Words

A Collection of words I’ve found:

-insipid: lacking flavor
-reify: to make (something abstract) more concrete or real
“In this statement, Wolfsheim explicitly articulates the logic of patriarchal capitalism in which women must play the role of commodity in a heterosexual relationship between men, and he reifies the Roman system of patronage (associated with
Maecenas) that demonstrated how homosocial exchange is veiled in heterosexuality.” (Froehlich, “Gatsby’s Mentors: Queer Relations Between Love and Money in the Great Gatsby” 2011)
–lacuna:1. An unfilled space or interval; a gap. 2. A missing portion in a book or manuscript. “The fifth book is a lacuna, it’s a space that has to be filled.”
–fatuous: silly or foolish “One of the first was from a young woman who began by thanking me for “not giving just one more fatuous ‘You can have it all’ talk.”
–farrago: a confused mixture “Above all, it has led the way in the News International phone-hacking scandal, a farrago of power, corruption and lies, exposed by Nick Davies and other Guardian reporters”
-coxswain: the person in charge of navigating a boat in rowing
–hoi polloi: the masses or common people. e.g. “The morning porridge has kasha (buckwheat groats) as its base. But that’s breakfast for the hoi polloi. To eat like the czars, choose syrniki (fried cheese pancakes) with sour cream and honey or blini with red caviar.”
-ethos: the characteristic spirit of a community, era, or people as represented by its beliefs and aspirations.
-schadenfreude: n. pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune. If European bankers were tempted to indulge in a bit of Schadenfreude, they would regret it. For all its faults, Citi provides a powerful reminder of how far America’s banking system has come on the road back to normality—and how far its peers in Europe have to go.
-snafu: a chaotic state, mess. WHAT more appropriate way for Citigroup to celebrate the year of its 200th anniversary than with a public snafu?
-preclude: make impossible. Definitional issues, lack of observational data, and the inability of models to include all the factors that influence droughts preclude stronger confidence than medium in drought projections (Source:

-obviate: anticipate and therefore make unnecessary. Driving a fixed route obviates the need for drivers to know the roads or reading maps. Source: http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2012/02/regulating-cabs-0
-eponymous: In precise, traditional usage, an “eponym” is someone or something that gives its name to something else. So “eponymous” describes the giver of the name, NOT the receiver. A restaurateur named Joe Smith could be described as the eponymous owner of Joe Smith’s Restaurant, but the establishment is not “Mr. Smith’s eponymous restaurant.” Source: http://afterdeadline.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/eponymous-sources/?_r=0