Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Words, Words, Words

I'm studying for the GRE - mind-numbing business - and some of the words in the Vocabulary Box are just amusing. Here are some of my favorites (See if you know or can guess the meaning before you read the definition):

Cosset - (kah suht) - to pamper; treat with great care.

We would love to cosset you at Enrichment night!

Now, if I said that we'd probably have an empty house because everyone would be scared of what's on the program.


Diaphanous - (die aaf uh nuhs) - allowing light to show through; delicate

"My your curtains are so diaphanous!”

Secretly I've used this word for years.


Panegyric - (paan uh jeer ihk) - elaborate praise; formal hymn of praise

The director’s panegyric for the donor who kept his charity going was heart-warming.

I'm not really sure what this sounds like, but it doesn't sound nice.


Legerdemain - (lehj uhr duh mayn) - trickery

The little boy thought his legerdemain was working on his mother, but she in fact knew about every stolen cookie.

What she really wondered was who the heck taught him to say legerdemain...


Contumacious - (kahn tuh may shuhs) - rebellious

The J is a contumacious teenager.

And if he thinks I used big words before, now he’ll really be confused.


And my favorite:


Pulchritude - (puhl kruh tood) - beauty

The mortals gazed in admiration at Venus, stunned by her incredible pulchritude.

Seriously?? Such an ugly word for a thing of beauty? I think this one should be tucked away in the vocab box and left there forever.


Ok, it's back to my 494 other vocab words for me! You're jealous, I know. I'll send them to you when I'm done if you'd like.

8 comments:

Sue said...

It will do J good to wonder what you're talking about. Remember when he was little (maybe 5 or 6) and we were playing the dictionary game and he got the word venal which means 'easily bribed' and J used it in this sentence "My Grandma is very venal". Ahh and weren't we amazed at his brain power!

Tammy said...

Wow! Are you going to tell a story using all these fabulous words as your talent for Enrichment? Now that would be....cool. I better borrow that list so I can use a better word than "cool".

Mandy said...

Wow! Those make any big words I know look pretty common. Did you test Dad on them? He always knew all the words in the dictionary game!

Sue said...

Ha Mandy! You are so right! Dad read this post and whispered that he knows all these words and has used them in conversations and what's the big deal.

Megan said...

Haha I would love to hear Dad use these words in a normal conversation... I bet he'd get some funny looks!

Anonymous said...

Obviously my children have been excessively cosseted regarding acquisition of a full vocabulary. This no doubt is because of a contumacious attitude toward advanced learning. I would wax panegyrical about your accomplishments, but that would require great legerdemain, lest the diaphanous nature of such leaning be revealed.
Love,
Dad

Megan said...

Ha! Dad you're good!:)

Becky said...

Huh. Yeah, I'll just stick to my meager little vocabulary. :) ha ha!