Words I Don’t Know 7 Flashcards
Hecatomb (heck-a-tome)
Noun, greek/Roman in origin, a great public sacrifice (oxen), or a loss of life for some cause
Ex: The Covid deaths were a hecatomb propping up global capitalism.
Impecunious
Adj, having little or no money
Ex: Grad school is a commitment to an exhausting, impecunious lifestyle.
Execrable (ex-uh-cruh-bull)
Adj, extremely bad or unpleasant
Ex: Giving yourself only one night to write a paper is a very execrable experience.
Latifundium
Noun, a large landed estate or ranch in Ancient Rome, or nowadays Spain or Latin America, worked by slaves
Ex: Though beautiful, the cartel-run latifundia dotting central Mexico Bod horrendous human right abuses.
Emolument
Noun, a salary, fee, or or profit from employment or office work.
Ex: My pitiful corporate emolument was mitigated by the sizable income I received from selling plant cuttings online.
Collimate
Verb, to align something, usually rays of light or optic systems
Ex: To function effectively as a team, we must collimate our expectations and actions.
Surfeit
Noun, an excessive amount of something.
Ex: Whenever I go home for holidays, my mom plies me with a surfeit of food and drinks.
Verb: to cause someone to no longer desire something due to excess
Ex: I am surfeited with chocolate after my Euphoria binge.
Crèche
Noun, either a tableau representing Christ’s birth (like a nativity scene) or a a nursery for babies and young children.
Ex: I have so many fond memories of playing house and doing art with my olaymetes at the crèche.
Multifarious
Adj, many and of various types.
Ex: It had been so long since I’d been to a good farmer’s market, I forgot the multifarious selection of tomatoes available.
Sitrep
Noun, the “situation report” on military situation in an area.
Ex: Striding into lab on Saturday, I demanded the undergrads provide me a sitrep before I began solving their problem.
Klaxon
Noun, an electric horn or similar loud warning device.
Ex: The klaxon warning over the lab loudspeakers alerted us to the gas leak.
Rive
Verb, to split or tear apart, especially violently.
Ex: Still fuming over the argument I had with my boss, I took my anger out by riving the firewood with my ax.
Mellifluous
Adj, sweet or musical, pleasant to hear
Ex: After my long absence from home, the once-mundane sounds of my neighborhood now seemed so mellifluous and welcoming.
Epigram
Noun, a pithy saying or remark expressing an idea in a witty way
Ex: “You are what you eat!” is the most helpful epigram for convincing people to eat a generally healthier diet.
Indecorous
Adj, not in keeping with good taste, improper.
Ex: I drank way too much wine and behaved rather indecorously at the reception.
Shrive
Verb, to present oneself to a priest for confession, penance, or absolution
Ex: After a nasty night out with Isaac, despite not being Catholic, I felt like I needed to shrive for forgiveness.
Ducal
Adj, of, like, or relating to a duke or dukedom
Ex: My new coworker may act like the duchess of her ducal realm, but I was still the king.
Aphorism
Noun, a pithy observation that contains a general truth such as “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”
Ex: To make nutrition more accessible to a general audience, I made a concerted effort to repackage obscure knowledge into easily-digested aphorisms.
Prodigal
Adj, spending money/resources freely, wastefully, extravagantly
Ex: I carefully save money while I’m in school so I can behave prodigally while on vacation.
Affability
Adj, the quality of being “affable,” aka friendly, good-natured, and easy to talk to.
Ex: I consider myself a friendly, approachable person, but the effortless affability of my brother and grandpa always escapes me.
