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Word Power > memo 1 > Flashcards

memo 1 Flashcards

1
Q

origin of maize

A

Taino

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2
Q

origin of yoghurt

A

Turkish

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3
Q

origin of slogan

A

Gaelic

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4
Q

origin of dollar

A

German

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5
Q

origin of chutzpah

A

Arabic

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6
Q

origin of hysteria

A

Greek- womb

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7
Q

origin of khaki

A

Persian

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8
Q

origin of martyr

A

Greek

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9
Q

origin of taboo

A

Tongan

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10
Q

origin of safari

A

Arabic

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11
Q

babysitter

A

compound

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12
Q

mainframe

A

compound

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13
Q

app

A

clipping

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14
Q

skyskraper

A

compound

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15
Q

syphilis

A

eponym

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16
Q

laser

A

acronym

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17
Q

rugby

A

toponym

18
Q

blog

A

clipping (weblog)

19
Q

advertorial

A

blend

20
Q

SARS

A

acronym

21
Q

Placebo

A

meaning ‘to please’

22
Q

veto

A

‘i forbid’

any ban or prohibition

23
Q

caveat

A

‘let the person be aware’

a warning of conditions

24
Q

affidavit

A

‘he has stated on oath’

25
Q

deficit

A

‘it is lacking’

26
Q

Fascist

A
  • an authoritarian and nationalistic right wing system of government
27
Q

Dismal

A
  • depressing

- unlucky days by Egyptian astrologers

28
Q

Pariah

A
  • an outcast
  • only allowed to be drummers in religious festivals
  • Tamil
29
Q

Kangaroo

A

first recorded by James Cook and Joseph Banks
legend has it that the scout replied “gangurru” which supposedly meant “I don’t understand” in English. This has been refuted and it is considered that gangurru is an aboriginal word for a kangaroo.

30
Q

Levi’s

A
  • riveted jean brand
  • Levi Strauss went to Californian Gold Rush to sell good. miners trousers tore so he made thick ones from canvas so he used denim. Back in New York he added metal rivets at points of strain
31
Q

Heroin

A

used to be sold as a non-addictive pain-killer to replace morhpine and codeine for TB treatment

32
Q

Robot

A

machine capable of carrying out complex processes

from Czach robota coined in a play

33
Q

chauvinist

A

a person displaying excessive or prejudiced support for own country, cause, etc
- eponym- Nicolas Chauvin who was a veteran of the Napoleonic wars. He was ridiculed for his extreme devotion to Emperor Napoleon, and in 1831 he was ridiculed as the character in a play by Cogniard called “La Cocarde Tricolore

34
Q

Boycott

A
  • This was taken from the name of Captain Charles C. Boycott, an Irish land agent acting for the absent landowner, the Earl of Erne. When the Irish politician, Charles Parnell, instituted land reform and advocated that landlords lower their rents, Boycott refused. As a result, Parnell’s supporters and Boycott’s tenants refused to have anything to do with Boycott and his family – they were isolated without servants, farmhands, service in stores, or mail delivery. Boycott’s name was quickly adopted as the term for this kind of treatment.
35
Q

Gerrymander

A
  • eponym
  • to arrange political divisions that gives one political party unfair advantage
  • Governor Elbridge Gerry, Governor of Massachusetts, subdivided his home territory of Essex County, in the northeast corner of Massachusetts, into bizarrely shaped senatorial districts so as to give the his party a majority in the state senate. The shape of the re-districted area resembled a salamander, a lizard-like creature with four short legs and a long tail.
36
Q

Bowdlerize

A 
to expurgate (edit severely) a written work by removing or modifying passages considered vulgar or offensive.
In 1836, Dr Thomas Bowdler published a notoriously expurgated Shakespeare as he felt that he could not read the text aloud to his children. The result was a weaker and less effective text.
37
Q

Balaclava

A
  • toponym

- Crimean War

38
Q

Alsatian

A

-German dog
The Alsatian dog was primarily bred in Germany, in the area of Alsace, as a shepherding dog, but because of its strength, intelligence and trainability it is often used as a working dog for search and rescue, personal protection, drug detection and is used by the police and military.

39
Q

Pasteurize

A

to make milk safe by destroying micro-organisms in it by heating
The French chemist, Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), discovered a method for stopping excessive fermentation and reducing disease in such liquids as wine, beer, and milk by heating them. This revolutionized the French wine and beer industries but went on to save the lives of thousands of milk drinkers as well.

40
Q

Sadist

A
  • deriving pleasure from cruelty
  • The Marquis de Sade (Donatien Alphonse Francois) was an infamous sexual pervert who was found guilty of all sorts of sexual crimes and spent more than 27 years in prisons and insane asylums. To overcome boredom in prison, he started to write graphic sexual novels and plays, displaying a preoccupation with sexual violence.

Word Power (15 decks)

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