusion is often used in the phrase delusions of grandeur, which expresses the belief that unattainable goals are well within reach, like a terrible actress's delusions of grandeur that she won't just land her first role in a movie, it also will make her an Academy Award winner. Delusions like that can be amusing for onlookers, but other kinds of delusions are not, like those suffered by the mentally ill. Their delusions can remove them from reality, making it hard to function.

harbinger

A harbinger is something that comes before and that shows what will follow in the future. The robin is a harbinger of spring--its presence means spring is coming soon. The appearance of a ghost is often thought of as a harbinger of death. Middle English herbergere is from Old French herbergeor "host," from herberge "camp, shelter," a word ultimately borrowed from a Germanic language.

homily

A homily is a sermon or religious speech offering encouragement or moral correction. Isn't it strange how sometimes, when you're struggling with something, a preacher comes on TV giving a homily on that same problem?! Too bad it happens when you do bad stuff, too. In many churches and lecture halls, a homily is just a short message on a religious topic or moral issue that's meant to encourage those who hear it. Another type of homily, though, is one that's judgmental or condemning. If you hear a homily and feel better afterward, even if it delivers hard truths about right and wrong, you've heard an uplifting homily. One that leaves you mad and frustrated, however, might make you need another homily on forgiveness and self-control.

mendacious

A mendacious person is one who tells lies habitually and intentionally. Don't get stuck at the water cooler or bus stop next to someone you consider mendacious! People may tell "white lies" if they forgot your birthday or really don't like your new haircut, but if you catch someone intentionally manipulating you with a falsehood, that person is just plain mendacious. So think of the most deceptive, insincere, perfidious, duplicitous, false person you've ever met, and then add the word mendacious to that list.

mimic

A mimic is someone who is good at imitating others. A gifted mimic might be able to imitate one president after another just by minimally changing facial expression and manner of speaking. Mimic, related to mime, an entertainer who performs using gestures not speech, can be traced back to the Greek mimeisthai "to imitate." Usually when you mimic someone, you imitate them in order to make fun of them. Performers mimic famous people to get laughs, but ordinary people mimic others when they are angry at them. Who hasn't mimicked parents or a boss who has said no one too many times?!

pan

A pan can be a cooking utensil, a negative opinion, or a sweeping camera shot. You cook eggs in a pan, but as a film critic you might pan a new docudrama for poor editing and overuse of pan shots. A pan is a shallow metal object that you use to cook food. It can also be a verb indicating you're expressing a negative view. To pan a performance, book, or movie is to say that you think it stunk. If all the critics pan something, sales usually go down, but not always. To pan a film or video camera is to move it from left to right or right to left in a smooth motion.

pithy

A pithy phrase or statement is brief but full of substance and meaning. Proverbs and sayings are pithy; newspaper columnists give pithy advice. The root of this word is pith, which refers to the spongy tissue in plant stems, or the white part under the skin of citrus fruits. Pith is also used figuratively to refer to the essential part of something: They finally got to the pith of the discussion. Pith descends from Middle English, from Old English pitha "the pith of plants." In the adjective pithy, the suffix -y means "characterized by."

presage

A presage is a sign that something bad is about to happen, like when you get that queasy feeling in your stomach because your mom found out you skipped band practice to go to the movies. Presage, pronounced "PREH-sige," can be a noun or a verb. As a noun, presage is a warning or omen of bad things to come, like a strange quiet and stillness in the air, presage to the coming tornado. As a verb, presage means "making a prediction or giving a warning of what's to come," like a terrible end-of-season football game's outcome game that presaged the struggles the team faced the next season.

rampage

A rampage is when a group of people is destructive and out of control, like an angry, violent riot following an unpopular political decision. A single individual can go on a rampage, wreaking havoc and destruction, but the word most often describes the actions of an angry mob. You can also use rampage as a verb, as when furious football fans rampage through a town overturning cars and setting things on fire. The word was originally Scottish, from the Middle English ramp, "rave or rush wildly about."

reminiscence

A reminiscence is a memory, or the act of recovering it. A visit to your old elementary school may flood your brain with reminiscences--things you hadn't thought of in years coming suddenly back. Many people find that when they travel or have quiet time to think, their brain becomes occupied with reminiscence. You can see how close the word reminiscence is in meaning to the word remember--you might think of the word reminiscence as a remembering.

progeny

A sing-song rhyme may help in remembering the word progeny: "All of you, all of me, together we make progeny." The "you" and "me" can be a man and a woman making a baby, or trees and plants making little offshoots, or progeny of their own. Synonyms for progeny include "descendants," "product," and "offspring," and the word is applied to more than just living creatures. An idea can give birth to, so to speak, progeny, or similar ideas from the main seed idea; and a suite of products, such as a progeny of handheld applications, can come from a main prototype. Children are progeny of their parents, just as tomatoes are the progeny of plant pairings. Most anything that is the fruit of something planted or seeded is progeny.

sterile

A sterile person can't have kids, and a sterile environment is bland and boring. In both cases, sterile means lifeless. When you hear about a sterile person, it means they can't have kids: sterile women can't get pregnant, and sterile men can't be fathers. But the concept of sterility applies to things, too. An empty, white room with nothing in it is sterile. And a surgeon's instruments better be sterile — meaning they're free from germs and bacteria.

berate

A strong verb for harshly cutting someone down with words is berate. "He didn't just correct the cashier who gave him the wrong change, he started to berate her, calling her names in front of the whole store." When you berate someone it is more than just raising your voice at them; it implies putting them down by insulting their character. Berate comes from the 16th-century English and French for "to scold" or "to blame." Often the anger behind the scolding seems over-the-top, as in "When the young man behind the counter dropped the scoop of vanilla, the manager berated him excessively by declaring him worthless and weak."

symbiotic

A symbiotic relationship benefits both parties. The two of you have a symbiotic relationship: she fixes your car and you style her hair. In biology, symbiotic refers to any diverse organisms that live together, but in this case, the relationship is not necessarily beneficial to both. Parasites, for example, have a symbiotic relationship with their hosts, but only the parasite benefits. If you contract a parasite, you might consider charging rent or throwing the bum out!

coltish

An energetic, playful person can be described as coltish. A coltish preschooler might skip happily across the room and then slide to a stop in her socks. There's something a little young and awkward implied in the word coltish, which arose in the 14th century from the sense of a colt, or young horse, as a lively, frolicking, long-legged creature. Skinny-legged teenagers dashing around a mall are coltish, and a soccer team of five year-olds is made up of happy, coltish players.

inscrutable

Any person or thing that's mysterious, mystifying, hard to read, or impossible to interpret is inscrutable. You ever notice how it's hard to tell what some people are thinking? Those folks are inscrutable. A good way to think about what inscrutable means is to consider cats and dogs. Dogs wear their hearts on their sleeves, shaking when they're afraid and bouncing up and down when they're happy. Dogs are definitely not inscrutable, because you can tell what they're thinking and feeling. On the other hand, cats are very difficult to read. Even longtime cat owners aren't always sure what's going on with their kitty. Cats are very inscrutable animals.

Apathetic

Apathetic is an adjective that describes the feeling of being bored with what's going on around you. If you don't care one way or another, you're apathetic. The Greek word pathos describes a type of emotional suffering that afflicts people who are super sensitive to their environment. Pathos is a root word of apathetic, but the prefix a- turns it into the opposite: emotional boredom, insensitivity, and a lack of enthusiasm. Maybe you feel apathetic because nothing around you stirs your interest, or maybe it's because you need some coffee.

beguiled

Being beguiled is like being captivated, charmed, delighted, enthralled, or entranced. When you're beguiled, you really like what you see. Being beguiled is a nice feeling: it means you are totally absorbed by something in an enjoyable way. You can be beguiled by a sporting event, a movie, or a concert. You could be beguiled by another person who is attractive or clever. When you're beguiled, you like what you see so much that you can't take your eyes off it — almost like being in a trance.

chary

Being chary (pronounced CHAIR-ee) is being wary or cautious. If you lost two teeth in last year's rugby season, you should be chary of signing up again this year. Chary comes from the Old English word cearig for "sorrowful, careful," which is basically what you are if you're chary. If you're a little suspicious of something and mulling it over, you're being chary. A synonym of chary is wary, and both include caution, but some definitions suggest that it's obvious when someone is wary — it shows — while being chary is more of an inside, or hidden, distrust.

Deft

Deft means "showing cleverness and skill in handling things." What you want to see in football or basketball is some deft handling of the ball. Some people are physically deft, like accomplished athletes and ballet dancers. Their movements are fast, graceful, and deliberate. Others might be mentally or intellectually deft. You could describe a beautifully written essay as deft, or talk about a politician's deft work on an anti-bullying bill. The source of deft is the Old English gedæfte, "mild or gentle," which became deft in Middle English along with its meaning of "apt, skillful, or adept."

wary

Describe yourself as wary if you don't quite trust someone or something and want to proceed with caution. Be wary of risky things like wild mushrooms and Internet deals! You can trace wary through Old English back to Old High German giwar "aware, attentive." If you keep a wary eye on something, you are attentive for signs that it is becoming dangerous. Likewise, if you give someone a wary glance, your face conveys the suspicion and caution you feel. When you are wary of driving alone at night or making promises, you fear something bad might happen if you do these things.

Disabuse

Disabuse means to free someone of a belief that is not true. Many teachers of health find that when they teach, they spend as much energy disabusing kids of false beliefs as they do giving them the facts. Disabuse is often connected to the word notion or idea. In singing lessons, you must disabuse young singers of the idea that they can sing better by singing louder. In the first year of college, many people are disabused of the idea that the way they are is "normal," by meeting so many people who represent other ways to be.

sidereal

Far out, man. I mean really far out — as in related to the distant stars of the universe. That's what sidereal means. Sidereal is an adjective that first popped up in the 17th century, and stems from the Latin word sidereus, which means "star." Anything that's sidereal has something to do with stars and constellations. And if you measure the days and weeks by the movement of the stars across the sky, that's called sidereal astronomy or sidereal time. But if you've got someplace to be, you'd be better off with a good calendar and a wristwatch.

deluge

Feeling overwhelmed, like you're underwater? You might be experiencing a deluge — like when you've been given a deluge of homework over vacation: a dozen term papers, two dozen books to read, and a mile-high stack of math problems. The noun deluge is an overwhelming amount of something in general, such as work, people, or questions. Because of its Latin roots, however, in particular it means an overwhelming amount of water. It comes from diluvian, which means flood. The verb deluge similarly means to overwhelm or inundate with something, particularly water. The hurricane deluged the island with rain. A deluge isn't always a bad thing, however. One thing most people would like to be deluged with? Money.

Fleeting

Fleeting is an adjective that describes something that happens really fast, or something that doesn't last as long as you'd like. Driving in a car on the highway, you see a unicorn in the woods, but you only get a fleeting glimpse of it because you're driving too fast. Bummer. Fleeting comes from the Old English word flēotan, which means "float, swim." Like a ghost ship floating by on a foggy night, fleeting things disappear as fast as they appear. Fleeting love may last more than a moment, but it won't stay for very long, and that's why it's called fleeting.

effusive

Getting a compliment from your effusive Aunt Sally can be a little embarrassing. Since she's so effusive, Aunt Sally holds nothing back, gushing with enthusiasm. The adjective effusive means "extravagantly demonstrative," and if you know someone who know who expresses positive emotions in a heartfelt, bubbly way, you understand just what it means. The word effusive has a surprisingly similar definition in geology; it describes a particular kind of volcanic eruption, one in which lava bubbles up out of the volcano and flows around it.

Hysteria

Hysteria is a medical condition or general state of extreme fear and panic. When hysteria sets in, people are out of control. In a medical sense, people who are feeling hysteria may be violent and having trouble perceiving reality. In a more general sense, when someone is hysterical, they're out of control — freaking out. Hysteria is the opposite of calmness. It's really a state of emotional chaos that often takes over during natural disasters and scary moments. Or if you're a 13 year old girl, when you go to a concert for your favorite boy band.

Hysterical

Hysterical means "marked by uncontrollable, extreme emotion." If your favorite sports team wins a championship, you might get hysterical and started weeping and screaming all at once. Hysterical comes from the medical Latin word hystericus, which described a female neurotic condition, thought to be caused by a dysfunction of the uterus. Hysterical is still used today by psychiatrists, though in a broader way, to describe someone suffering from a psychological stress condition. Hysterical can also mean "extremely funny," even more so than hilarious.

platitude

If an executive gives a speech that begins, "This business is all about survival of the fittest. You need to burn the midnight oil and take one for the team," his employees might get sick of listening to these meaningless clichés and tell him to cut the platitudes. The English language contains many old, worn-out clichés, or platitudes. Phrases like "ants in your pants" and "as American as apple pie" are so overused that they've almost lost their meaning. People rely on these tired old remarks when they can't think of anything original to say. Be warned: if you throw too many platitudes into your conversations, people are eventually going to get tired of listening to you.

unbeknownst

If someone plans your birthday party unbeknownst to you — that is, you're completely unaware of it — it will probably be a surprise party. Used as an adjective or adverb, unbeknownst is descended from unbeknown (1848), which combines the prefix un- ("not") with be ("by, about") and know. Sometimes the FBI might be secretly working on a case, unbeknownst to the CIA, which is also secretly working on it. Imagine their frustration when everyone finds out they could have shared information and work, while saving time and manpower.

ominous

If something looks or sounds ominous, be careful, a threat or an unpleasant event is at hand. If you see an ominous frown on your boss's face, you're in trouble! Ominous, and the related word omen both come from the 16th century Latin word ōmen "foreboding." However, unlike omen, which is a sign of something good or bad to come, ominous always describes something unpleasant or threatening. If the future looks ominous, you've got nothing to look forward to. Figuratively, an ominous sky or ominous clouds promise rain or a storm.

shrewd

If you are shrewd in your spending, you can make a small salary go a long way. Use the adjective shrewd to describe a person or thing that is smart or clever in a practical sort of way. The word shrewd is from a Middle English adjective formed from the noun schrewe "an evil person, a villain." This Middle English noun is an earlier form of our modern English word shrew. So shrewd and shrew are related to each other. Shrewd doesn't usually have a disapproving or negative tone, but shrew certainly does.

brusque

If you ask a salesperson with help finding something and all you get in response is a brusque "Everything's out on the shelves," you'll probably take your business elsewhere. A brusque manner of speaking is unfriendly, rude, and very brief. Brush and brusque are not related, but they sound similar--when someone is brusque, you often feel that they are trying to give you the "brush off." Near synonyms for brusque are curt, short, and gruff. Brusque (pronounced "brusk") was borrowed from the French word meaning "lively, fierce," from Italian brusco "coarse, rough."

Serendipity

If you find good things without looking for them, serendipity — unexpected good luck — has brought them to you. Serendipity does not come from Latin or Greek, but rather was created by a British nobleman in the mid 1700s from an ancient Persian fairy tale. The meaning of the word, good luck in finding valuable things unintentionally, refers to the fairy tale characters who were always making discoveries through chance. You can thank serendipity if you find a pencil at an empty desk just at you walk into an exam and realize that you forgot yours.

stigmatize

If you stigmatize someone, you have given that person a label — and it's usually a label that is limiting in some way. In Ancient Greece, a stigma was a brand burned into a slave or a criminal's skin to symbolize disgrace. In the 1500s, the word stigmatize meant literally "to brand or tattoo." Nowadays, to stigmatize is to shame or brand a person in a more symbolic way.

contortion

If you twist your body into a contortion, you might put one leg behind your ear, and clasp your arms behind your back. A contortion is a twisted position. Yoga can feel like a series of contortions to beginners. People who twist their bodies into contortions professionally are called contortionists. In order to become a contortionist, you need to start with a lot of flexibility and a willingness to contort your body into uncomfortable positions. You then need a lot of practice. It is not easy to achieve a perfectly freakish contortion.

autodidact

If you're an autodidact you've done most of your learning on your own, outside of school. Having learned Greek and Latin, as well as landscape painting and auto repair, without any formal training makes you quite the autodidact. Auto- means "self" and "didact" comes from the Greek word for "teach," so an autodidact is a person who's self-taught. Being the autodidact that you are, instead of calling the plumber you bought some manuals and began to learn the trade yourself. You should learn scuba diving next, now that your apartment is underwater. a person who has taught himself

providential

If your best friend pulls up beside you in her convertible just as your bike gets a flat tire, you could call it providential, or magically lucky. The Latin root of providential is providentia, "foresight or precaution." Providence changed over the years; it usually referred specifically to the care of God, and it was spelled with a capital P. Providential, likewise, has another meaning that's purely religious, "resulting from God's intervention." Whether you're talking about God or not, if something is providential, it feels a little miraculous.

dementia

If your grandfather suffers from dementia, he has a brain disorder that's causing him to gradually lose his memory and become disoriented and confused. Although dementia is most common in elderly people, it's not a normal part of growing older but a syndrome caused by brain disease or injury. Dementia gets its name from the Latin words de, or "without," and mens, or "mind," which join together to mean "madness," although in English, dementia is not the same thing as madness. One example of an illness that causes dementia is Alzheimer's disease.

Lavish

Lavish means generous and extravagant as an adjective and to give generously as a verb. If you don't like it when people lavish you with attention, you might appreciate a lavish spread of excellent food instead. Lavish comes from the Old French lavache meaning "deluge, torrent" referring to rain. When you see it, think of a shower of good things coming down on you as you never use lavish with something bad. Didn't your parents lavish you with praise and love when you were small? With lavish as an adjective, you can rephrase that question like this: Didn't your parents offer you lavish praise and love when you were little?

Leniency

Leniency is a noun that refers to the lessening of a punishment or chore. Your father's leniency, for example, resulted in you not having to paint the entire house like your mother wanted. Instead you just had to paint the garage. Leniency also refers to a person's sense of mercy or tolerance. A governor's leniency could be demonstrated when he pardons the prisoners on death row. Leniency comes from the adjective lenient, which describes someone who is tolerant or permissive. There are times when too much leniency can backfire, however. If your teacher shows leniency to the loud students who won't sit still and refuses to punish them, the rest of your class won't learn much.

Insidious

Neither insidious nor invidious are happy words: insidious describes something that lies in wait to get you, and invidious is something offensive or defamatory. Cancer can be insidious, lurking in your body without your knowing it. Invidious doesn't hide; it's hateful right away. If something is slowly and secretly causing harm, it's insidious — like the rumors no one seems to listen to until suddenly someone's reputation is ruined. Insidious is related to the Latin noun, īnsidiae meaning "ambush" which comes from the Latin verb, īnsidēre "to lie in wait for." This is very fitting as an insidious rumor or problem is one whose negative effect is not realized until the damage is already done. Similarly, an insidious disease develops internally without symptoms, so that you don't realize right away that you are sick.

taciturn

Someone who is taciturn is reserved, not loud and talkative. The word itself refers to the trait of reticence, of seeming aloof and uncommunicative. A taciturn person might be snobby, naturally quiet, or just shy. Having its origin in the Latin tacitus, "silent," taciturn came to be used in mid-18th-century English in the sense "habitually silent." Taciturnity is often considered a negative trait, as it suggests someone uncommunicative and too quiet. Jane Austen wrote, "We are each of an unsocial, taciturn disposition, unwilling to speak, unless we expect to say something that will amaze the whole room, and be handed down to posterity with all the éclat of a proverb."

outrageous

Something outrageous is extreme, over the top, beyond reason. It's hard to believe, and usually not in a good way. If the police came in and stole your TV, that would be outrageous. If you know what outrage means, then you're on your way to understanding outrageous. Outrageous things make people outraged, really angry, or astounded because they're just so ridiculous. If your teacher gave everyone an F for no reason, that would be outrageous. If a friend spilled your secrets to everyone: outrageous. Lady Gaga rolling up to the Grammy's in a giant egg? Totally outrageous, but in a wacky and extravagant kind of way.

peculiar

Something peculiar is notably unusual. If your friend starts saying strange things you don't understand, ask her why she's suddenly become peculiar. Peculiar comes from the Latin peculiaris, meaning one's own, or personal. In English, it originally meant belonging to one person, private, like your fondness for your peculiar hairbrush. It also had the meaning of something unlike others, special, or remarkable. Eventually we mostly stopped using it for belongings, instead using peculiar to mean unusual or odd.

ephemeral

Something that is fleeting or short-lived is ephemeral, like a fly that lives for one day or text messages flitting from cellphone to cellphone. Ephemeral (ə-FEM-ər-əl) was originally a medical term with the specific meaning "lasting only one day," as a fever or sickness (Hemera means "day" in Greek.) The word became more general, coming to mean "lasting a short time," covering the life spans of plants or insects and then eventually anything that is fleeting or transitory. A related word is the plural noun ephemera, meaning "things that are meant to last for only a short time." Posters for a rock concert are often ephemera, unless the band is so famous that they get saved and sold on eBay.

incongruous

Something that's incongruous is inconsistent or incompatible with something else. Remember that Sesame Street song "One of these things is not like the other"? They were talking about that one thing being incongruous. If we break it down into its Latin roots, incongruous is formed by adding in, meaning "not," to congruous, which means "suitable, proper." So, something that is incongruous is "not suitable or proper" — in other words, not in harmony with everything else. That's why burping at the dinner table could be called incongruous behavior: it's not proper and certainly doesn't go well with the main course.

tremulous

Something tremulous is shaky and quivering, usually from fear or lack of strength. If you're nervous at your first big job interview, your hands might be a little tremulous. You've likely heard the unsteady voice of a person close to tears, or seen the trembling legs of a frightened child — both could certainly be described as tremulous. But you can also use this adjective to describe a statement or action that lacks resolution and courage, or even simply something that's shivering from the cold.

Subservient

Subservient means "compliant," "obedient," "submissive," or having the qualities of a servant. Something that's subservient has been made useful, or put into the service of, something else. Our word subservient is unusual because it actually comes from the Latin word of exactly the same spelling and almost the identical meaning — "subjecting to" or "complying with." Usually words change a little in spelling or meaning when they are adopted from another language, but this one did not. Maybe the word subservient seemed so subservient that it could comply with the rules of any language!

Superstitious

Superstitious describes a belief in chance or magic. If you're superstitious, you may avoid walking under ladders, spilling salt, or passing black cats — all because you think they will bring you bad luck. Plenty of people don't think of themselves as superstitious, yet they may do things like knock on wood or refuse to open an umbrella indoors. Or they believe their team will win if they wear their lucky socks. These actions are all superstitious, demonstrating a belief based on magic or luck rather than on reason. The Latin word that superstitious comes from is superstitionem, excessive fear of the gods.

Tepid

Tepid means lukewarm or half-hearted. If the applause for your mime-on-a-unicycle performance was more tepid than enthusiastic, it might be time to find a new hobby. Around 1400, the word tepid evolved from the Latin tepidus, an adjective meaning "lukewarm," which before that came about from the Latin tepere, a verb meaning "to be warm." Tepid people or things are lukewarm or lacking in enthusiasm or emotion. Bathwater that's been sitting in the tub for two hours is probably tepid. So was the hug you gave your least favorite ex when you ran into him at the movie theater.

dissolute

The adjective dissolute means unrestrained. If you're a dissolute person, you indulge in gambling, drugs, and drinking and don't care if others disapprove. If your mother tells you you're dissolute, she's not trying to be kind. Some kinds of unrestrained behavior are good, like if you're unrestrained by fear, and do something very brave. But someone who is dissolute not only goes against the grain of normal behavior, but is wasteful and offensive — over the limit. If you drop out of school, party all the time, and waste your life, you've chosen a dissolute lifestyle.

consanguinity

The noun consanguinity means "relation by blood," so if you want to dazzle your brother, point out that consanguinity isn't the only reason you hang out with him — he's also a great guy! Consanguinity comes from the Latin com- "together" and sanguineus "of blood," which itself can be traced back even farther, to the early 14th century when the Old French word sanguin (fem. sanguine) meant "a type of red cloth." So blood gets its name from the vivid red color it matches, and consanguinity describes the people who, as family members, share the same blood.

probity

Though probity sounds like what you might do with a sharp stick, it actually means being morally and ethically above reproach, having integrity. If you show fiscal probity, it means you are responsible and ethical with your money. The story of George Washington chopping down the cherry tree and refusing to lie about it is a story of probity. The story was first told by a pastor, who may have made the whole thing up according to today's scholars, possibly to sell books -- no act of probity.

preposterous

To a vegetarian, the idea of eating a 52-ounce T-bone steak would seem preposterous — absolutely absurd. When the word preposterous was first used, it meant reversing the normal order of things — putting what was last first, and vice versa. Imagine putting on your underwear over your pants and you'll see that there's a kind of absurdity in something that's backwards, which is why preposterous came to mean "ridiculous." The word is often used as part of an exclamation: a chef who is asked to cook with nothing but jelly beans might exclaim, "That's preposterous!"

avail

To avail means to take advantage of an opportunity, the way you'd be crazy not to avail yourself of a chocolate milkshake on Free Milkshake Day at your local ice cream parlor. Sometimes avail is used to mean "help," and in that case it can be used in a sentence like "Nothing seemed to avail me, not even winning the lottery." More often though, avail shows up in the company of "oneself of," as in the sentence, "I hope you avail yourself of my advice, because I'm very wise." It might seem like a complicated way to use a verb, but it's one you should avail yourself of if you're hoping to impress someone.

addled

To be addled is to be fuzzy in the head, a little foggy and confused. When you're addled, you're having trouble thinking. If your favorite movie star walks by and says hello, you might be too addled to say hi back. Sometimes it's hard to think and you feel slow and befuddled. When your brain feels like it's stuck in some mental mud, you're addled. People are addled for many reasons. When you first wake up, you probably feel addled. Drinking too much makes people feel addled. A confusing situation can make you feel addled. Being in love, star struck, drunk, sleepy, or sick can make you feel addled. Avoid big decisions and important tests when you're addled!

boycott

To boycott means to stop buying or using the goods or services of a certain company or country as a protest; the noun boycott is the protest itself. This noun comes from the name of Charles C. Boycott, an English land agent in 19th century Ireland who refused to reduce rents for his tenant farmers. As a result, the local residents did not want to have any dealings with him. Boycotts are an effective way to use your spending dollars to affect change.

cajole

To cajole someone is to persuade them by using insincere compliments or promises. If you say "Please, pretty-please, I'll be your best friend," when asking for a stick of gum, you are cajoling the gum holder. The origin of this word is probably a blend of two French words meaning "to chatter like a jaybird" and "to lure into a cage." When you cajole that guy into lending you some money, picture him as the bird going into the cage. In fact, the word cajole may be associated with another French word meaning "to put in jail."

deprecate

To deprecate is to show disapproval or to make someone feel unimportant by speaking to them disrespectfully, like seniors who deprecate younger students just for fun. To deprecate is to diminish, or to oppose, like when someone deprecates your dream of climbing Mt. Everest by calling it "a little walk up a hill." Some people deprecate themselves, which is called being self-deprecating. People who do are self-deprecating play down their abilities because they are humble — or want to appear that way. So if you do climb Everest and you are self-deprecating, you'll say it wasn't such a big deal, even if it was the proudest moment of your life.

exalt

To exalt, means to glorify or elevate something, but to exult is to rejoice. Exalt your favorite pro-wrestler, Jesus, or your status in the world. Exult when you get the last two tickets to see your favorite band. You might like your manager, but if you exalt her, it means you really put her on a pedestal and treat her like royalty. To exalt is to hold or raise someone up to a high position or status. It doesn't have to mean literally putting that person into a high position, but instead treating them almost like nobility. Overly doting parents exalt their infant to the point where they praise him every time he wets his diaper and call the neighbors over every time he coos.

posit

To posit something is to assume or suggest that it is true. You can posit an idea or opinion. When you posit, you submit an idea or give an opinion. Scientists posit many ideas — called hypotheses — that they then try to prove or disprove through experimentation and research. In science, you hear about positing a lot, and the same is true in math and logic. When you say "If X, then Y" you're positing a proposition. Positing can also mean to put something somewhere firmly — this means to deposit, fix, or situate.

repulse

To repulse something is to repel it or drive it back. When you repulse your sister, you disgust her. When you repulse the enemy in battle or someone in conversation, you force them back or make them turn away. Repulse is related to the word repel, and they mean similar things: to repulse an advance — romantic or warring — is to repel, or fend off, its advance. To repulse someone by being disgusting is to be repellent. You could repulse a person's attempts at conversation if you repulse him by picking your nose. Repulse is now most frequently used in the gross-out sense, but Jane Austin often had her characters repulse each others' attempts at conversation or civility.

swindle

To swindle is to cheat or steal. You can swindle money, goods, ideas, and anything else that can be stolen, but be careful, because someone can also swindle you. In the late 1700s, the verb swindle formed from swindler, which means "giddy person, cheat." Swindle can be a noun or a verb. When you get something by less than honest means, that's a swindle. A successful act of swindle often involves some scheme or rigging of the system. Hollywood loves a good swindle — think of all the movies that show a bank robbery or people lying about who they are. Another funny word for swindle is bamboozle.

vanquish

To vanquish is to be the complete and total winner, to overpower and overcome, whether in a contest, a race, or a war. It generally suggests a total trouncing, to the point of humiliation — or worse — for the loser. Sometimes words for the same thing are effective in different ways because they offer different levels of meaning. For example, in a game, you can simply win, or you can vanquish your opponent. The former is enough, but the latter makes that defeat sound so much worse, like a total rout. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once stated, "Against war it may be said that it makes the victor stupid and the vanquished revengeful."

equivocal

Try to remember that uncertain means equivocal and certain means unequivocal. That's a tricky movement the un- is making, and a lot of people get stumped. From the Latin aequus 'equal, the same' + vocare "to call," equivocal describes when something is too close to call. Whose hand first touched the last brownie on the plate? We asked everyone but the answers were equivocal.

Turbid

Turbid can refer to something thick with suspended matter, while turgid means swollen or bombastic. If a liquid is dark and murky and you can't see through it, it's turbid. It's usually used as a criticism — a turbid river is generally a polluted one, but then again a good pint of real ale should be turbid. Go figure. Turbid comes from the Latin word turbidus, which means "muddy, full of confusion." Although it's usually used to describe liquid, like that turgid creek your rain boot disappeared in, it can also be used to describe writing that's unclear. If your teacher says your essay for English is turbid, it's time to go back to work! Outlines and thesis statements can help clear up turbid prose.

Turgid

Turgid describes something that's swollen, typically by fluids, like a turgid water balloon that's way too big to resist dropping on your friend's head. Turgid comes from the Latin word turgidus, meaning "swollen, inflated." Turgid can be used in a figurative sense to describe things that are overblown. That might remind you of some people's egos! If a famous singer wants to showcase his incredible vocal range and his love of yodeling in a single song, the result may well be turgid, something so swollen with notes and styles that it seems ready to burst.

castigate

Use castigate when you mean reprimand but in an especially harsh way. If you take a mean teacher's books, even accidentally, you might worry that she's going to castigate you as soon as she finds out. Castigate means punish, and punish harshly, but the punishment is always a severe scolding. Sometimes it means criticize severely. Politicians in the Senate are always castigating each other for their alliances and opinions. Castigate and chasten, which also means "to reprimand" but is less severe, share the Latin root castus which means "pure." Ideally, if you castigate someone, you mean to guide someone away from the wrong path and toward a more pure one. But it sure doesn't feel like that when you're being castigated!

prodigal

Use the adjective prodigal to describe someone who spends too much money, or something very wasteful. Your prodigal spending on fancy coffee drinks might leave you with no money to buy lunch. Prodigal usually applies to the spending of money. In the Bible, the Prodigal Son leaves home and wastes all his money. You could also use this word to describe something that is very abundant or generous in quantity, such as prodigal praise. Prodigal comes from the Latin word prodigere, "to drive away or waste," combining the prefix prod-, or "forth" and agere, "to drive."

guile

Use the noun guile for cunning, craftiness, and artful duplicity. Acting like you have a job on Wall Street when you're actually unemployed would take a lot of guile. The noun guile has quite negative connotations, as it refers to the kind of knowledge and skill that can be used by comic book villains for evil and not good! People who have guile are also thought of as being wily (which is also a related word), sneaky, and deceitful. Those who are free of guile are pure and upstanding, and Henry David Thoreau affirms those feelings when he wrote: "It is the work of a brave man surely, in whom there was no guile!"

recidivist

Use the noun recidivist to describe someone who can't stop committing crimes — for example, a repeat shoplifter is a recidivist If you've got serious backsliding tendencies, this could be your next step: recidivist is tech-talk for "repeat offender." A recidivist is basically someone who can't help lapsing into previous bad behavior patterns, usually of the criminal kind. An inmate who is released from prison and immediately steals a car can be described as a recidivist.

catharsis

Use the noun, catharsis, to refer to the experience a person can have of releasing emotional tension and feeling refreshed afterwards. Conceived by Aristotle as the cleansing effect of emotional release that tragic drama has on its audience, catharsis stems from a Greek verb meaning "to purify, purge." Today, it can be used to describe any emotional release, including a good long laugh or cry that is followed by a sense of balance and freshness afterwards.

repel

Use the verb repel when you want to turn something away, like drenched yourself in bug spray in an attempt to repel the mosquitoes that plague you when you go camping. This versatile word can be used in relation to everything from bugs to unwanted romantic advances. The word repel can be used to describe the act of driving something away, as in the case of bugs or other pesky critters, including potential suitors. It can also be used to describe something that causes disgust or distaste. For example, the thought of eating snails might repel you.

fandom

Use the word fandom to talk about the community of people who admire a particular celebrity, hero, sports team, or TV show. If you are president of the Boston Red Sox fan club, you're part of the team's fandom. Your favorite boy band might have a fandom that consists mainly of screaming pre-teens, while National Public Radio's fandom is probably mostly middle aged. If you are a fan of a singer or a series of comic books, you can say you belong to their fandom. The word has been around since the very early twentieth century, from fan, a baseball slang abbreviation of fanatic, which comes from the Latin fanaticus, "mad, or inspired by a god."

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presumptuous

When someone takes liberties, doing things too boldly, you can describe them with the adjective presumptuous. Presumptuous comes from the Latin verb praesumere which means to take for granted. It means taking for granted your access to someone or power to do something. It's a very satisfying word and effective word because it belittles someone at the same time as criticizing him. In Shakespeare's "Henry VI," Northumberland calls Warwick "presumptuous and proud" for trying to get rid of the king. It's usually pronounced with all four syllables, pre-ZUMP-choo-us, although pre-ZUMP-chus is acceptable as well.

deify

When you deify someone, you're paying the highest compliment: you're treating them like a god. Maybe it's because people like to exaggerate, but we deify all the time. We deify the latest sports stars, singers, and actors. When politicians are popular, we deify them. Great writers and artists of the past — like Shakespeare and Picasso — are deified. Anytime we make someone seem so great, so powerful, so wonderful, and so amazing that it can't possibly be true, we're deifying them. It's something we just can't help doing when we respect or love someone a lot.

akimbo

When you put your hands on your hips and your elbows are sticking out, your arms are akimbo, like when you stand in the bathroom, arms akimbo while yelling, "Who left the toilet seat up?" The adjective akimbo, pronounced "uh-KIM-bo," comes from the Middle English phrase in kenebowe, which meant "at a sharp angle" — a good description for how your arms look when, elbows bent, you have your hands on your hips. Legs can also be akimbo, like when you do a cartwheel or fall down while skiing, your arms and legs sprawling in positions that can best be described as akimbo.

ruminate

When you ruminate, it means you are thinking very deeply about something. You're likely to be so lost in thought that you stare off into space and don't hear people when they call your name. Another meaning of ruminate is to "chew the cud," which can mean "to turn it over and over in your mind." Or, if you're a cow, to turn food over and over in your stomachs in order to digest it. Whether you're a human or a cow, if you ruminate, it will take a LONG time.

dumbfounded

When you're dumbfounded, you're amazed. Being dumbfounded is an extreme form of being surprised or caught off guard. Being dumbfounded is not something that happens every day: this is a word that means something similar to astonished and gobsmacked. Only things that are extraordinary can dumbfound you. This word plays on an older meaning of dumb that means unable to speak. When you're dumbfounded, you're so astounded and shocked that you can't even speak. Save this word for occasions that are truly unusual and amazing.

prologue

With the lines, "Two households, both alike in dignity," Shakespeare begins the prologue to Romeo and Juliet, setting up the idea of two families who hate each other before introducing the lovers in the opening scene. Like its buddy epilogue, which tells you what happens after the end of a story, a prologue is concerned with setup of a story. "As a prologue to what happened in the gym, I'll tell you about the food fight in the cafeteria earlier that day."

maudlin

You can use maudlin to describe something that brings tears to your eyes, or makes you feel very emotional. Tearjerkers like "Forrest Gump" and "Titanic" can be described as maudlin. Maudlin was a form of the name Mary Magdalene, a character from the Bible represented in paintings as a weeping sinner asking forgiveness from Jesus. Maudlin is often paired with sentimental, or even schlocky, to describe cry-fests, as in "I can't watch another second of that overly-sentimental, maudlin soap opera. Turn that schlock off."

cumbersome

You have to wrestle a bit with the longish word cumbersome; it's cumbersome, or kind of long and clumsy, to tumble out in a sentence. It's hard to use it gracefully. A "cumber" is something that slows you down, and though the words aren't related, "lumber" includes big pieces of heavy wood, which might slow down the person carrying them. Moving lumber is cumbersome, because it's a heavy and awkward job. Getting your laundry down the stairs or putting a Rottweiler in the bathtub can be cumbersome too.

askance

You may have trouble looking directly at the human specimens onstage at the freak show, but you also won't be able to look away. Find a happy medium by looking askance, or subtly out of the corner of your eye. First used in the 1500's, no one is quite sure where the cockeyed, slanting adverb askance came from. Some people suspect that it evolved from the Latin a scancio, meaning "obliquely, slantingly," while others argue that it's just a variant of the word askew. How fitting for a word that describes a suspicious or distrusting manner of looking that we can't trace its etymology with any surety.

forebear

Your father, grandmother, and great grandfather are all your forebears. A forebear is an ancestor, or someone you are descended from. You might have thought that forebear means to stop yourself from doing something. The word you are thinking of is forbear. Confused? The "e" makes all of the difference here. Whereas the first is a noun, the second is a verb. Just remember that if you see fore like in before, it's the people who came before you.