Misc. 2

Question 1

lassitude

Answer 1

1. weariness of body or mind from strain, oppressive climate, etc.; lack of energy; listlessness; languor.
2. a condition of indolent indifference: the pleasant lassitude of the warm summer afternoon.

Question 2

frangible

Answer 2

easily broken; breakable

Question 3

crepuscular

Answer 3

1. of, relating to, or resembling twilight; dim; indistinct.
2. Zoology. appearing or active in the twilight, as certain bats and insects.
   Quotes
   The whisper of his conviction seemed to open before me a vast and uncertain expanse, as of a crepuscular horizon on a plain at dawn—or was it, perchance, at the coming of the night?
   – Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim, 1900
   Origin
   Crepuscular is related to the Latin term creper meaning “obscure; dark.” It entered English in the mid-1600s.

Question 4

recondite

Answer 4

1. dealing with very profound, difficult, or abstruse subject matter: a recondite treatise.
2. beyond ordinary knowledge or understanding; esoteric: recondite principles.

Question 5

desultory

Answer 5

1. digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.
2. lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.

Question 6

ferhoodle

Answer 6

verb
1. Chiefly Pennsylvania German Area. to confuse or mix up: Don’t ferhoodle the things in that drawer.
Quotes
Honestly, what I’m learning ferhoodles me at times, trying to understand how these English think.
– Beverly Lewis, The Brethren, 2006
Origin
Ferhoodle comes from the Pennsylvania German term verhuddle meaning “to tangle” and is related to the German word verhudeln meaning “to bungle, botch.”

Question 7

ignis fatuus

Answer 7

1. something deluding or misleading.
2. Also called friar’s lantern, will-o’-the-wisp. a flitting phosphorescent light seen at night, chiefly over marshy ground, and believed to be due to spontaneous combustion of gas from decomposed organic matter.
   Quotes
   We fear that it has deceived many an unwary youth, and seduced him from the more useful occupations of life, where his humble talents might have been serviceably employed, to the hopeless pursuit of an ignis fatuus, which constantly eludes his grasp, and will finally conduct him to indigence and despair.
   – M. A. Shee, “Elements of Art,” The Quarterly Review, 1810
   Origin
   Ignis fatuus comes from the Medieval Latin word of the same spelling that literally means “foolish fire.”

Question 8

scuttlebutt

Answer 8

1. Informal. rumor or gossip.

2. Nautical. a. an open cask of drinking water. b. a drinking fountain for use by the crew of a vessel.

Question 9

kakistocracy

Answer 9

government by the worst persons; a form of government in which the worst persons are in power.

Question 10

obstreperous

Answer 10

1. resisting control or restraint in a difficult manner; unruly.
2. noisy, clamorous, or boisterous: obstreperous children.

Question 11

bromide

Answer 11

a platitude or trite saying.

Question 12

jejune

Answer 12

1. without interest or significance; dull; insipid: a jejune novel.
2. juvenile; immature; childish: jejune behavior.

Question 13

parvenu

Answer 13

noun
1. a person who has recently or suddenly acquired wealth, importance, position, or the like, but has not yet developed the conventionally appropriate manners, dress, surroundings, etc.

adjective

1. being or resembling a parvenu.
2. characteristic of a parvenu.

Question 14

alexithymia

Answer 14

Psychiatry. difficulty in experiencing, expressing, and describing emotional responses.

Question 15

flummox

Answer 15

Informal. to bewilder; confound; confuse.

Question 16

amphigory

Answer 16

a meaningless or nonsensical piece of writing, especially one intended as a parody.
Quotes
For all this, Schott’s Original Miscellany is strangely unputdownable. It is the mother of all miscellanies, aka an amphigory, a medley, a pot-pourri, a gallimaufry, a salmagundi, an omnium-gatherum, a vade mecum, a smorgasbord… Oh boy, but Schott is a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles, a mad magpie at large in the wide world of facts and words.
– Robert McCrum, “God bless you, Mr Schott,” The Guardian, December 7, 2002

Question 17

peripeteia

Answer 17

a sudden turn of events or an unexpected reversal, especially in a literary work.

Question 18

espial

Answer 18

noun
1. the act of spying.
2. the act of keeping watch; observation.
Quotes
The landlord of the house had not withdrawn his eye from this place of espial for five minutes, and Barney had only just returned from making the communication above related, when Fagin, in the course of his evening’s business, came into the bar to inquire after some of his young pupils.
– Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, 1838
Origin
Espial is related to the word espy, which comes from the German word spähen meaning “to spy.” The suffix -al forms nouns from verbs, as in the word refusal.

Question 19

anomia

Answer 19

Medicine/Medical. the inability to name objects or to recognize the written or spoken names of objects.

Question 20

wayworn

Answer 20

worn or wearied by travel

Question 21

minimax

Answer 21

noun
1. a strategy of game theory employed to minimize a player’s maximum possible loss.
Quotes
This is the principle of minimax: assume that the worst may happen and act accordingly; remember that lightning always strikes twice in the same place. This is a basic law known to all successful gamblers.
– William S. Burroughs, The Adding Machine: Selected Essays, 1993

Question 22

galumph

Answer 22

verb
1. to move along heavily and clumsily.
Quotes
It is at this point that one begins to feel embarrassed while other passengers galumph by with their luggage.
– Stephanie Rosenbloom, “Flying Deluxe Domestic Coast-to-Coast for Around $1,000,” New York Times, January 23, 2015
Origin
Galumph is a 19th century invention from the mind of Lewis Carroll, and is perhaps a blend of gallop and triumphant.

Question 23

donnybrook

Answer 23

noun
1. (often initial capital letter) an inordinately wild fight or contentious dispute; brawl; free-for-all
Quotes
The crime reporter told the story in a high-pitched nasal voice that was nearly as grating as the sound of the donnybrook the Dunphys’ were having downstairs.
– Scott Phillips, The Adjustment, 2011
Origin
Donnybrook came to English in the mid-1800s and references the types of brawls commonly seen at the Donnybrook Fair, held in the Donnybrook district of Dublin, Ireland.

Question 24

timocracy

Answer 24

noun
1. a form of government in which love of honor is the dominant motive of the rulers.
2. a form of government in which a certain amount of property is requisite as a qualification for office.
Quotes
The individual who answers to timocracy has some noticeable qualities. He is described as ill-educated, but, like the Spartan, a lover of literature…
– Plato, The Republic, translated by Benjamin Jowett, 1856
Origin
Timocracy entered English in the late 1500s, and finds its roots in the Greek tīmo- meaning “honor, worth,” and -kratia meaning “rule, government.” In Greek, Plato and Aristotle used the “love and honor” and “property” senses of this term, respectively.

Question 25

shibboleth

Answer 25

\SHIB-uh-lith, -leth\
noun
1. a peculiarity of pronunciation, behavior, mode of dress, etc., that distinguishes a particular class or set of persons.
2. a slogan; catchword.
Quotes
The latter air is indeed the shibboleth and diploma piece of the penny whistler; I hazard a guess it was originally composed for this instrument.
– Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne, The Wrong Box, 1889
Origin
Shibboleth entered English from the Hebrew and was a word used by the Gileadites as a test to detect the fleeing Ephraimites, who could not pronounce the sh sound.

Question 26

argy-bargy

Answer 26

noun
1. Chiefly British. a vigorous discussion or dispute.
Quotes
The current argy-bargy over herring fishing seems to bring the whole issue of conservation, national fishing limits, and policing of the seas into perspective.
– Brian Gardner, “Don’t send a gunboat,” New Scientist, July 21, 1977
Origin
Argy-bargy is a derivative of argle-bargle, the first element of which is a variant of word argue. The term was originally used in Scottish in the late 1500s.

Question 27

opprobrious

Answer 27

adjective
1. outrageously disgraceful or shameful: opprobrious conduct.
2. conveying or expressing opprobrium, as language or a speaker: opprobrious invectives.
Quotes
“The boy is of an outspoken disposition, and had made an opprobrious remark respecting my personal appearance” “What did he say about your appearance?” “I have forgotten, sir,” said Jeeves, with a touch of austerity. “But it was opprobrious…”
– P. G. Wodehouse, The Inimitable Jeeves, 1923
Origin
Opprobrious can be traced to the Latin opprobrāre meaning “to reproach; taunt.” It entered English in the mid-1300s.

Question 28

protean

Answer 28

adjective
1. readily assuming different forms or characters; extremely variable.
2. changeable in shape or form, as an amoeba.
Quotes
A genius for the ages, a man who played wonderful yet, sometimes outrageous changes with art, Pablo Picasso remains without doubt, the most original, the most protean and the most forceful personality in the visual arts in the first three-quarters of this century.
– Alden Whitman, “Picasso: Protean and Prodigious, the Greatest Single Force in 70 Years of Art,” New York Times, April 9, 1973
Origin
Protean comes from Proteus, the name of a sea god of classical mythology who was noted for his abilty to assume different forms and to prophesy. It entered English in the late 1500s.

Question 29

absquatulate

Answer 29

verb
1. Slang. to flee; abscond: The old prospector absquatulated with our picks and shovel.
Quotes
He [Mark Twain] has vamosed, cut stick, absquatulated; and among the pine forests of the Sierras, or amid the purlieus of the city of earthquakes, he will tarry awhile…
– , “An Exile,” Gold Hill Evening News, May 30, 1864
Origin
Absquatulate is thought to be a humorous formation intended to sound Latin in origin. It is chiefly used in the US with earliest recorded use dated from the 1830s.

Question 30

xeriscaping

Answer 30

noun
1. environmental design of residential and park land using various methods for minimizing the need for water use.
Quotes
The homes were big, and all three looked exactly alike: sand-colored stucco, red, Mexican-tile roofs, natural desert xeriscaping in the front, and backyards with peanut-shaped pools enclosed by black wrought-iron fences.
– Mark Jude Poirier, “Cul-de-sacs,” Naked Pueblo, 1999
Origin
Xeriscaping emerged in the 1980s. The word xeric means “of, relating to, or adapted to a dry environment,” and is derived from the Greek term xērós meaning “dry.”

Question 31

beatify

Answer 31

verb
1. to make blissfully happy.
2. Roman Catholic Church. to declare (a deceased person) to be among the blessed and thus entitled to specific religious honor.
Quotes
In spite of his infirmities, in spite of his sufferings, in spite of his obscurity, he was the happiest man alive… For certainly it is natural that the love of light, which is already in some measure, the possession of light, should irradiate and beatify the whole life of him who has it.
– Matthew Arnold, “Joubert,” Essays in Criticism, 1865
Origin
Beatify can be traced to the Latin verb beātificāre meaning “to make happy.” It entered English in the mid-1500s with spiritual associations.

Question 32

eleemosynary

Answer 32

adjective
1. of or relating to alms, charity, or charitable donations; charitable.
2. derived from or provided by charity.
Quotes
An author ought to consider himself, not as a gentleman who gives a private or eleemosynary treat, but rather as one who keeps a public ordinary, at which all persons are welcome for their money.
– Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, 1749
Origin
Eleemosynary has roots in the Greek term éleos meaning “compassion; pity.” It entered English in the early 1600s.

Question 33

brickbat

Answer 33

noun
1. an unkind or unfavorable remark; caustic criticism: The critics greeted the play with brickbats.
2. a piece of broken brick, especially one used as a missile.
Quotes
Arthur J. Goldberg was greeted by many bouquets and a single brickbat today as he pledged to serve fairly and without bias as a Supreme Court Justice.
– , “Goldberg Is Hailed by Senators; Promises to Be Fair as a Jusice,” New York Times, September 12, 1962
Origin
Brickbat entered English as a term for a missile made out of a piece of brick. In this formation, bat means “any fragment of brick or hardened clay.” Brickbat entered English in the mid-1500s.

Question 34

ambisinister

Answer 34

adjective
1. clumsy or unskillful with both hands.
Quotes
Professor Fischer says that the reserve physicians “Were surgically ambisinister, medically at the zero point, and lacking in discipline, military skill and temperance.”
– , “Sanitary Service in the Russo-Japanese War,” The Military Surgeon, January, 1914
Origin
Ambisinister blends the prefix ambi- meaning “both” with sinister meaning “of or on the left side.” Sinister’s more common sense, “threatening or portending evil, harm, or trouble; ominous,” comes from the notion that left-handedness is unlucky.

Question 35

psephology

Answer 35

noun
1. the study of elections.
Quotes
Apart from his interest in Latin American psephology, McGregor didn’t go a bundle on possessions: no books, no television, no hi-fi, no deck of cards and a radio which either didn’t work or that he couldn’t get to work.
– Tibor Fischer, “Fifty Uselessnesses,” Don’t Read This Book If You’re Stupid, 2000
Origin
Psephology comes from the Greek word for “pebble,” psêphos; Athenian custom was to cast votes by means of pebbles. Psephology entered English in the mid-1900s.

Question 36

mondegreen

Answer 36

\MON-di-green\
noun
1. a misinterpretation of a word or phrase that has been heard, especially a song lyric.
Quotes
One of the reasons that “Excuse me while I kiss this guy” substituted for Jimi Hendrix’s “Excuse me while I kiss the sky” remains one of the most widely reported mondegreens of all time can be explained in part by frequency. It’s much more common to hear of people kissing guys than skies.
– Maria Konnikova, “Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy,” The New Yorker, December 10, 2014
Origin
Mondegreen is itself a mondegreen. The term was coined by Amercian writer Sylvia Wright in a 1954 article for Harper’s in which she explained that as a child, she’d misinterpreted a line of a Scottish ballad; instead of “And laid him on the green” she heard “And Lady Mondegreen.”

Question 37

atrabilious

Answer 37

\a-truh-BIL-yuh s\
adjective
1. gloomy; morose; melancholy; morbid.
2. irritable; bad-tempered; splenetic.

Question 38

ballyhoo

Answer 38

1. a clamorous and vigorous attempt to win customers or advance any cause; blatant advertising or publicity.
2. clamor or outcry.

Question 39

twitterpated

Answer 39

\TWIT-er-pey-tid\
adjective
1. Informal. excited or overcome by romantic feelings; smitten.
Quotes
A major rite of passage in this pastoral Bildungsroman is the “Twitterpated” sequence where Bambi, Flower, and Thumper learn about springtime mating and the necessity to avoid it from Friend Owl…, who warns them: “nearly everyone gets twitterpated in the spring time.”
– Kirsten Moana Thompson, edited by Cynthia Lucia, Roy Grundmann, and Art Simon, “Classical Cel Animation, World War II, and Bambi, 2015
Origin
Twitterpated comes from the 1942 animated movie Bambi. It is a combination of twitter meaning “tremulous excitement,” and pate as in “head” or “brain.”

Question 40

entelechy

Answer 40

noun
1. a realization or actuality as opposed to a potentiality.
2. (in vitalist philosophy) a vital agent or force directing growth and life.
Quotes
Something abstruse from Aristotle haunts him, a distinction between the “generally” understood version of entelechy, meaning one’s potential, and Aristotle’s version, shading over into potential fulfilled.
– Paul West, A Fifth of November, 2001
Origin
Entelechy is a term from Aristotelian philosophy and is formed from the Greek terms télos, “goal,” and échein, “to have.” It entered English around 1600.

Question 41

olio

Answer 41

noun
1. a mixture of heterogeneous elements; hodgepodge.
2. a dish of many ingredients.
Quotes
I say an olio, my Lords, such an olio as never appeared before upon a table in Japan — by the Lord, it cost me fifty obans; and I had not time to taste a morsel.
– Tobias Smollett, The History and Adventures of an Atom, 1749
Origin
Olio entered English from Spanish word olla meaning “pot, stew.”

Question 42

saxicoline

Answer 42

living or growing among rocks.

Question 43

nabob

Answer 43

1. any very wealthy, influential, or powerful person.
2. Also, nawab. a person, especially a European, who has made a large fortune in India or another country of the East.
   Quotes
   Working out of uniform, in the British society of the Indian city, the boy from Georgetown had managed to embroil himself in a contretemps with a young woman, the headstrong second daughter of a prominent nabob.
   – William L. Gibson, Singapore Black, 2013
   Origin
   Nabob entered English in the early 1600s from the Hindi word nawāb meaning “viceroy.”

Question 44

fumarole

Answer 44

\FYOO-muh-rohl\
noun
1. a hole in or near a volcano, from which vapor rises.
Quotes
The steam that billowed from its invisible depths form ragged curtains as it emerged into the light. Festooned around this giant fumarole were dozens of the giant convolvulus flowers.
– Nicholas Drayson, Confessing a Murder, 2002
Origin
Fumarole comes from the Latin word fūmāriōlum, which is a diminutive of the word meaning “smoke chamber.”

Question 45

criticaster

Answer 45

an incompetent critic.