False Roots Flashcards
This deck sets aside a list of words where rooting really shouldn't be used in the selection process. They represent the "trap" words in SAT vocabulary. Study these words carefully and remember that rooting them can lead to wrong conclusions for most of them.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
glacial
Meaning: slow-moving
It’s the way glaciers move.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
fundamentalist
Meaning: someone who bases beliefs on strict interpretation of core texts
Not related so closely to money or funds.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
denigrate
Meaning: to lower a reputation.
It is related to the Latin root for black, but the connection is an offensive one today.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
lapidary
Meaning: gem cutting
Has nothing to do with lap, or lapping.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
impale
Meaning: to stick a stick through
Has nothing to do with being pale, though you’d probably turn pale if you were properly impaled.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
lacrimous
Meaning: sad, doleful, like a funeral sad
There is no crime here.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
mimicry
Meaning: to mock; to act or talk like someone in a ridiculing way
No one is crying, unless they are mimicked unmercifully.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
mnemonic
Meaning: aiding in memory
Has nothing to do with nemesis.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
repast
Meaning: meal
Has nothing to do with again, passing, or the past.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
fastidious
Meaning: really picky, having unattainable standards
Has nothing to do with either speed or not eating.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
compromise
Positive AND negative meaning:
- compromise is positive in that it solves difficulties, shows respect
- compromise is negative referring to principles, showing a lack of conviction
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
restive
Meaning: unable to keep still
The opposite of rest.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
fatuous
Meaning: silly
Not fat.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
latent
Meaning: hidden within, capable or surfacing
Not related to being late.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
quandary
Meaning: in a state of confusion
Not related to when.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
rail
Meaning: to complain bitterly
You’d think you know this word, and eliminate it, and THEN, you’d be wrong.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
eclectic
Meaning: deriving ideas, style or taste from a variety of sources
Not related to lecture or electric.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
taciturn
Meaning: reserved in speech, unwilling to speak too much
There is no turn here, neither left nor right.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
abet
Meaning: giving shelter or help
Wanna bet it has nothing to do with a wager.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
callous
Meaning: unfeeling, hard-hearted
It doesn’t mean “call us.”
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
debunk
Meaning: prove something to be nonsense
Doesn’t mean dumping someone out of their bed at camp.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
decorous
Meaning: socially proper
Not really too closely related to decoration.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
fallacious
Meaning: incorrect, misleading
Not so much “fall”, but “FAIL”.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
maxim
Meaning: words to live by
Not related to maximum or scantily clad celebrities.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
carp
SAT Meaning: to annoy, pester
It’s a fish, but a badger, a nag, a termagent, and a shrew are all just animals. They all have meanings related to being a royal pain.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
expound
Meaning: explain systematically and in great detail
The word is related to “ponder” which means “to weigh, to wonder at, to consider deeply, to mull over”, but it is really probably better not to root this one.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
recalcitrant
Meaning: defiant, unapologetic
Neither “calcium” nor “calculate” leads you to the right meaning here.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
tenable
Meaning: able to be defended or maintained
Doesn’t mean “able to be ten”.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
redoubtable
Meaning: respected as a serious challenge, formidable, commanding respect
Doesn’t not mean “able to doubt again” or “able to be doubted again”.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
winsome
Meaning: charming, pleasing
Doesn’t mean “some that you win”.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
adumbrate
Meaning: to explain in a sketchy way
“Umbrella” doesn’t really help. There’s no dumb here.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
clairvoyant
Meaning: clearsighted, insightful to the point it seems supernatural
“Voyage” is not in this word.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
clamor
Meaning: loud noise from generally various sources
Sinces clams never contribute to any clamor, the word is not related to the tasty mollusk.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
clandestine
Meaning: secret, covert
Has nothing to do with the destiny of the clan.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
cleave
Meaning both: to chop apart, separate AND to stick to (something)
Not really a false root, but watch out because a child cleaves to his mother and your tongue can cleave to the roof of your mouth.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
empirical
Meaning: based upon observations or experience, capable of being proved or disproven
This word is used in science related to data and is not related to the empire.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
noisome
Meaning: offensive, unpleasant, usually to the sense of smell
More like “annoying” than “noisy”.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
ambiguous
Meaning: unclear
Not having to do with bigness though.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
entail
Meaning: comes with, included as a necessary step
Maybe as the tail comes with the dog.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
espouse
Meaning: to take up as a cause
Not really so close to the “husband” or “wife”.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
stagnate
Meaning: to cease motion, progress, or change
Not a deer named Nate.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
arboreal
Meaning: related to trees
Although trees can be boring.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
arcane
Meaning: obscure, known to a select few, secret
Doesn’t have anything to do with a cane.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
mores
Meaning: moral attitudes and fixed customs of people
Not related to having more.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
buffet
Meaning: a smack or punch, a blow
Of course it also means a spread of food where you serve yourself. You wouldn’t want a buffet of buffets, because that would be a savage beatdown.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
atrophy
Meaning: loss of strength or size due to lack of use
Not really related to a trophy.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
curtail
Meaning: to lessen or reduce
A “cur” is an old word for dog, but this doesn’t mean doggy tail.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
dogmatic
Meaning: asserting a position based on faith, not fact
Again, no dog here.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
ribaldry
Meaning: humor based in rude or vulgar subject matter
Has little to do with bald dudes, although they might dig ribald humor.
Describe the following “trap” word that can easily be falsely rooted:
surfeit
Meaning: overabundant in supply, indulgent
No one is surfing here, although there could be a surfeit of wonderwaves.
