Day 21 Flashcards
patronizing
Condescending, having a superior manner,
treating as an inferior
… without being patronizing, she helps her Maasai friends with everything from land disputes to school problems.
peccadillo
Small sin or fault
The movie star’s peccadilloes made tabloid headlines.
pedant
Person who pays excessive attention to book
learning and rules, or who uses his or her
learning to show off
All too often, science fiction provokes the pedant in professional scientists, for whom a beautiful story can be ruined by a single petty error.
peddle
Travel around while selling; sell illegally; give
out or disseminate
peddling without a license
pedestrian
Ordinary, dull, commonplace
pejorative
Disparaging, derogatory, belittling (adj); a
name or word that is disparaging (noun)
penitent
Regretful, feeling remorse for one’s sins or
misdeeds (adj); a person who feels this way
(noun)
a penitent gossip who had come to ask for forgiveness
penumbra
Outer part of a shadow from an eclipse; any
surrounding region, fringe, periphery; any
area where something “sort of” exists
the seventeenth century lay in the penumbra of the middle ages
per se
Intrinsically; by itself; in itself
peregrinate
Travel from place to place, esp. on foot
Jack Kerouac’s celebrated novel about penniless free spirits peregrinating the United States.
peripatetic
Journeying from place to place; traveling on
foot
She worked as a peripatetic journalist for most of her life.
pernicious
Very harmful or destructive, deadly
phalanx
Formation of soldiers carrying shields close
together for defense; any very close group of
people
A solid phalanx of armed guards stood in front of the castle.
philanthropy
Efforts to improve the well-being of
humankind, generally through giving
money
philistine
Person deficient in or hostile to culture
a philistine attitude toward opera
