Recently Added Articles Page #124

pejorative - vocabulary

adjectiveCharacterized by a belittling, disparaging, or derogatory force or effect.nounThe statement itself. Never . . . use the word gossip in a pejorative sense. It’s the very stuff of biography and has to be woven in. To suggest that the perso...

penultimate - vocabulary

adjectiveNext to the last. When I was a school-boy, during the penultimate decade of the last century, the chief American grammar was “A Practical Grammar of the English Language,” by Thomas W. Harvey.  This formidable work was almost purely syn...

penurious - vocabulary

adjectiveExcessively sparing in the use of money; extremely stingy; extremely poor or destitute. These new "malefactors of great wealth" are not just distant figures hurrying toward their private jets bound for some purchased paradise; no, in many ca...

pernicious - vocabulary

adjectiveCausing serious ruin or harm; injurious; deadly. The machine has had a pernicious effect upon virtue, pity, and love, and young men used to machines which induce inertia, and fear, are near impotents.—Edward Dahlberg ”No Love and No Than...

perquisite - vocabulary

nounA payment, advantage, benefit, or privilege received beyond regular income or salary; something claimed as an exclusive right.Note: The expression “perk” comes from perquisite. Assassination is the perquisite of princes.—A nineteenth-centur...

perspicacious, perspicacity - vocabulary

adjectivePerspicacious: having a keen mental understanding or perception; shrewd; astute; discerning.nounPerspicacity: keen mental understanding or perception; shrewdness; astuteness.Note: Do not confuse perspicacious with perspicuous or perspicacity...

perusal, peruse - vocabulary

nounPerusal: the act of reading carefully or thoughtfully; scrutiny; survey.verbPeruse: to read thoroughly and carefully; to examine or survey in detail. Call it the Pulitzer Early Warning System. In perusing the list of well-achieved journalistic Pu...

petulant - vocabulary

adjectiveShowing sudden or impatient irritation, especially over something trifling; irritable, peevish, fretful, petty. The faces of most American women over thirty are relief maps of petulant and bewildered unhappiness.—F. Scott Fitzgerald Letter...

phlegmatic - vocabulary

adjectiveNot easily roused to feeling, emotion, or action; composed, calm, self-possessed; having a sluggish, unemotional temperament. Phlegmatic natures can be inspired to enthusiasm only by being made into fanatics.—Friedrich Nietzsche Sämtliche...

pique - vocabulary

verbTo excite a degree of anger and resentment, as in She was piqued by their refusal to attend the party; to excite interest or curiosity in; to arouse or provoke to action. "It naturally happens this time of year that people get interested in IRAs,...

plebeian - vocabulary

adjectiveCommonplace, vulgar or coarse in nature; of or associated with the great masses of people; relating to or belonging to the ancient Roman plebs.nounA member of the common people; also a member of the ancient Roman plebs. The modern picture of...

poignant - vocabulary

adjectiveProfoundly touching or moving; strong in mental appeal; affecting the emotions. There are few sorrows, however poignant, in which a good income is of no avail.—Logan Pearsall Smith “Life and Human Nature” Afterthoughts (1931)...

portend - vocabulary

verbTo indicate in advance, especially by previous signs; to presage, foreshadow; to signify, mean. “Rise in Cases of West Nile May Portend an Epidemic” —Denise Grady New York Times Headline, July 26, 2007...

portent - vocabulary

nounAnything that indicates what is about to happen; a significant threat; a marvel or prodigy, something amazing. Self-parody is the first portent of age.—Larry McMurtry Some Can Whistle (1989)...

precarious - vocabulary

adjectiveDependent on circumstances beyond one’s control; lacking in stability or security; subject to change; based on unproved premises; perilous. A politician never forgets the precarious nature of elective life. We have never established a prac...

precedence, precedent, precedential - vocabulary

nounPrecedence: the fact or act of preceding, as in The first patent application receives precedence in Europe; priority in place, time, or rank because of superiority, as in The company relied on its precedence as the leading producer of computer ch...

preclude - vocabulary

verbTo prevent the occurrence or existence of something; to exclude from something. Anyone who has breast-fed knows two things for sure: The baby wants to be fed at the most inopportune times, in the most inopportune places, and the baby will prevail...

precocious - vocabulary

adjectiveUnusually mature or advanced in development, especially in mental aptitude; usually in reference to children. What might be taken for a precocious genius is the genius of childhood. When the child grows up, it disappears without a trace. It ...

precursor - vocabulary

nounA person or thing that precedes; a person, animal, or thing indicating the approach of something or someone, a harbinger. In his very rejection of art Walt Whitman is an artist. He tried to produce a certain effect by certain means and he succeed...

predilection - vocabulary

nounA tendency or inclination to think favorably about something, a preference, as in a predilection for Mozart. The parrot holds its food for prim consumption as daintily as any debutante, [with] a predilection for pot roast, hashed-brown potatoes, ...

premise - vocabulary

nounA proposition on which an argument is based or from which a conclusion is drawn. In law, premises refers to land and buildings on the land.verbTo assume or state as a proposition in an argument. The utopian male concept which is the premise of ma...

prerogative - vocabulary

nounExclusive privilege or right, obtained or exercise because of rank or office, as in prerogatives of a member of Congress. Elegance is not the prerogative of those who have just escaped from adolescence, but of those who have already taken possess...

prescience, prescient - vocabulary

nounPrescience: knowledge of events before they take place.adjectivePrescient: perceiving significance of events before they take place.Note: The first syllable is pronounced either pree- or presh-. He said, I’m just out of hospital, but I’m stil...

presumption, presumptuous - vocabulary

nounPresumption: that which may be logically assumed to be true until disproved; an assumption. In law, a fact assumed because of the proof of other facts; in patent law, for example, a patent enjoys a “presumption of validity” because it was iss...

prevaricate - vocabulary

verbTo use ambiguous or evasive language for the purpose of deceiving or diverting attention; to tell a falsehood; to lie. Lying is the same as alcoholism. Liars prevaricate even on their deathbeds.—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov Letter to the writer A.N....