Vocabulary #6

beatitude- Supreme blessedness

• The beatitude of religion is so strong in society today.

bete noire- a detested person (disliked or avoided)

• The morbid man in the sketchy trench coat was bete noire.

bode- Be an omen of a particular outcome

•  The bode of having killed a man haunted him until suicide.

dank- Disagreeably damp, musty, and typically cold

• The subways of New York are dank places for homeless people to sleep.

ecumenical- Promoting or relating to unity among the world's Christian churches

• A lot of Christians are ecumenical of their religion and try to get everyone to convert.

fervid- Intensely enthusiastic or passionate

• Some of the most brilliant pianists in history were not so fervid of the art.

fetid- Smelling extremely unpleasant

• My friend bought a bottle of spray that was intentionally fetid just to joke around.

gargantuan- of great mass

• The gargantuan man was much larger than the anorexic man.

heyday- The period of a person's or thing's greatest success or popularity

• Just as Rockefeller started the Standard Oil business, he met his heyday.

incubus- A cause of distress or anxiety like a nightmare

•  The fourteen essays and three exams all in the following day was incubus.

infrastructure- The basic physical and organizational structures and facilities needed for the operation

•  The infrastructure of the United States is the Constitution.

inveigle- Persuade (someone) to do something by means of deception or flattery

•  I sometimes inveigle my mother into letting me go to a party on a busy weekday.

kudos- Praise and honor received for an achievement

•  I gave my kudos to my friend who discovered a way to make humans fly.

lagniappe- Something given as a bonus or extra gift

• As a lagniappe, I gave my younger brother $5 for doing my homework.

prolix- Using or containing too many words; tediously lengthy

•  People begin to lose interest if your book is prolix.

protege- a person who receives support and protection from an influential patron who furthers the protege's career

• I was a protege of my father's skills in Martial Arts.

prototype- A first or preliminary model of something, esp. a machine, from which other forms are developed or copied

• I broke the rare prototype to the newly created iPad.

sycophant- A person who acts obsequiously toward someone in order to gain advantage; a servile flatterer

• Sometimes I have to be sycophantic to get my mother to say yes.

tautology- The saying of the same thing twice in different words

•  In hip-hop, a lot of rappers use tautology without us even realizing it.

truckle- Submit or behave obsequiously

•  The student truckle to the the A in the class while others worked hard for their grade.