Word of the Week
The Word of the Week was intended as a fun way to engage the campus community with interesting words. The words were selected based on their exotic nature, their usefulness, or their amusement value. The words were posted in two places in Gould Library: on the bookshelf in the games area and in the Rookery, both on the 4th floor. The Word of the Week was changed every Monday.
Previous Words:
quietus | puckish |dialectic |altruism |valetudinary | mawkish | indolence | chicanery | erudite | fait accompli | rhabdomancy |prolix | daguerreotype | bathos | querimonious | sophist | adduce | gyre | mangonel | filmography | nevermas | hegemony | affable| psychopomp | Weltanschaunng | McGuffin | diluvial | bandersnatch |epicure | circumspect |perserverate | absinthe |flout
schadenfreude \SHAH-dn-froi-duh\ (noun)
1. Enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others
Example Sentence:
Despite herself, Jane felt a tingle of schadenfreude at her sister-in-law’s recounting of her latest woes.
1. A discharge or acquittance given on payment of sums due, or clearing of accounts; a receipt.
2. a. Discharge or release from life; death, or that which brings death. b. Final settlement or extinction.
*3. (By assoc. with quiet.) Something which quiets or represses
Example Sentence:
After the news report, a sense of quietus settled over the dinner table, stilling the idle chatter.puckish \PUH-kish\ (adjective)
1. Impish, whimsical
Example Sentence:
Bert delighted in teasing his colleagues, and fortunately they recognized his puckish behavior as good-natured and tolerated it cheerfully.dialectic \die-eh-LEH-tik\ (noun)
1. a. The art of critical examination into the truth of an opinion; the investigation of truth by discussion : in earlier English use, a synonym of logic as applied to formal rhetorical reasoning; logical argumentation or disputation *b. In more general use, the existence or working of opposing forces, tendencies, etc.
Example Sentence:
The economist suggested that modern capitalism owed a great deal to the endless dialectic that could be found within the system.
altruism \AL-troo-iz-um\ (noun)
1. Unselfish interest in the welfare of others
2. Behavior by an animal that is not beneficial to or may be harmful to itself but that benefits others of its species
Example Sentence:
Damien displays true altruism through his volunteer work and charitable giving.1. Not in robust or vigorous health; more or less weakly, infirm, or delicate; invalid: a. Of the body, etc. b. Of persons. (In later use freq. implying anxious attention to the state of one's own health.)
Example sentence:
1. Nauseating; having a nauseating or disgusting taste or smell. Also in later use: tasting sickly or insipid.
2. fig. Imbued with sickly, false, or feeble sentiment; overly sentimental.
"With a title like Angel Baby, you'd expect Michael Rymer's first film to be a mawkish ode to parenthood." (Psychology Today, Jan-Feb 8/1, 1997)
indolence \IN-duh-lens\ (noun)
1. Insensibility or indifference to pain; want of feeling
2. Freedom from pain; a state of rest or ease, in which neither pain nor pleasure is felt
3. The disposition to avoid trouble; love of ease; laziness, slothfulness, sluggishness
Freed from the need to work by his inheritance, the young man planned to spend his life in indolence and indulgence, despite his fiance's vocal disapproval.
chicanery \ shih-KANE-uh-ree or chi-KANE-uh-ree \ (noun)
1. Deception by artful subterfuge or sophistry : trickery
2. A piece of sharp practice (as at law) : trick
Example sentence:
In the old stories, Anansi the Spider is capable of such a level of chicanery it’s no wonder he almost always got his way.erudite \ER-eh-dit\ (adjective)
1. Of persons and the faculties: a. Trained, well-instructed b. Learned, scholarly
2. An erudite person, a scholar
Example Sentence:
His erudite observation caught Leslie off-guard sandwiched as it was between observations on the weather and the musings on the local sports team's performance.
fait accompli \FAY-tuh-kom-PLEA or FEH-ta-kom-PLEA\ (noun)
1. An accomplished fact; an action which is completed (and irreversible) before affected parties learn of its having been undertaken
Example sentence:
“The thing I like the least about dealing with him,” Lisa told Mary during their weekly lunch, “is that he hands me one fait accompli after another and expects me to deal with it.”rhabdomancy \RAB-d-MAN(T)-sea\ (noun)
1. Divination by means of a rod or wand; spec. the art of discovering ores, springs of water, etc., in the earth by means of a divining-rod
Example sentence:
Louise dabbled in rhabdomancy in her spare time, wandering the fields with her divining-rod in search of springs and the occasional lost valuable.prolix \proh-LIKS\ (adjective)
1. Unduly prolonged or drawn out : too long
2. Marked by or using an excess of words
Example Sentence:
daguerreotype \d-GEH-roh-tip or d-GEH-oh-tip\ (noun)
1. a. One of the earliest photographic processes, first published by Daguerre of Paris in 1839, in which the impression was taken upon a silver plate sensitized by iodine, and then developed by exposure to the vapour of mercury. *b. A portrait produced by this process.Example sentence:
Nancy collects daguerreotypes of Egypt from the late 19th century, as her fascination with Egyptology is matched only by her fascination with early photography.
1. Depth; lowest phase; bottom
2. Ludicrous descent from the elevated to the commonplac ein writing or speech; anticlimax
3. A 'come-down' in one's career
“One good thing about suffering from such bathos,” said Tom as he smiled ruefully at Cindy. “There’s only one way to go from here, and that’s up.”querimonious \quer-MO-ni-ous\ (adjective)
1. Full of complaint; apt to complain
Example Sentence:
Even before he had left the house, Sam could hear his Aunt Ruby in the kitchen, her querimonoius voice raised in disgust at the existence of decaffeinated coffee.1. In ancient Greece one specially engaged in the pursuit or communication of knowledge; esp. one who undertook to give instruction in intellectual and ethical matters in return for payment
2. One who is distinguished for learning; a wise or learned man
3. One who makes use of fallacious arguments; a specious reasoner
Example Sentence:
The philosophy professor had such a reputation as the campus sophist that his students took to calling him ‘Socrates.’1. To offer as an example, reason or proof in discussion or analysis
Example sentence:
Having adduced to the scientific community numerous instances of her work having been plagiarized, Jan was appalled when her claims were dismissed as petty rivalry between lab mates.gyre \rhymes with 'liar'\ (noun)
1. A turning round, revolution, whirl; a circular or spiral turn
2. A ring, circle, spiral; also, a vortex
Example Sentence:
"Turning and turning in the widening gyre/The falcon cannot hear the falconer," reads the first two lines of W.B. Yeats' poem "The Second Coming."1. A military engine formerly used for throwing stones and other missles (esp. incendaries) against an enemy's position, and consisting of a lever arm held and released under tension in a wooden frame
Example Sentence:
There had been years of perrieres and mangonels trundling along rutty highways from one siege to another, to hurl destruction over castle walls. (T.H. White, Once and Future King III xxxv. 442)
filmography \fil-MO-gr-fee\ (noun)
1. a. A list of films of a particular director, producer, actor, etc., or of those dealing with any particular theme
b. The systematic description of, and information about, films.
Example Sentence:
The Internet Movie Database has quickly become one of the best ways online to do at least superficial research into an actor or director's filmography.1. A time or date which never arrives
Example Sentence:
hegemony \hi-JE-m-nee or HE-j-MO-nee\ (noun)
1. Leadership, predominance, preponderance; especially the leadership or predominant authority of one state of a confederacy or union over the others: originally used in reference to the states of ancient Greece, then transferred to the German states and other modern applications
Example Sentence:
The struggles of one Gaulish village to escape the hegemony of the Roman Empire is the core conflict of the comic Asterix.affable \A-fuh-bul\ (adjective)
*1. Being pleasant and at ease in talking to others
2. Characterized by ease and friendliness
Example Sentence:
"Miss Wilson was as affable and courteous as heart could wish, and though I was in no very conversable humor myself, the two ladies between them managed to keep up a pretty continuous fire of small talk." (Anne Bronte, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall)psychopomp \SI-ko-POMP\ (noun)
1. A conductor of souls to the place of the dead. Also, the spiritual guide of a living person's soul; a person who acts as a guide of the soul. In Greek, a name applied to Charon; more commonly applied to Hermes, the Anubis of Egypt, and to Apollo.
Example Sentence:
The Greek vase showed Hermes in his role of psychopomp, conducting the dead hero's soul to the underworld.
Weltanschauung \VELT-an-shau-ng\ (noun)
1. A particular philosophy or view of life: a concept of the world held by an individual or group
Example Sentence:
Despite much discussion, the group of friends could find no one Weltanschauung
that they all subscribed to, since each one of them saw life in different ways.
1. In a film (now also in a novel or other form of narrative fiction): a particular event, object, factor, etc., initially presented as being of great significance to the story, but often having little actual importance for the plot as it develops.
Example Sentence:
“In regard to the tune, we have a name in the studio, and we call it the “MacGuffin.’ It is the mechanical element that usually crops up in any story. In crook stories it is always the necklace and in spy stories it is always the papers.” (Alfred Hitchcock, Lecture Columbia University)1. Of or belonging to a deluge or flood, esp. to the Flood as recorded in Genesis
*2. (Geology) Applied to the theory which explained certain geological phenomena by reference to a general deluge, or to periods of catastrophic action of water
Example Sentence:
"Modern geology has almost banished such views as the excavation of a great valley by a single diluvial wave." (Charles Darwin, The Origin of the Species)bandersnatch \BANDR-snatch\ (noun)
1. A fleet, furious, fabulous creature, of dangerous propensities, immune to bribery and too fast to flee from; later, used vaguely to suggest any creature with such qualities
Example Sentence:
In a letter from May 15, 1966, C.S. Lewis wrote "No one ever influenced Tolkien--you might as well try to influence a bandersnatch."1. one with sensitive and discriminating tastes especially in food and wine
Example Sentence:
Claude was an epicure who thought it was essential for everyone to know as much as he did about how to choose the right wine to complement any meal
circumspect \SER-kum-spekt\ (adjective)
1. careful to consider all circumstances and possible consequences : prudent
Example Sentence:
Jillian is a very circumspect person, so she did some serious thinking before she agreed to the job.
perseverate \pur-SEV-uh-rate\ (verb)
1. to repeat or recur persistently
2. to go back over previously covered ground
Example Sentence:
To ensure the accuracy of his data, the research scientist necessarily perseverates, repeating each experiments many time and comparing the results of the trials.
1. wormwood; especially : a common European wormwood (Artemisia absinthium)
2. a green liquer flavored with wormwood or a substitute, anise, and other aromatics
Example Sentence:
Somerset Maugham is among the many writers of the 1800s whose characters can often be found sipping absinthe in European cafes, oblivious to the sometimes fatal toxins present in that then-fashionable cocktail.
flout \rhymes with "out"\ (verb)
1. to treat with contempt : mock, insult
2. to engage in or practice mocking : sneer
Example Sentence:
Martin longs to be considered a rebel and boasts of how he flouts the rules at school, sneaking off to meet his pals when he's supposed to be in class.