September 7th Flashcards
anathema
Something that one absolutely and positively cannot stand is anathema.
Newsom’s supporters are trying to overcome that, highlighting Elder’s opinions, such as opposing minimum wage, and his support for Donald Trump as anathema to most Californians.
overweening
Overweening is a negative term meaning arrogant or excessive.
People can be described as having overweening pride or overweening ambition.
Confidence and pride are okay in moderation. Overweening means having too much of it though so that it overtakes the rest of your personality, and not in a good way.
The US is, after all, the crucible of capitalism with a long tradition of individualism and suspicion of overweening government.
arrant
The word arrant intensifies. An arrant criminal is one heck of a criminal. Arrant nonsense is total nonsense.
It can be used to add emphasis to other words, most often negative words.
Arrant rudeness is extreme rudeness. Arrant hypocrisy is very hypocritical. An arrant liar is a world-class liar.
An arrant fool, Lawrence surprised nobody when he lost all his money in a pyramid scheme.
jingoist
Jingoists really dislike people from outside their own borders.
Jingoism is an extreme form of patriotism that often calls for violence towards foreigners and foreign countries.
Patriotism — a love for one’s country — can, in certain cases, turn nasty and go beyond wishing for the welfare of one’s own homeland. That’s when a patriot becomes a nationalist.
From there, it’s only a short step to becoming a jingoist, one who not only waves the flag of their country but believes that all other people are threats and should be treated as such
An obvious example of a jingoist was Adolf Hitler, who stirred up fear and anger towards outsiders that led to world war…and much worse.
diatribe
A diatribe is an angry, critical speech.
A strong verbal attack against a person or institution.
Steve’s mom launched into a diatribe during the PTA meeting, contending that the school was little more than
a daycare in which students stare at the wall.
He posted another lengthy diatribe on Tuesday after the resignation of J. Allen Brack as president of Blizzard Entertainment, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard.
A Southern California community was on high alert early Sunday after a person claiming to be a resident left a lengthy diatribe on Reddit threatening a mass shooting.
supercilious
Supercilious people think very highly of themselves, more highly than of others. If your sister tends to act snobby and superior, you can describe her as supercilious.
You might expect Nobel Prize winners to be supercilious — after all, they’ve reached the very heights of their profession. But one-on-one, your famous physics professor might be humble and fun to talk to, anything but supercilious.
I miss the world dearly, going to exhibitions and concerts, seeing friends and interrupting my productive hours with unnecessary visits to overpriced cafes crammed with supercilious hipsters.
malfeasance
Whenever you see the prefix “mal-,” you know it’s not good.
Misconduct or wrong doing (especially by a public official)
Malfeasance is bad behaviour, especially from officials or people who should know better.
You wouldn’t accuse a dog who peed on the carpet of malfeasance, but you would accuse a mayor who took a bribe of malfeasance.
The New Orleans Police Department on Thursday said it was looking for Precious Stephens on charges of malfeasance in office and interfering with an emergency communication.
Aside from the federal investigation, Brown faces state charges of second-degree battery and malfeasance in Bowman’s beating.
expunge
To cross out or eliminate
To eliminate completely.
When I turned 18, all the shoplifting and jaywalking charges are expunged from my criminal record.
Expunge is often something you do to a document. When government censors block out text in documents before making them public, they are expunging the text.
The principal tried to expunge all traces of bullying from the school by implementing a kindness initiative and treating all complaints as serious.
truculent (traculent)
If you are quick to argue, always looking for a fight, and hard to please, you are truculent.
truculent folks are like monster trucks, ready to run over anything that gets in their way.
To be truculent is to be defiant, aggressive, and quarrelsome.
Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist is the spirit or essence of a particular time.
Each decade has its own zeitgeist - the 1990’s was a prosperous time in which the promise of the American Dream never seemed more palpable.
chary
Being chary (pronounced CHAIR-ee) is being wary or cautious.
If you lost two teeth in last year’s rugby season, you should be chary of signing up again this year.
factious
A factious group is one that breaks away, or wants to. It’s often used in politics, where people separate into smaller like-minded groups.
The word factious looks a lot like its cousin faction, which is a small, sometimes rebellious group
Among bakers, almost all agree that you have to be precise when measuring ingredients. The Brooklyn Faction, though, disagrees. This factious bunch never uses measuring cups or spoons and has called for them to be abolished.
sedulous
“done intelligently and carefully”
A sedulous person is someone who works hard and doesn’t give up easily.
There are a couple of words that basically mean the same thing as sedulous but are a little more common, namely assiduous, painstaking, and diligent.
nadir (Nae-dir)
“Lowest point”
If a highly forgetful person loses his phone, his wallet, and then his car keys in separate instances all in one day, you could say that he has reached an organizational nadir. This means “lowest point.”
For many pop music fans, the rap and alternative rock dominated 90’s were the nadir of musical expression.
Yet even at this nadir, the NRA’s profound influence on the nation’s debate over gun regulation endures.
choleric
Choleric just means you’re testy and irritable.
prone to outbursts of temper, easily angered.
While a brilliant lecturer, Mr. Dawson came across as choleric and unapproachable very rarely did students come to his office hours.
