Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Vocab list #9

Abortive: Failing to produce the intended result
    
Bruit: Spread a report or rumor widely
   
Contumelious: (Of behavior) scornful and insulting
   
Dictum: A formal pronouncement from an authoritative source
  
Ensconce: Establish or settle:
    
Iconoclastic: Characterized by attacks on established beliefs or institutions
  
In medias res: A narrative that begins somewhere in the middle of a story rather than the beginning
    
Internecine: Destructive to both sides in a conflict
    
Maladroit: Ineffective or bumbling; clumsy
    
Maudlin: Self-pityingly or tearfully sentimental, often through drunkenness
    
Modulate: Exert a modifying or controlling influence on
    
Portentous: Done in a pompously or overly solemn manner
    
Prescience: The power to foresee the future
    
Quid pro quo: A favor or advantage granted in return for something
    
Salubrious: Health-giving, healthy
    
Saturnalian: Of unrestrained and intemperate jollity; riotously merry; dissolute
   
Touchstone: A standard or criterion by which something is judged or recognized
  
Traumatic: Emotionally disturbing or distressing
  
Vitiate: Spoil or impair the quality or efficiency of, the legal validity of
 
Waggish: Humorous in a playful, mischievous, or facetious manner
   

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