General Vocabulary 20 Flashcards
Belaboured (v)
To attack physically or verbally
OR
To argue or discuss a point at great length.
There is no need to belabour the point.
Syllogism (n)
A form of reasoning in which a conclusion is formed from 2 assumed propositions.
E.g. A dog is an animal and all animals have four legs. Hence a dog has four legs.
Logical reasoning and syllogism are two facets of epistemology.
Sovereignties (n)
Supreme power and authority.
Castes form a graded system of sovereignties, high and low amongst the Hindus.
Latitudinarianism (n)
Allowing latitude especially in matters of religion.
Toleration and catholicity may be really nothing more credible than indifference or flaccid latitudinarianism.
Copacetic (adj)
Satisfactory, fine.
Despite the roughy start in the end everything was copacetic.
Précis (n)
A short summary of the facts.
And this was a mere précis of the acts of political violence.
Simpered (v)
Smile is a coy or ingratiating manner.
The usually fierce interviewers simpered in his presence.
Mongrel (n)
A mix breed dog.
Carapace (n)
The hard upper shell of a turtle.
A sense that without the carapace of imperial authority, things being to fall apart.
Imperium (n)
Supreme executive power.
Before the British rule no single imperium had ever ruled the entire subcontinent.
Miniaturist (n)
An illuminater of manuscripts or a painter of miniatures.
The hopes of Gandhian miniaturist were dashed by independence.
Paramountcy (n)
Supreme power or authority.
The political authority of many territorial kingdoms was no ore a matter of paramount yet than sovereignty
Yeoman (n)
A person who owns and cultivated a piece of land.
A feudal society with a natural ordering of lords, chiefs and yeoman.
Saracen (adj)
An Arab or Muslim at the time of the Crusades.
Indo Saracenic architecture was prevalent architectural style during the British rule in India.
Gnomic (adj)
Expressed in the nature of short pithy aphorisms.
Gandhi in characteristic gnomic fashion called for the dissolution of the Congress.
Praetorian (adj)
The rank or power of a praetor in Ancient Rome.
The authority of the new state to command its territory and govern its people could no longer rest on the praetorian habits of the Raj.
Emblematic (adj)
Serving as a symbol of a particular quality or concept.
They waged an emblematic struggle between the rival conceptions of free India.
Derisorily (adv)
Mocking or expressing contempt.
The constitution embodied what looked like a derisorily ambitious political design.
Quintet (n)
A group of 5 people playing or singing together.
The ageing quintet met for the last time for a memorial concert.
Acronymese (n)
An collection of acronyms.
The PMO as it got known in Indian political acronymese.
Solipsistic (adj)
Very self centered or selfish.
The PMO had become a solipsistic lair of flattery and rumour.
Unremitting (adj)
Never relaxing or slackening.
It drifted unremittingly towards a threshold.
Hectoring (v)
Bullying.
The commision became an obstacle under its hectoring chief.
Metonym (n)
A figure of speech
Reference to the “crown” to represent a monarch or the “White House” to refer to the executive branch of the United States government.
Grandees (n)
A Spanish or Portuguese nobleman.
It assigned ownership to local grandees in return for rents paid to the ‘Company’.
Collectivism (n)
The practice or principle of giving a group priority over and one individual.
There was no ideological conviction to be derived from the practice of collectivism.
Pinioned (v)
Hold down or be restrained.
All were pinioned by Lutyens’s axial layout and turned into follies on the imperial estate.
Confutation (v)
Prove to be wrong.
His decision to live in ashrams continued the confutation of colonial priorities.
Svelte (adj)
Slender and elegant.
At the upper end of the social scale, a pan-Indian urban élite is able to glide sveltly through any hotel lobby in the land.
Bowdlerised (v)
To remove parts of a text considered offensive thereby weakening its intent.
Every edition of his letters and writings had been bowdlerised.
Rawly (adv)
Raw, crude or unfinished.
This is the India of ZEE TV and cable television, more rawly and frankly consumerist than the nationalized Doordarshan.
Parvenus (n)
[Pa Venu]
An upstart, a newcomer to a high socio-economic class.
To the bureaucrats and businessmen, the new professional class were galling parvenus.
Culling (v)
Selective slaughter or reduction of wild animals.
Factory farms have long been accused of culling.
Contingency (n)
A future event or circumstance that is possible cannot be predicted with complete certainty.
Exculpatory (adj)
Evidence favourable to the defendant that show the defendant to be not guilty.
Exculpatory evidence led to his aquital.
Interstice (n)
An intervening space especially a very small one.
Averment (n)
An affirmation or allegation.
The averment made by the plaintiff has been denied by the defendant.
Eschatology (n)
The part of philosophy concerned with death, judgement and the final destiny of the soul.
Obiter Dicta (n)
Obiter dicta (often simply dicta, or obiter) are remarks or observations made by a judge that, although included in the body of the court’s opinion, do not form a necessary part of the court’s decision.
Hortatory (adj)
Tending or aiming to exhort.
A series of hortatory epistles.
