Monday, January 26, 2009

Vocabulary Entry 4

20. familiar - eulogy - noun - speech in praise of someone.

20. familiar - euphemism - noun - use of an inoffensive word or phrase in place of a more distasteful one.

20. familiar - explicit - adjective - clearly stated or shown; forthright in expression.

21. fallow - noun - dormant; unused.

"I don't see how any man can allow his unit to go fallow... no wonder priests molest little boys."

21. familiar - fanatical - adjective - acting excessively enthusiastic; filled with extreme, unquestioned devotion.

21. familiar - frugality - noun - tending to be thrifty or cheap.

21. familiar - gestation - noun - growth process from conception to birth.

22. gregarious - adjective - outgoing; sociable.

"I once knew this word but forgot so I will do a sentence. My mother often tells me I am too gregarious of a person. I have too many friends and go out too much she says."

22. familiar - grievous - adjective - causing grief or sorrow; serious or distressing.

23. grovel - verb - to humble oneself in a demeaning way.

"Although a man groveling to me that previously upset me could be somewhat amusing, it is not flattering."

23. familiar - gullible - adjective - easily deceived.

24. hegemony - noun - the domination of one state or group over its allies.

"I am having a hard time coming up with a sentence for hegemony. Oh, there, I just did."

25. hermetic - adjective - tightly sealed.

"My junk is hermetically sealed. Hahahaha JK."

25. familiar - heterogenous - composed of unlike parts; different; diverse.

25. familiar - homogenous - of a similar kind.

26. hyperbole - noun - purposeful exaggeration for effect.

"The president utilized a hyperbole in his speech and called the man "the nation's superhero" to emphasize the good deeds he accomplished."

27. imbue - verb - to infuse.

"Sometimes my mother imbues a bit of her Latin cooking knowledge into American dishes."

28. impasse - noun - blocked path; dilemma with no solution.

"I really do not like running into an impasse. It makes me feel as if I have failed because I tend to believe most every problem has a solution."

29. ingenuous - adjective - showing innocence or childlike simplicity.

"A friend of mine can sometimes be ingenuous because she has not experienced nearly as much as most people our age."

29. familiar - ingrate - noun - ungrateful person.

30. ingratiate - verb - to gain favor with another by deliberate efforts; to seek to please somebody so as to gain an advantage.

"My friend says that his sister-in-law ingratiates so much that she will suffocate if she doesn't pull her nose out of everyone's asses."

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Vocabulary Entry 3 I suppose

10. familiar - convoluted - adjective - intricate and complicated.

10. familiar - crescendo - noun - steadily increasing in volume or force.

10. familiar - debutante - noun - young woman making debut in high society.

10. familiar - deface - verb - to mar the appearance of; vandalize.

11. deference - noun - respect; courtesy.

"I find it funny I was not familiar with this word. I especially find it funny I barely have the deference to look my mother's friend in the eye when said person visits. Fuck him."

12. demagogue - noun - a rabble-rouser, usually appealing to emotion or prejudice.

"Edward Norton's character in American History X was quite the demagogue, don't you think?"

12. familiar - verb - to make larger; expand.

13. dilettante - noun - someone with an amateurish and superficial interest in a topic.

"I suppose most would consider me a dilettante for my interest in Boston and the Red Sox but I truly do want to go to graduate school up there."

14. dirge - noun - a funeral hymn or mournful speech.

"I am not fond of the sound of dirges played by organs."

14. familiar - verb - to perceive or recognize.

15. disparate - adjective - fundamentally different; entirely unlike.

"Although my breasts appear quite identical, there are some differences on the nipples which make them entirely disparate."

16. dither - verb - to act confusedly or without clear purpose.

"I often do not dither in the mall for, most of the time, I prefer to go in and out as quickly as possible."

16. familiar - noun - dogma - a firmly held opinion, especially a religious belief.

17. dogmatic - adjective - dogmatic - dictatorial in one's opinions.

"You'd think I'd know 'dogmatic' if I was familiar with dogma." "Hitler was dogmatic in his speeches which probably made him so successful for some time."

18. elegy - noun - a sorrowful poem or speech.

"I suppose this word is different from eulogy because it does not have to be heard at a funeral. They sure are similar!"

19. eloquent - adjective - persuasive and moving, especially in speech.

"Wow, I thought this word was a synonym for fancy... yes, I'm retarded."

19. familiar - embellish - verb - to add ornamental or fictitious details.

"Many men tend to embellish a certain physical feature." (I know this breaks the pattern but I just had to!)

19. familiar - enigma - noun - a puzzle; a mystery.

19. familiar - erratic - adjective - wandering and unpredictable.

19. familiar - esoteric - adjective - known or understood only by a few.

20. ethos - noun - beliefs or character of a group.

"The ethos of Christian Scientists seem quite crazy to most outsiders when in reality, their ethos are truly fucked."



Friday, January 16, 2009

Vocabulary Entry 2, fuck it

6. axiom - noun - premise; postulate; self-evident truth.

"It's an axiom that my boobs are big. BAM!"

7. banal - adjective - predictable; clichéd; boring.

"I like when guys start sentences like so, 'See... you're different, I'm used to girls that are banal in bed...'"

8. belfry - noun - bell tower; room in which a bell is hung.

"I can't believe I didn't fucking know what a belfry was."

8. familiar - bombastic - adjective - pompous in speech and manner.

8. familiar - boor - noun - crude person; one lacking manners or taste.

9. burnish - verb - to polish.

(Hmm, let's hope this can be used figuratively, as well).

"I totally need to burnish my Dr. Mario skills because that's all Matt does and it's embarrassing to suck so hard in front of him."

9. familiar - catalyst - noun - something that brings about a change in something else.

9. familiar - chaos - noun - great disorder; confused situation. (Really?)

10. coalesce - verb - to grow together to form a single whole.

"It was so weird! The other day I read in the news that two healthy, 'normal' twins coalesced into Siamese twins!" (Yeah, I know. It's quite the retarded sentence.)

10. familiar - connoisseur - noun - a person with expert knowledge or discriminating tastes.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Vocabulary Entry 1 Continued

Well, looks like I already got some good responses to my very first vocabulary blog entry. Thank you, folks. A big thanks to Neil because I can tell your commentary is really going to help me learn these words. I'll go ahead and begin now:

3. familiar - aesthetic - adjective - concerning the appreciation of beauty.

3. familiar - affected - adjective - phony; artificial.

3. familiar - alleviate - verb - to make more bearable.

3. familiar - amalgamate - verb - to combine; mix together.

3. familiar - ambiguous - adjective - doubtful; uncertain; can be interpreted several ways.

4. amulet - noun - ornament worn as a charm against evil spirits.

(I'm having a hard time figuring out how to underline so I will just put the sentence in quotation marks tonight.)

"I have never encountered anyone who wore an actual amulet but perhaps some would think my wearing a cross is an amulet against satanic spirits. Wait, do Catholics wear amulets a lot? It's hard to keep up with all their saints and whatnot."

4. familiar - analogous - adjective - similar or alike in some way; equivalent to.

4. familiar - verb - antagonize - to annoy or provoke anger.

4. familiar - noun - lack of interest or emotion.

4. familiar - arbitrary - adjective - determined by chance or impulse.

4. familiar - arbitrate - verb - to judge a dispute between two opposing parties.

4. familiar - archaic - adjective - ancient; old-fashioned.

4. familiar - articulate - adjective - able to speak clearly and expressively.

5. assail - verb - to attack; assault.

"I was shocked when my good friend's girlfriend assailed me accusing me of wanting to be with her boyfriend when she, in fact, is the one who hooks up with men by cheating and being dishonest."

5. familiar - audacious - adjective - fearless; daring.

6. austere - adjective - severe or stern in appearance; undecorated.

"As I approached the austere house, I mustered up the courage to enter, then zombies came out and ate my brains."

MORE TO COME TOMORROW! It's hard trying to get the 10 new word goal.

Vocabulary Entry 1

Now that I am no longer in class, I believe it is time to start up a new vocabulary based blog. I would like to take the GRE at the end of the year some time. I heard that the vocab section of the GRE is quite intense; so why not tackle the vocabulary as one separate entity? Well I purchased the Kaplan GRE Exam Vocabulary Prep! There are 500 vocabulary words in this book. The book has separated the vocabulary into three sections: hard, harder, and hardest. I like the sound of that. I would like to take a certain amount of time out of each day to try and tackle a set of words. Let's set a goal of ten a day and I will not count ones ones that I am already familiar with. However, these familiar words will be included. I will simply note next to the word, "- familiar".

Let's break down the format a bit, shall we? I will start at the beginning of the book and have the first word be number one from the hard section. I will restart the numbers once I progress into the next section. Each word will be listed next to it's number. After the word, the part of speech will be specified in italics. I will then proceed to use the word in a sentence that I have written all by my lonesome. The sentence I wrote with the newly learned vocab word will be underlined. So let's get this show on the road! Who doesn't like vocabulary, anyways!?

1. Abeyance - noun - temporary suppression or suspension.

I was forced to stay in abeyance from the gym after the anal tear I suffered.

1. familiar - Abstain - verb - to choose not to do something

1. familiar - Abyss - noun - an extremely deep hole

2. Acme - noun - highest point; summit; the highest level or degree attainable.

I find it hard to believe that I will ever reach my acme when it comes to sex.

2. familiar - Adulterate - verb - to make impure.

2. familiar - Advocate - verb - to speak in favor of.

3. Aerie - noun - a nest built high in the air; an elevated, often secluded, dwelling.

My little brother destroyed the beautiful robin's aerie as he climbed the tree.



Obviously I have not made my goal of ten words but I will! More to come later tonight hopefully!