Word Hoard Flashcards
Insouciant
/inˈso͞osēənt,inˈso͞oSH(ə)nt/
adjective
showing a casual lack of concern; indifferent.
“an insouciant shrug”
Ingenue
ˌanjəˈno͞o,ˈänjəˌno͞o/
noun
an innocent or unsophisticated young woman, especially in a play or film.
fardel
/ˈfärdl/
nounARCHAIC
a bundle.
“a fardel of stories, personages, emotions”
nexus
/ˈneksəs/
noun
a connection or series of connections linking two or more things.
“the nexus between industry and political power”
a connected group or series.
“a nexus of ideas”
the central and most important point or place.
“the nexus of all this activity was the disco”
Officious
/əˈfiSHəs/
adjective
assertive of authority in an annoyingly domineering way, especially with regard to petty or trivial matters.
“the security people were very officious”
intrusively enthusiastic in offering help or advice; interfering.
“an officious bystander”
discursive
discursive (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/discursive)
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French discursif, formed from the stem of Latin discursus and the suffix -if, and in part borrowed from Medieval Latin discursivus.
Pronunciation
- (British) IPA: /dɪsˈkɜː(ɹ)sɪv/
Adjective
discursive
- ## (of speech or writing) Tending to digress from the main point; rambling.
1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page viii:
This means, at times, long and perhaps overly discursive discussions of other taxa.
- (philosophy) Using reason and argument rather than intuition.
Related terms
- discourse
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descry
descry (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/descry)
Etymology
Alternatively, as suggested by the spelling descriven, the Middle English word may be a contraction of Old French descrire, descrivre (“to describe”), from Latin describere, and thus a doublet of describe (so Palmer 1890, attributing the view to Walter William Skeat), but modern dictionaries more often seem to prefer the view that there was a secondary, folk-etymological influence on descrien by descriven within
Middle English (so The Century Dictionary 1911).
The semantic shift from “announce” to “discern, detect” is via “to cry out on discovering something that has been looked for”.
Palmer (1890) compares the etymology of Latin explorare “to search a wood &c. with cries”.
Pronunciation
- IPA: /dɪˈskɹaɪ/
Verb
descry (descries, present participle descrying; simple past and past participle descried) (literary)
- ## (transitive) To announce a discovery: to disclose; to reveal.
a. 1645 (date written), Fra[ncis] Quarles, “Eglogue X”, in The Shepheards Oracles: Delivered in Certain Eglogues, London: […] M. F. for John Marriot and Richard Marriot,[…], published 1645 (indicated as 1646), OCLC 1203251243, page 119:
The kalender, […] hath late deſcry’d / That evill affected planet Mars, ally’d / To temporizing Mercury, conjoyn’d / I’th’houſe of Death; […]
1670, John Milton, “The Second Book”, in The History of Britain, that Part Especially now Call’d England.[…], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for James Allestry, […] , OCLC 946735472, page 87:
His Body was found almost naked in the field, for his Purple Robe he had thrown aside, lest it should descry him, unwilling to be found.
- ## (transitive) To see, especially from afar; to discover (a distant or obscure object) by the eye; to espy; to discern or detect.
c. 1607–1608, William Shakeſpeare, The Late, And much admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre.[…], London: Imprinted at London for Henry Goſſon, […], published 1609, OCLC 78596089, [Act I, scene iv]:
Wee haue descryed vpon our neighbouring / shore, a portlie saile of ships make hitherward.
1851 November 13, Herman Melville, chapter 35, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, OCLC 57395299, page 151:
—Under this head I reckon a monster which, by the various names of Fin-Back, Tall-Spout, and Long-John, has been seen almost in every sea and is commonly the whale whose distant jet is so often descried by passengers crossing the Atlantic, in the New York packet-tracks.
c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene v], page 302, column 1:
Edmund, I thinke, is gone, / In pitty of his miſery, to diſpatch / His nighted life: Moreouer to deſcry / The ſtrength o’ th’ Enemy.
1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost.[…], London: […] [Samuel Simmons],[…], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books:[…], London: Basil Montagu Pickering[…], 1873, OCLC 230729554, lines 325-326:
And now thir way to Earth they had descri’d, / To Paradise first tending, […]
1719 April 25, [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe,[…], 3rd edition, London: […] W[illiam] Taylor[…], published 1719, OCLC 838630407, page 127:
When I had pass’d the Vale where my Bower stood as above, I came within View of the Sea, to the West, and it being a very clear Day, I fairly descry’d Land—whether an Island or a Continent, I could not tell; but it lay very high, extending from the West to the W.S.W. at a very great Distance;
1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., OCLC 222716698, page 47:
Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days’ cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.
- 1954, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Two Towers, p. 15:
Dimly through the mists they could descry the long arm of the mountains rising on their left.
Translations (to discover; to detect)
- French: percevoir
- German: wahrnehmen, erkennen, entdecken, herauslesen, entdecken
- Russian: замеча́ть
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license
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peradventure
peradventure (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/peradventure)
Etymology
From Middle English peraventure, from Old French par aventure.
Adverb
peradventure (not comparable)
- (archaic) Perchance or maybe; perhaps; supposing.
- 1554, John Knox, A Godly Letter of Warning or Admonition to the Faithfull in London, Newcastle, and Berwick:
For be God the Propheit was commandit to stand in the entress of the Lordis house, and to speik to all the cieties of Juda that come to wirschip in the house of the Lord; and was commandit to keip no word aback, gif peradventure, sayeth the Lord, thay will herkin and turne everie man frome his wickit way.
c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene vi], page 79, column 2:
Beſides he tells me, that, if peraduenture / He ſpeake againſt me on the aduerse ſide, / I ſhould not thinke it ſtrange, for ‘tis a phyſicke / That’s bitter, to ſweet end.
1611, The Holy Bible,[…] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker,[…], OCLC 964384981, Genesis 18:24:
Peraduenture there be fifty righteous within the citie; wilt thou also destroy, and not spare the place for the fiftie righteous, that are therein?
1651, Thomas Hobbes, chapter 13, in Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, London […] [William Wilson] for Andrew Crooke,[…], OCLC 895063360:
It may peradventure be thought there was never such a time nor condition of warre as this; and I believe it was never generally so, over all the world; but there are many places, where they live so now.
1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Third Book”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall,[…], published 1857, OCLC 1000396166, page 123:
Often, too, / The pedlar stopped, and tapped her on the head / With absolute forefinger, brown and ringed, / And asked if peradventure she could read.
Noun
peradventure (plural peradventures)
- Chance, doubt or uncertainty.
- 1716, Thomas Browne, Christian Morals, 2nd edition edited by Samuel Johnson, London: J. Payne, 1756, Part I, p. 16,
Covetousness cracks the sinews of faith; numbs the apprehension of any thing above sense; and only affected with the certainty of things present, makes a peradventure of things to come […]
- 1800, William R. Thayer, “Woman Suffrage, Pro and Con,” The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 65, page 310,
By his death Bruno did not prove that his convictions are true, but he proved beyond peradventure that he was a true man; and by such from the beginning has human nature been raised towards that ideal nature which we call divine.
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license
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Text generated by the application English Dictionary https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=livio.pack.lang.en_US
conceit
conceit (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/conceit)
Etymology
From Middle English conceyte, formed from conceyven by analogy with pairs such as (Modern English) deceive~deceit, receive~receipt etc.
Pronunciation
- IPA: /kənˈsiːt/
Noun
conceit
- ## (obsolete) Something conceived in the mind; an idea, a thought. [14th–18th c.]
1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries.[…], 3rd edition, London: […] VVilliam Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee[…], OCLC 1044372886:
In laughing, there ever procedeth a conceit of somewhat ridiculous.
1611, The Holy Bible,[…] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker,[…], OCLC 964384981, Proverbs 26:12:
a man wise in his own conceit
- The faculty of conceiving ideas; mental faculty; apprehension.
a man of quick conceit
a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the page number)”, in Fulke Greville, Matthew Gwinne, and John Florio, editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, OCLC 801077108; republished in Albert Feuillerat, editor, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia (Cambridge English Classics: The Complete Works of Sir Philip Sidney; I), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1912, OCLC 318419127:
How often, alas! did her eyes say unto me that they loved! and yet I, not looking for such a matter, had not my conceit open to understand them.
- ## Quickness of apprehension; active imagination; lively fancy.
c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth,[…]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene iv]:
His wit’s as thick as Tewksbury mustard; there is no more conceit in him than is in a mallet.
- (obsolete) Opinion, (neutral) judgment. [14th–18th c.]
- ## (now rare, dialectal) Esteem, favourable opinion. [from 15th c.]
1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter CCCXLV”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady:[…], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson;[…], OCLC 13631815:
[G]ive him thy thanks for putting her into conceit with the sex that thou hast given her so much reason to execrate.
- ## (countable) A novel or fanciful idea; a whim. [from 16th c.]
1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists:[…], London: […] R[ichard] Sare,[…], OCLC 228727523:
On his way to the gibbet, a freak took him in the head to go off with a conceit.
1709, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W. Lewis[…], published 1711, OCLC 15810849:
Some to conceit alone their works confine, / And glitt’ring thoughts struck out at ev’ry line.
- 1693, John Dryden, An Essay on Satire
Tasso […] is full of conceits […] which are not only below the dignity of heroic verse but contrary to its nature.
1851 November 13, Herman Melville, chapter 1, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, OCLC 57395299, page 7:
By reason of these things, then, the whaling voyage was welcome; the great flood-gates of the wonder-world swung open, and in the wild conceits that swayed me to my purpose, two and two there floated into my inmost soul, endless processions of the whale, and, mid most of them all, one grand hooded phantom, like a snow hill in the air.
- 2012, Lauren Elkin, Scott Esposito, The End of Oulipo?: An attempt to exhaust a movement
The book’s main conceit is to make poetry from univocal words (words containing just one vowel) […]
- (countable, rhetoric, literature) An ingenious expression or metaphorical idea, especially in extended form or used as a literary or rhetorical device. [from 16th c.]
Coordinate terms: metaphor, simile, concetto - (uncountable) Overly high self-esteem; vain pride; hubris. [from 17th c.]
- 1826, Nathaniel Cotton, Fables
Plum’d with conceit he calls aloud. - ## Design; pattern.
c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene vi]:
And yet I know not how conceit may rob the treasury of life when life itself yields to the theft;
Translations (ingenious expression or metaphorical idea)
- German: Eingebung
Translations (overly high self-esteem)
- French: vanité, orgueil
- German: Einbildung
- Italian: presunzione, vain pride vanità
- Portuguese: presunção, vaidade
- Russian: самомне́ние
- Spanish: engreimiento, vanidad, presunción, ego (colloquial)
Translations (ingenious expression or metaphorical idea as a literary device)
- French: concept
- German: Konzept
- Italian: concetto
Verb
conceit (conceits, present participle conceiting; simple past and past participle conceited)
- (obsolete) To form an idea; to think.
- 1643: John Milton, The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce
Those whose […] vulgar apprehensions conceit but low of matrimonial purposes. - ## (obsolete, transitive) To conceive.
1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), 6th edition, London: […] J[ames] Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer,[…], published 1727, OCLC 21766567:
The strong, by conceiting themselves weak, are therebly rendered as inactive […] as if they really were so.
1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene i]:
- 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, V.23:
That owls and ravens are ominous appearers, and presignifying unlucky events, as Christians yet conceit, was also an augurial conception.
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license
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Text generated by the application English Dictionary https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=livio.pack.lang.en_US
piquant
pi·quant
/ˈpēk(w)ənt/
adjective
having a pleasantly sharp taste or appetizing flavor.
“a piquant tartare sauce”
supplant
sup·plant
/səˈplant/
verb
supersede and replace.
“another discovery could supplant the original finding”
trenchant
trench·ant
/ˈtren(t)SH(ə)nt/
adjective
1.
vigorous or incisive in expression or style.
“she heard angry voices, not loud, yet certainly trenchant”
tantamount
Adjective
tantamount
Equivalent in meaning or effect; amounting to the same thing in practical terms, even if being technically distinct.
It’s tantamount to fraud.
In this view, disagreement and treason are tantamount.
philter (also, philter)
Noun
philter (plural philters)
A kind of potion, charm, or drug; especially a love potion intended to make the drinker fall in love with the giver. [from the 16th c.]
Verb
philter (philters, present participle philtering; simple past and past participle philtered)
To impregnate or mix with a love potion.
to philter a draught
To charm to love; to excite to love or sexual desire by a potion.
deponent
Pronunciation
(British) IPA: /diˈpəʊ.nənt/
(America) IPA: /diˈpoʊ.nənt/
Adjective
deponent (not comparable)
(grammar, of a verb) Having passive grammatical form (that is, conjugating like the passive voice), but an active meaning.
Noun
deponent (plural deponents)
(legal) A witness; especially one who gives information under oath, in a deposition concerning facts known to him or her.
(grammar) A deponent verb.
