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abstemious Moderate, not self-indulgent, especially in eating and drinking. eg For a man in his twenties, he was surprisingly abstemious.

acme The highest point or period (of achievement, success, etc); the peak of perfection. His apartment displayed the acme of good taste.

anathema 1. A detested person or thing. 2. A curse of the Church, excommunicating someone or denouncing a doctrine, or a person or thing so cursed. Her new boyfriend is anathema to me.

bellicose Eager to fight; warlike. Jimmy and his gang were in a bellicose mood.

bona fide, bona fides “Bona fide” is an adjectival phrase meaning “in good faith”, hence “genuine”. “Bona fides” is a noun phrase meaning “good faith”, hence “sincerity and honesty of intention”. Be careful not to spell them “bone fide” or “bone fides”. He is a bona fide tourist. He was at pains to establish his liberal bona fides.

cajole To persuade by flattery or deceit “into” or “out of”. I managed to cajole him out of becoming a professional footballer.

clinquant Glittering, as with tinsel or spangles. We witnessed the clinquant display on Oxford Street.

concinnity Elegance or neatness of literary or artistic style. The concinnity of his sonnet was dazzling.

egregious is unusual because its original meaning, “remarkably good, distinguished” has been ousted by the exact opposite, “outstandingly bad, shocking”. It comes from Latin grex, “flock”, and originally meant “towering above the flock”, ie “prominent”. Now it means “prominent because bad”. The musician was fined for egregious abuses of copyright.

emacity A fondness for buying things. During our trip to Paris, my wife demonstrated her remarkable emacity.

elide The standard meaning is “to omit”, most frequently used to describe how some sounds or syllables are dropped in speech, as in contractions such as “I’ll” or “he’s”. The result is that the two surrounding syllables are merged; this has given rise to a new sense of “join together, merge”. This is now common in general use. The two things elided in his mind.

halcyon Originally referred to a mythical bird said to calm the winds and the waves. The phrase “halcyon days”, referring to an idyllically happy period is occasionally incorrectly turned into “halcyonic days”. Remember those halcyon days at university?

hoi polloi is a derogatory phrase meaning “the ordinary people”. Hoi is an Ancient Greek word for the definite article “the”; the phrase hoi polloi translates as “the many”. This has led traditionalists to insist that it should not be used in English with “the”, since that would state the word the twice. Strangely, hoi polloi is sometimes used to mean “upper class”, the exact opposite of its normal meaning. This is not recommended, as you could be completely misunderstood. I’m off to the pub to hang out with hoi polloi.

ignoramus The correct plural of “ignoramus” is “ignoramuses”. This may sound odd, as the word is from Latin, leading one to think the plural ought to be “ignorami”. But it was never a noun in Latin, only a verb, meaning “we do not know”. The English word derives from a character in George Ruggle’s 1615 play Ignoramus, a satirical comedy exposing lawyers' ignorance. All my teachers at school are ignoramuses.

imbroglio A confused or complicated situation. Jeff tried in vain to explain how he had got himself into this imbroglio.

inchoate means “just begun” or “rudimentary, underdeveloped”. It does not mean “incoherent, chaotic” although it is often used incorrectly in these senses. He tries to give his work a finished look – but all the time it’s fatally inchoate.

jejune properly means “meagre, scanty; dull or uninteresting” and is used primarily of ideas and arguments. It derives from the Latin jejunus, “fasting”, and originally meant “without food”. In more recent decades, this meaning has lost ground to “puerile, childish, naive”, which has arisen by a somewhat bizarre association with “juvenile”. Although quite common, this should be avoided in favour of the many available alternatives. His essays are so jejune.

laconic (of speech or writing, or a speaker or writer). Brief, concise, terse. Mark was in a strangely laconic mood at dinner.

maladroit Clumsy; bungling. I wouldn’t put someone as maladroit as him in charge of the crystal vase.

misandry Hatred of men. Her public misandry meant she lost out on a promotion.

mumpsimus a traditional custom or notion, adhered to although it has been shown to be unreasonable. He still holds to the old mumpsimus that a woman’s place is in the kitchen.

nemesis 1. A means of punishment or downfall that is deserved or unavoidable. 2. A downfall caused by an unavoidable agent. In New York she first met her future husband and ultimately her nemesis.

noisome is a relatively uncommon word meaning “harmful, noxious” and has nothing to do with “noise”. It comes from the Middle English nay, related to annoy. The factory filled with noisome fumes.

obtuse Someone who is “obtuse” is “annoyingly sensitive or slow to understand”. Something which is “abstruse” is “obscure and difficult to understand”. To use obtuse to mean “obscure, difficult”, though often done, is not considered good style, and may be considered a mistake. She wondered if the doctor was being deliberately obtuse.

operose means “involving or displaying a lot of effort”. That has to be the most operose way of changing a light bulb.

paucity Smallness of number or quantity. We cancelled the embroidery classes because of a paucity of attendants.

peremptory means “admitting no denial or refusal” and not (perhaps by confusion with “perfunctory”) “abrupt, sudden”. A “peremptory decision” is not one that has been reached hastily but one that is definitive. “Just do it,” came the peremptory reply.

prevaricate Means “to act or speak in an evasive way”. Do not confuse with “procrastinate”, which means to “put off doing something”. The two meanings are closely related – if someone prevaricates they often also procrastinate – but the senses should be carefully distinguished. He prevaricated at the mention of the money.

putsch an attempt at political revolution; a violent uprising. You had better cut short your holiday, Terence, we’re having to deal with a boardroom putsch.

recherché 1. Carefully sought out; rare or exotic. 2. Farfetched, obscure. His Mongolian jazz collection was very recherché.

recrudescence (Of a disease or difficulty etc.) Breaking out again, especially after a dormant period. The authorities announced a recrudescence of foot-and-mouth in parts of the country.

recuse To object to, renounce; especially to object to (a judge) as prejudiced. The faculty recused the student’s paper.

regalia comes from Latin and is, technically speaking, the plural of the adjective regalis, meaning “royal”. In English today it behaves as a collective noun, similar to words such as “staff” or “government”. It can be used with either a singular or plural verb but has no other singular form. The regalia of Russian tsardom is now displayed in the Kremlin. Or: The regalia of Russian tsardom are now displayed in the Kremlin.

sardonic Grimly jocular; bitterly mocking or cynical. Fans of Larkin admired his sardonic wit.

sequacious 1. Inconsequent, incoherent. 2. Dependent, servile. The video game industry thrives on sequacious youth.

serendipitous This adjective is formed from “serendipity”, “the faculty of making pleasant discoveries by accident”. It does not mean “fortunate”. The recovery of the lost wedding ring was completely serendipitous.

tantamount Equivalent to. His silence was tantamount to a confession.

titivate should not be confused with the commoner “titillate”, “'to stimulate or excite”. “Titivate” means “to adorn or smarten up”. She titivated her hair.

turpitude Baseness, depravity, wickedness. She felt depressed by the turpitude of modern society.

vagarious means “erratic and unpredictable in behaviour or direction”. Derived from the Latin vagare, “to wander”. Young Martin’s behaviour at college has recently been rather vagarious.

vicarious 1. Done or experienced through another person. 2. Deputed, delegated. I read about mountain climbing and felt vicarious excitement.

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