Vocabulary #9

Abortive: failing to produce the intended result

• An astronaut was abortive in his attempts to step foot on a different galaxy.

Bruit: spread a report or rumor widely

•  Brutal Bruce bruits everything he experiences in his life.

Contumelious: scornful and insulting behavior

•  Conner's contumelious comments generates a lot of hate towards his reputation.

Dictum: a formal pronouncement from an authoritative source; a short statement that expresses a general truth or principle

•  The dictator's dictum dictated that he would not step down from his leadership.

Ensconce: establish or settle

• He ensconced his role in the movie by staying in character throughout the time they filmed.

Iconoclastic: characterized by attack on established beliefs or institutions

• Many atheists demonstrate iconoclastic behavior by trashing Christians.

In medias res: a narrative that begins somewhere in the middle of a story rather than the beginning

• Julian Smith uses in media res in his films to explain events.

Internecine: destructive to both sides in a conflict

•  The trick question asked by the audience was internecine to both candidates.

Maladroit: ineffective or bungling; clumsy

•  Extremely erudite people sometimes come off as socially maladroit.

Maudlin: self-pitying or tearfully sentimental, often through drunkenness

•  The maudlin old man emotionally cried in the bar because his failure in life.

Modulate: exert a modifying or controlling influence on

•  Many older peers modulate teenagers into negative habits.

Portentous: of or like a portent; done in a pompously or overly solemn manner

•  The interview for the bodyguard job was portentous.

Prescience: the power to foresee the future

•  I honestly believe I have prescience because of all the dreams I have been having.

Quid pro quo: a favor or advantage granted in return for something

•  A man from my past offered me a quid pro quo which ended up benefiting my life greatly.

Salubrious: health-giving, healthy; pleasant, not run-down

•  The new iPhone 5 is a salubrious piece of technology.

Saturnalia: the ancient Roman festival of Saturn in December; an occasion of wild revelry

•  The ancient Roman village celebrated all night on their Saturnalia.

Touchstone: a standard or criterion by which something is judged or recognized

•  The touchstone for all basketball players is generally their skill and height.

Traumatic: emotionally disturbing or distressing; relating to or causing psychological trauma

•  The happy girl turned into a dark, lonely girl after the traumatic event.

Vitiate: spoil or impair the quality or efficiency of; destroy or impair the legal validity of

•  I hate when people watch a movie and vitiate the movie by talking about it.

Waggish: humorous in a playful, mischievous, or facetious manner

•  Jesse and I have very waggish personalities because he find humor in pranks and jokes.