Misc. 9

Question 1

flack

Answer 1

to provide publicity : engage in press-agentry
The singer spent two weeks on the talk-show circuit, flacking for her new memoir.

“Celebrity endorsements for soda have been around for years.… More recently, Taylor Swift (Diet Coke), Beyonce (Pepsi) and Steve Harvey (Coke again) have flacked for soda.”
— Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz, The Telegraph Herald (Dubuque, IA), 18 Sept. 2015

Question 2

napery

Answer 2

household linen; especially : table linen

Napery has been used as a fancy word for our household linens, especially those used to cover a table, since the 14th century. The word derives via Middle English from Anglo-French nape, meaning “tablecloth,” and ultimately from Latin mappa, “napkin.” You can see part of the word napkin in that root; another, much less obvious relative is apron, which was once spelled as napron in Middle English but gradually evolved to its current spelling by way of English speakers habitually misdividing the phrase a napron as an apron.

Question 3

rebarbative

Answer 3

causing annoyance, irritation, or aversion; repellent.

Question 4

widdershins

Answer 4

in a left-handed, wrong, or contrary direction : counterclockwise

Question 5

minatory

Answer 5

menacing; threatening.

Latin source, minārī “to threaten,” a derivative of the noun minae “threats, menaces.”

Question 6

sesquipedalian

Answer 6

1. having many syllables : “sesquipedalian terms”

2. given to or characterized by the use of long words: “a sesquipedalian television commentator”

Question 7

hypostatize

Answer 7

to attribute real identity to (a concept)

Question 8

metastasize

Answer 8

1.
Pathology. (of malignant cells or disease-producing organisms) to spread to other parts of the body by way of the blood or lymphatic vessels or membranous surfaces.
2.
to spread injuriously:
Street gangs have metastasized in our city.
3.
to transform, especially into a dangerous form:
The KGB metastasized after the fall of the Soviet Union. Truth metastasized into lurid fantasy.

Question 9

grok

Answer 9

to understand profoundly and intuitively

Question 10

saudade

Answer 10

(in Portuguese folk culture) a deep emotional state of melancholic longing for a person or thing that is absent: the theme of saudade in literature and music.
… “The Girl From Ipanema” was a potent distillation of the concept of saudade, a feeling of melancholic nostalgia that characterizes so much Brazilian music. … Longing for the unattainable, and an acute sense of the moment’s slipping away: That’s saudade.
– Stephen Holden, “Brazilian Yearning and Imminent Loss,” New York Times, March 21, 2014

Question 11

suppositious

Answer 11

1
a :
fraudulently substituted : spurious

b :
(of a child) falsely presented as a genuine heir : illegitimate

2
a :
imaginary

b :
of the nature of or based on a supposition : hypothetical

Question 12

holus-bolus

Answer 12

all at once; altogether

Question 13

coruscant

Answer 13

sparkling or gleaming; scintillating; coruscating

Question 14

indurate

Answer 14

physically or morally hardened

“Anne-James Chaton, his indurate mien impassive and poker-faced, stands as still and stiff as a motorway signpost….”
— Robert Barry, The Quietus, 24 July 2013

Question 15

glisk

Answer 15

a gleam of sunlight through cloud; a glow of heat from a fire. Figuratively, a glimpse of the good (Shetlandic)

Question 16

forgottery

Answer 16

a faculty or facility for forgetting; faulty memory: a witness with a very convenient forgettery.
And, even as we rolled through the lovely country-side, my forgettery set to work.
– Kurt Vonnegut, Slapstick, 1976
ORIGIN
Forgettery is a humorous formation based on forget and (the pronunciation of) memory. Entered English in the 19th century.

Question 17

sibylline

Answer 17

1. mysterious; cryptic.

2. of, resembling, or characteristic of a sibyl; prophetic; oracular.

Question 18

moue

Answer 18

a little grimace : pout
“I like … the way her eyes twinkle with mischief even as her mouth is set in a sulky fashionista moue.”
— Judith Woods, The Daily Telegraph (London), 16 Sept. 2016
“But it’s [Ian] McKellen we’re always watching, with his twitches and moues and wistful … recollections….”
— Euan Ferguson, The Observer (London), 1 Nov. 2015

Question 19

humblebrag

Answer 19

1. a statement intended as a boast or brag but disguised by a humble apology, complaint, etc.

verb 1. to make such a disguised boast or brag: He’s humblebragging about how tired he is from his world travels.

Question 20

prelapsarian

Answer 20

1. characteristic of or pertaining to any innocent or carefree period: a prelapsarian youth.
2. Theology. occurring before the Fall: the prelapsarian innocence of Eden.

Question 21

hireling

Answer 21

1. a person who works only for pay, especially in a menial or boring job, with little or no concern for the value of the work.

adjective 1. serving for pay only.
2. venal; mercenary.

Question 22

squinny

Answer 22

to look or peer with eyes partly closed : squint

Question 23

adumbrate

Answer 23

1 : to foreshadow vaguely : intimate
2 : to suggest, disclose, or outline partially
3 : overshadow, obscure

from the Latin adumbrare, which comes from umbra, the Latin for “shadow.” To adumbrate is to offer a shadowy view of something.

“The opening scenes not only set forth the locale, the leading characters, and the first stage of the plot, but also adumbrate everything to come.”
— Richard Alleva, The Commonweal, 11 Sept. 2015

“His temper and tendency to violence, adumbrated in the first part of the book, lead not only to his decline as a journalist but also his inability to maintain relationships with the various women he encounters.”
— Gerald Early, The Washington Post, 10 Nov. 2015

Question 24

redoubt

Answer 24

1
a :
a small usually temporary enclosed defensive work

b :
a defended position : protective barrier

2 :
a secure retreat : stronghold

Question 25

puffery

Answer 25

1. undue or exaggerated praise.

2. publicity, acclaim, etc., that is full of undue or exaggerated praise.

Question 26

keysmash

Answer 26

1. a random string of letters and symbols typed out on a keyboard or touchscreen, used to signal intense emotion in written communication: The photo of the actor was accompanied by a heartfelt keysmash.
2. the action of typing out such a random string of letters or symbols: Keysmash was the only appropriate response.

Question 27

skosh

Answer 27

a small amount : bit, smidgen

Question 28

concatenate

Answer 28

to link together in a series or chain

Question 29

inanition

Answer 29

1 : the exhausted condition that results from lack of food and water
2 : the absence or loss of social, moral, or intellectual vitality or vigor

“My friend had no breakfast himself, for it was one of his peculiarities that in his more intense moments he would permit himself no food, and I have known him presume upon his iron strength until he has fainted from pure inanition.”
— Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Norwood Builder,” 1903

“Although she remains largely in the background, Mama is the character apparently most energized by the revolution of 2011, the person who has found purpose and focus, eschewing nostalgia even as the men who surround her have lapsed into rueful inanition.”
— Claire Messud, The New York Review of Books, 18 Aug. 2016

Question 30

nudnik

Answer 30

a person who is a bore or nuisance

Question 31

ultracrepidarian

Answer 31

1. noting or pertaining to a person who criticizes, judges, or gives advice outside the area of his or her expertise: The play provides a classic, simplistic portrayal of an ultracrepidarian mother-in-law.
2. an ultracrepidarian person.
   He was the only person in New York who might be called, without intent to malign, an Ultracrepidarian critic. It was of the very nature of his job to find fault with small and insignificant details.
   – Ellery Queen, The American Gun Mystery, 1933
   Ultracrepidarian is nonexistent in Latin and very rare in English. The word was coined by the English essayist William Hazlitt (1778-1830) from the Latin phrase ultra crepidam “beyond the sandal” (there are several Latin versions) taken from the Natural History (book 35) of the Roman polymath Pliny the Elder (a.d. 23-79). Pliny was retelling a retort that Apelles (4th century b.c.), a famous ancient Greek painter, made to a cobbler. The cobbler the day before had criticized Apelles for inaccurately painting a sandal, and Apelles corrected his error. The next day the cobbler tried to criticize Apelles’ painting of the leg the sandal was on, at which the exasperated Apelles remarked that “a shoemaker should not judge above his sandal.” Ultracrepidarian entered English in the 19th century.

Question 32

slacktivism

Answer 32

actions taken to bring about political or social change but requiring only minimal commitment, effort, or risk: students engaging in slacktivism by signing an online petition.

Question 33

zugzwang

Answer 33

Chess. a situation in which a player is limited to moves that cost pieces or have a damaging positional effect.
The aim in the end game is to get your opponent’s king into “zugzwang,” which means to force him to have only one more move remaining, and that one loses the game for him.
– H. N. Levitt, “K K Karanja: Chess Champ,” Boys’ Life, February 1986

Question 34

glabrous

Answer 34

(chiefly of the skin or a leaf) free from hair or down; smooth.

Question 35

expostulate

Answer 35

to reason earnestly with someone against something that person intends to do or has done; remonstrate: His father expostulated with him about the evils of gambling.

Question 36

estival

Answer 36

pertaining or appropriate to summer.

Question 37

duende

Answer 37

doo-EN-day
the power to attract through personal magnetism and charm
Her performances were said to be spellbinding: by all accounts she was a singer possessed of such duende that the audience seemed a single organism unable to look away.

“[The flamenco performers] may achieve the rare quality of duende—total communication with their audience, and the mark of great flamenco of any style or generation.”
— The Rough Guide to Spain, 2015

Question 38

bilious

Answer 38

1. ) of or indicative of a peevish ill-natured disposition

2. ) sickeningly unpleasant

Question 39

perspicuous

Answer 39

plain to the understanding especially because of clarity and precision of presentation; clearly expressed or presented; lucid.

Both the plan and style are perspicuous ; it is admirably adapted for what it is intended.
The Crystal Palace
Peter Berlyn

An extensive science in a single book, and the most profound ideas expressed in the most perspicuous language.
Life of Adam Smith
John Rae

Question 40

perspicacious

Answer 40

of acute mental vision or discernment : keen

But no matter how perspicacious one may be, one will never be able to decide anything to his disadvantage.
Letters to an Unknown
Prosper Mrime

Such a policy was, of course, indicative of a shrewd and perspicacious mind.
Catherine de’ Medici
Honore de Balzac

Question 41

perspicacity

Answer 41

keenness of mental perception and understanding; discernment; penetration.