晓竹天下 文创空间

【ab ovo】 \ab-OH-voh\, adverb:
From the beginning.

I will begin ab ovo -- at the very beginning.
-- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

The performers do not have to discover these techniques and processes ab ovo; they learn them from the previous generation, who learned them from their predecessors, and so on.
-- William L. Benzon, Beethoven's Anvil

Ab ovo is from Latin, literally, "from the egg."

【abattoir】 \AB-uh-twahr\, noun:
A slaughterhouse.

Cal's father works in the local abattoir and had found Cal a job there, too, but he quit after a week because he couldn't stand the smell.
-- Anatole Broyard, "Domesticated Violence", New York Times, August 20, 1983

While shooting down a triple espresso -- "I need the kick start" -- and looking for all the world like James Joyce buffed up on steroids, Ellroy rips into American culture like a chainsaw in an abattoir with the volume turned up.
-- Terry McCarthy, "James Ellroy Confidential", Time, May 21, 2001

And Lambar's shadow spread itself right before me, hovering in the attitude of a vulture in the vicinity of an abattoir.
-- Nuruddin Farah, Secrets

Abattoir comes from French, from abattre, "to beat down, to slaughter (an animal)," from a- (from Latin ad-) + battre, "to beat," from Latin battuere.

【abecedarian】 \ay-bee-see-DAIR-ee-uhn\, noun:
1. One who is learning the alphabet; hence, a beginner.
2. One engaged in teaching the alphabet.

adjective:
1. Pertaining to the letters of the alphabet.
2. Arranged alphabetically.
3. Rudimentary; elementary.

Lorraine Heggessey and executive producer Jeremy Mills adroitly tapped into a national obsession at exactly the right time, presenting the topic in a way that appealed to experts and abecedarians alike.
-- Victor Lewis-Smith, "Lords of the mobile dance", The Evening Standard, June 11, 2001

While much of the work resembled abecedarian attempts of a novice choreographer, "Duet," sensitively danced by Jennifer A. Cooper and William Petroni, is surprisingly sophisticated in its careful deployment of formal thematic manipulations in the service of emotional expression.
-- Lisa Jo Sagolla, "Open 24 Hours Dance Company", Back Stage, September 1, 1998

The approach may seem abecedarian today, but his was among the first endeavors of the sort.
-- Jennifer Liese, "May 1973", ArtForum, May 2003

It is also quite abecedarian in that it presents introductory material apt to be known by all linguists and Semitists.
-- Alan S. Kaye, "Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew", Journal of the American Oriental Society, January 1, 1994

Columba's poem is fittingly 'abecedarian', each stanza starts with a subsequent letter of the alphabet -- a harbinger of the Scottish appetite for cataloguing, and delight in craft.
-- WN Herbert, "A rhyme and a prayer", Scotland on Sunday, December 10, 2000

Abecedarian derives from Latin abecedarius, from the first four letters of the alphabet.

【abed】 \uh-BED\, adverb:
In bed.

When I lay abed as a boy in our ranch house, listening to those trucks growl their way up highway 281, the sound of those motors came to seem as organic as the sounds of the various birds and animals who were apt to make noises in the night.
-- Larry McMurtry, Roads: Driving America's Great Highways

Abed is the prefix a-, "in, on" (from Old English an) + bed (from Old English bedd).

【aberrant】 \a-BERR-unt; AB-ur-unt\, adjective:
Markedly different from an accepted norm; Deviating from the ordinary or natural type; abnormal.

The impulse toward individual expression is a recent and a possibly aberrant one in art.
-- Nicholas Delbanco, "From Echoes Emerge Original Voices", New York Times, June 21, 1999

These characters are so wild and aberrant they are close to appearing lunatics.
-- Bosley Crowther, "Who's Afraid of Audacity?", New York Times, July 10, 1966

But I could never accept the aberrant dictates of socialist realism which ruled out all mystery and turned literary activity into a propaganda exercise.
-- Mario Vargas Llosa, Making Waves

That which is aberrant is literally that which "wanders away from" what is accepted, ordinary, normal, natural, etc., aberrant being from Latin aberro, aberrare, to wander off, to lose one's way, from ab, away from + erro, errare, to wander.

【abeyance】 \uh-BAY-uhn(t)s\, noun:
Suspension; temporary cessation.

He was nineteen years old, and officially a medical student, though inevitably his studies were in abeyance for the duration of the war.
-- Ruth Brandon, Surreal Lives: The Surrealists 1917-1945

Her plans fell into abeyance when she parted from Franz Josef and traveled for five years.
-- Rebecca West, "Black Lamb and Grey Falcon", The Atlantic, January 1941

Abeyance derives from Medieval French abeance, "expectation," from abeer, from a-, "to" (from Latin ad-) + baer, beer, "to gape (at)," from Late Latin batare, "to gape."

【abjure】 \ab-JUR\, transitive verb:
1. To renounce under oath.
2. To renounce or reject solemnly; to recant; to reject; repudiate.
3. To abstain from; to shun.

abjure, on his knees, his heretical views that the Earth moves around the Sun.
-- Alan Gurney, Below the Convergence

He closed his eyes as he raised the goblet to his lips and took a small sip of the cool liquid, and then his face paled as he understood how sublime the taste of the forbidden drink was, and how easily one might become enslaved to it. There and then he resolved to abjure it totally.
-- A. B. Yehoshua, A Journey to the End of theMillennium

In the mid-1970's, a young European couple abjure middle-class comforts in favor of travel to India, where the wife, Sophie, grows disillusioned with Eastern spiritualism just as her husband, Matteo, is swept up in it.
-- Laurel Graeber, "New and Noteworthy Paperbacks", New York Times, January 12, 1997

Abjure comes from Latin abjurare, "to deny upon oath," from ab-, "away" + jurare, "to swear." It is related to jury, "a body of persons sworn to give a verdict on a given matter."

【ablution】 \uh-BLOO-shun\, noun:
1. The act of washing or cleansing; specifically, the washing of the body, or some part of it (as in a religious rite).
2. The water used in cleansing.

Worshipers, who have performed their ablutions in the basement before entering the prayer hall, individually prepare themselves for participation in the communal worship.
-- Jane I. Smith, Islam in America

There is . . . a large fountain in the center, beneath an opening in the roof through which the sun streams down to meet the rising water, so that ablutions required of worshipers before they pray can be performed inside the building.
-- Mary Lee Settle, "A Sacred Spa Where Sultans Led an Empire", New York Times, July 8, 1990

He went straight to the loo to begin his usual ablutions, soaping his cheeks and neck.
-- Brooks Hansen, Perlman's Ordeal

In fact, writing -- more exactly, composing in your head -- formal poetry may be recommended in solitary confinement as a kind of therapy, alongside pushups and cold ablutions.
-- Joseph Brodsky, "The Writer in Prison", New York Times, October 13, 1996

Ablution comes from Latin ablutio, from abluere, "to wash, to remove by washing, to wash away," from ab-, "away from" + luere, "to wash."

【abnegate】 \AB-nih-gayt\, transitive verb:
1. To refuse or deny oneself; to reject; to renounce.
2. To give up (rights, claims, etc.); to surrender; to relinquish.

An exaggerated veneration for an exceptional individual will allow worshipers "to abnegate responsibility, looking to the great man for salvation or for fulfillment" that we should work out for ourselves.
-- Christina Hardyment, "The intoxicating allure of great men" review of Heroes: Saviors Traitors and Supermen by Lucy Hughes-Hallett, Independent, October 19, 2004

Adrift and divided, lacking intelligent leadership from the White House, the members of Congress have chosen to abnegate their constitutional responsibility in the hope that the blunt, crude mechanism of Gramm-Rudman will compensate for the failure of political will.
-- Evan Thomas, "Look Ma! No hands!'", Time, December 23, 1985

Feed no more blossoms
to the wind, abnegate the constellations,
negate the sea and what is left
of your world? What is left then?
-- Alessandra Lynch, "Excommunication", American Poetry Review, July/August 2003

Abnegate is a back-formation from abnegation, from Late Latin abnegatio, abnegation-, from Latin abnegare, "to refuse; to refute," from ab-, "away" + negare, "to deny."

【abominate】 \uh-BOM-uh-nayt\, transitive verb:
To hate in the highest degree; to detest intensely; to loathe; to abhor.

I had no wish to study or learn anything, and as for Latin, I abominated it.
-- Charles Tyng, Before the Wind

Sir Laurence, he said, smiling wanly, "I detest literature. I abominate the theatre. I have a horror of culture. I am only interested in magic!"
-- John Lahr (editor), The Diaries of Kenneth Tynan

Abominate comes from Latin abominari, "to deprecate as a bad omen, to hate, to detest," from ab- + omen, "an omen."

【aborning】 \uh-BOR-ning\, adverb:
1. While being produced or born.

adjective:
1. Being produced or born.

In universities at least as much as anywhere else, vast floods of words pour forth to no useful end. Nothing would be lost if they had died aborning.
-- Loren Lomasky, "Talking the talk: Have universities lost sight of why they exist?", Reason, May 2001

In "Base-Ball: How to Become a Player" he expounds on the importance of the sport's vital edges: pickoffs, relay throws, brushback pitches, drawing the infield in or moving it out, hit-and-run plays, signals -- all commonplace today, but in 1888 only aborning.
-- Bryan Di Salvatore, A Clever Base-Ballist

Nine months later, ABC Washington bureau chief George Watson left to join the aborning Cable News Network, taking several staffers with him.
-- Judy Flander, "Catching up with Katie Couric", Saturday Evening Post, September 1, 1992

Aborning is derived from a-, "in the act of" + English dialect borning, "birth."

【abrogate】 \AB-ruh-gayt\, transitive verb:
1. To annul or abolish by an authoritative act.
2. To put an end to; to do away with.

He also knows that failure to secure a clear unionist majority will leave the UUP [Ulster Unionist Party] leader vulnerable to those pressing for an assembly manifesto which would effectively threaten to abrogate the agreement.
-- "Politeness could not mask gulf within the UUP", Irish Times, May 20, 1998

The Court had made clear that the Federal Government was one of "limited and enumerated powers," Brann said, adding, "One of those powers is not to abrogate a state's immunity in its own courts."
-- Linda Greenhouse, "Justices Seem Ready to Tilt More Toward States in Federalism", New York Times, April 1, 1999

So why is Washington seeking to abrogate the ABM Treaty, to push ahead with its anti-ballistic missile Star Wars programme?
-- Simon Jenkins, "Thanks so much for having me, Mr Blair", Times (London), April 19, 2000

Abrogate derives from Latin abrogare, "to repeal a law wholly, to annul," from ab-, "away from" + rogare, "to ask, to inquire, to question; also, to propose a law."

【abscond】 \ab-SKOND\, intransitive verb:
To depart secretly; to steal away and hide oneself -- used especially of persons who withdraw to avoid arrest or prosecution.

The criminal is not concerned with influencing or affecting public opinion: he simply wants to abscond with his money or accomplish his mercenary task in the quickest and easiest way possible so that he may reap his reward and enjoy the fruits of his labours.
-- Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism

Pearl, now an orphan (her father having absconded shortly after her conception), has been taken to live with her great-aunt Margaret in the north of England.
-- Zoe Heller, Everything You Know

Abscond comes from Latin abscondere, "to conceal," from ab-, abs-, "away" + condere, "to put, to place."

【abstemious】 \ab-STEE-mee-uhs\, adjective:
1. Sparing in eating and drinking; temperate; abstinent.
2. Sparingly used or consumed; used with temperance or moderation.
3. Marked by or spent in abstinence.

They were healthy and abstemious; their chief pleasure was reading and Oliver was a life member of the London Library.
-- Sylvia Townsend Warner, The Music at Long Verney

For a man who trafficked in excess, he was surprisingly abstemious.
-- Ralph Blumenthal, Stork Club

When the 1796 outbreak of yellow fever turned into an epidemic, the frightened citizens followed each preventive vogue: herb tea, cold baths, cream of tartar, vinegar, camphor and abstemious diets.
-- Christina Vella, Intimate Enemies

In the clubby world of the Senate, the elder Gore was an aloof figure whose "divinity student blue" suits and abstemious habits (no cigarettes, little alcohol, and a daily swim in the Senate pool) created the aura "of a man just come from a powerful hell-and-brimstone sermon."
-- Bill Turque, Inventing Al Gore: A Biography

Abstemious comes from Latin abstemius, from ab-, abs-, "away from" + the root of temetum, "intoxicating drink."

【abstruse】 \ab-STROOS; uhb-\, adjective:
Difficult to comprehend or understand.

Einstein's theories of relativity, so abstruse yet so disturbing in the popular press of the 1930s.
-- David J. Skal, Screams of Reason

One should be particularly suspicious when abstruse mathematical concepts (like the axiom of choice in set theory) that are used rarely, if at all, in physics -- and certainly never in chemistry or biology -- miraculously become relevant in the humanities or the social sciences.
-- Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont, Fashionable Nonsense

What attracts students to the study of a foreign language is not its appearance as an abstruse code saying the very same things that are said more simply in their mother tongue, but, rather, the opening up of a new world by the foreign language.
-- Jackie-Ann Ross, "New Zealand's Educational TV"

Abstruse comes from Latin abstrusus, past participle of abstrudere, "to push away from any place, to hide," from ab-, abs-, "away from" + trudere, "to push, to thrust."

abulia \uh-BOO-lee-uh; uh-BYOO-\, noun:
Loss or impairment of the ability to act or to make decisions.

I was suffering from an aboulia, you know. I couldn't seem to make decisions.
-- Anatole Broyard, "Reading and Writing; (Enter Pound and Eliot)", New York Times, May 30, 1982

There's little escape from her black hole of abulia.
-- James Saynor, "Woman in the Midst of a Nervous Breakdown", New York Times, June 12, 1994

Abulia derives from Greek a-, "without" + boule, "will." The adjective form is abulic.

【accede】 \ak-SEED\, intransitive verb:
1. To agree or assent; to give in to a request or demand.
2. To become a party to an agreement, treaty, convention, etc.
3. To attain an office or rank; to enter upon the duties of an office.

Well, after much blustering and standing and sitting, he acceded to my demand.
-- Alfred Alcorn, Murder in the Museum of Man

Jiang Zemin, the Chinese president, announced that China would accede to the Information Technology Agreement signed last winter, which will eliminate China's steep tariffs on imported computer and telecommunications equipment.
-- John M. Broder, "U.S. and China Reach Trade Pacts but Clash on Rights", New York Times, October 30, 1997

She is looking down at him with a tender smile, as if he were a prince, Harry thinks, and she a servant, grateful to accede to his every whim.
-- Millicent Dillon, Harry Gold

Accede derives from Latin accedere, "to approach, to accede," from ad-, "toward, to" + cedere, "to move, to yield."

【acclimate】 \uh-KLY-mit; AK-luh-mayt\, transitive and intransitive verb:
To accustom or become accustomed to a new climate, environment, or situation.

Getting acclimated to being in the suburbs, Sally? Mrs. Westin asked.
-- Julia Slavin, The Woman Who Cut Off Her Leg at the Maidstone Club and Other Stories

The Korbels did not have much time to pull their lives together and acclimate themselves to English culture.
-- Ann Blackman, Seasons of Her Life

Acclimate is from French acclimater, from a-, "to" (from Latin ad-) + climat, "climate," from Late Latin clima, climat-, from Greek klima, "inclination; the supposed slope of the earth toward the pole; region; clime," from klinein, "to lean."

【acerbic】 \uh-SUR-bik\, adjective:
Sharp, biting, or acid in temper, expression, or tone.

But more than that, he is a social critic, and an efficient one, acerbic and devastating.
-- Benoit Aubin, "Quebec's King of Comedy", Maclean's, August 27, 2001

Since I started out as a writer many years ago, I have built a reputation as an acerbic, mean-spirited observer of the human condition.
-- Joe Queenan, My Goodness: A Cynic's Short-Lived Search for Sainthood

Joey gained a reputation as a smart aleck adept at delivering acerbic one-liners.
-- "Joseph Heller, Author of 'Catch-22,' Dies at 76", New York Times, December 14, 1999

Acerbic comes from Latin acerbus, "bitter, sour, severe, harsh."

【acme】 \ACK-mee\, noun:
The highest point of something; the highest level or degree attainable.

In 1990 Iraq's Saddam Hussein aimed to corner the world oil market through military aggression against Kuwait (also aimed at Saudi Arabia); control of oil, a product of land, represented the acme of his ambitions.
-- Richard Rosecrance, The Rise of the Virtual State

So we drove around looking at daffodils and exploring countryside hamlets instead of lakeside tourist traps. These should not be scorned, however, by a browser interested in the curious categories of British humor, one of which achieves a kind of acme in funny postcards on sale in such places. "The weather's here," went one postcard I saw, "I wish you were lovely."
-- Joseph Lelyveld, "The Poet's Landscape", New York Times, August 3, 1986

Acme comes from Greek akme, point, highest point, culmination.

【acquiesce】 \ak-wee-ES\, intransitive verb:
To accept or consent passively or without objection -- usually used with 'in' or 'to'.

At the same time, sellers might acquiesce to mafia involvement in their business as a way of ensuring payment for goods: if the buyer defaults, the mafioso will collect.
-- Louis S. Warren, The Hunter's Game

The British were not prepared to acquiesce to the return of the Chinese to Tibet, and determined to counter the reassertion of Chinese influence.
-- Tsering Shakya, The Dragon in the Land of Snows

France would probably express regret that a military strike had become necessary, but would acquiesce in it.
-- Craig R. Whitney, "France Pushes for Last-Ditch Diplomatic Solution.", New York Times, February 20, 1998

Acquiesce comes from Latin acquiescere, "to give oneself to rest, hence to find one's rest or peace (in something)," from ad, "to" + quiescere, "to rest, to be or keep quiet."

【acrid】 \AK-rid\, adjective:
1. Sharp and harsh, or bitter to the taste or smell; pungent.
2. Caustic in language or tone; bitter.

There was burning jet fuel everywhere. Acrid, black smoke billowed across the water.
-- Simon Worrall, "The Night the Sea Burnt", Independent, July 6, 1997

He rips off another match, lights it, and uses it to light another cigarette. He shakes out the match, takes a puff, letting the acrid, unfiltered taste burn the back of his throat.
-- Kris Rusch, Hitler's Angel

The goal of sequencing the human gene set has been the subject of acrid debate among biologists.
-- Philip J. Hilts, "Head of Gene Map Threatens to Quit", New York Times, April 9, 1992

Paz's outspoken criticism of Cuba's brand of socialism placed him increasingly at odds with his colleagues. It led to a prolonged, sometimes acrid feud between him and the more left-leaning Fuentes.
-- "Octavio Paz Mexico's Literary Giant, Dead at 84", New York Times, April 21, 1998

Acrid comes from Latin acer, "sharp."

【acrimony】 \AK-ruh-moh-nee\, noun:
Bitter, harsh, or biting sharpness, as of language, disposition, or manners.

In years to come, liturgical infighting ranked alongside disputed patents, contested fortunes, and savage political feuds as a source of McCormick family acrimony.
-- Richard Norton Smith, The Colonel

The partnership eventually broke up in acrimony.
-- Henry Grunwald, One Man's America

As losses swelled, acrimony led to lawsuits, countersuits, and the bankruptcy of the ironworks.
-- Patricia O'Toole, Money & Morals in America

Mr. Cioran himself once wrote: "However much I have frequented the mystics, deep down I have always sided with the Devil; unable to equal him in power, I have tried to be worthy of him, at least, in insolence, acrimony, arbitrariness and caprice."
-- Eric Pace, "E. M. Cioran, 84, Novelist And Philosopher of Despair", New York Times, June 22, 1995

Acrimony is from Latin acrimonia, from acer, "sharp."

【acuity】 \uh-KYOO-uh-tee\, noun:
Acuteness of perception or vision; sharpness.

They fail to understand how a person can hold beliefs so contrary to theirs and still retain any mental acuity.
-- Charles Krauthammer, ". . . Why Bush Will Win", Washington Post, November 3, 2000

With unusual acuity, one of the wire service reporters pounced on that possibility with an insinuating question.
-- Alfred Alcorn, Murder in the Museum of Man

Monkeys, diurnal animals that have a high visual acuity -- necessary for finding food and for moving through the trees without bumping into things or missing one's hold on a branch -- have a large visual area of the neocortex.
-- Stephen Budiansky, If a Lion Could Talk

Horses tend to shy a lot because the construction of their eyes is optimized for a near 360-degree field of view, useful for spotting danger, but the price the horse pays for that is relatively poor acuity and some out-of-focus spots that can cause objects within the field of view to suddenly sail into sharp focus.
-- Stephen Budiansky, If a Lion Could Talk

Acuity comes from Latin acutus, "sharpened, pointed, acute," past participle of acuere, "to sharpen."

【acumen】 \uh-KYOO-muhn; AK-yuh-muhn\, noun:
Quickness of perception or discernment; shrewdness shown by keen insight.

With Leo's rare combination of editorial acumen and business know-how, he might have become a publishing giant had he not permitted his drinking and gambling to hold him back.
-- Ellis Amburn, Subterranean Kerouac: The Hidden Life of Jack Kerouac

The family store gave him a sharp business acumen -- acquired, he would say, by manning the cash register -- that few of his rivals possessed.
-- David Schiff, "Who Was That Masked Composer?", The Atlantic, January 2000

Acumen comes from Latin acumen, "the sharp point of something; sharpness of understanding; cunning," from acuere, "to sharpen."

【adage】 \AD-ij\, noun:
An old saying, which has obtained credit by long use; a proverb.

Did she sense the proverbial limp in my walk: proverbial as the Somali adage in which it is said that a lie has a lame leg, truth a healthy one.
-- Nuruddin Farah, Secrets

We may find out too late the wisdom of the adage that cautions us to be careful what we wish for lest we get it.
-- Charles Murray, What It Means to Be a Libertarian

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me, the old adage goes.
-- Zachary Karabell, "No Left Turn", New York Times, September 24, 2000

Adage derives from the Latin adagium (akin to aio, "I say").

【bivouac】 \BIV-wak, BIV-uh-wak\, noun:
1. An encampment for the night, usually under little or no shelter.

intransitive verb:
1. To encamp for the night, usually under little or no shelter.

Rob had made his emergency bivouac just below the South Summit.
-- David Breashears, "Death on the mountain", The Observer, March 30, 2003

They were stopped by savage winds and forced to bivouac 153 m below the day's goal.
-- Erik Weihenmayer, "Men of the Mountain", Time Pacific, February 4, 2002

Bivouac comes from French bivouac, from German Beiwache, "a watching or guarding," from bei, "by, near" + wachen, "to watch."

【canorous】 \kuh-NOR-us; KAN-or-uhs\, adjective:
Richly melodious; pleasant sounding; musical.

I felt a deep contentment listening to the meadowlark's complex melody as he sat on his bragging post calling for a mate, and the soft canorous whistle of the bobwhite as he whistled his name with intermittent lulls.
-- Donna R. La Plante, "Remember When: The prairie after a spring rain", Kansas City Star, March 16, 2003

But birds that are canorous and whose notes we most commend, are of little throats, and short necks, as Nightingales, Finches, Linnets, Canary birds and Larks.
-- Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica

Canorous comes from the Latin canor, "melody," from canere, "to sing." It is related to chant, from French chanter, "to sing," ultimately from Latin canere.

【capacious】 \kuh-PAY-shuhs\, adjective:
Able to contain much; roomy; spacious.

Litter was picked up non stop during the week (mostly by that nice governor with the capacious pockets).
-- Faysal Mikdadi, "'Why shouldn't it be like this all the time?'", The Guardian, September 2, 2002

Out of those capacious receptacles he brought forth a small bottle of Scotch whiskey, a lemon, and some lump sugar.
-- Ellen M. Calder, "Personal Recollections of Walt Whitman", The Atlantic, June 1907

Is it worth pointing out that the boot seems remarkably capacious for a little car?
-- Giles Smith, "Er what's the sixth gear for?", The Guardian, January 8, 2002

Capacious is derived from Latin capax, capac-, "able to hold or contain."

【capitulate】 \kuh-PICH-uh-layt\, intransitive verb:
To surrender under agreed conditions.

Just before peace talks on Kosovo are due to resume, the United States and its allies are sending contradictory signals to Belgrade, making it less likely that President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia will capitulate on American terms.
-- Steven Erlanger, "West's Bosnia Move May Hurt Kosovo Bid", New York Times, March 7, 1999

I am ashamed to think how easily we capitulate to badges and names.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

We say "capitulate" because the terms (of surrender) were drawn up in capitula, which is Latin for "chapters." Chapter itself is related to capitulate.

【dapple】 \DAP-uhl\, noun:
1. A small contrasting spot or blotch.
2. A mottled appearance, especially of the coat of an animal (as a horse).

transitive verb:
1. To mark with patches of a color or shade; to spot.

intransitive verb:
1. To become dappled.

adjective:
1. Marked with contrasting patches or spots; dappled.

Look at . . . his cows with their comic camouflage dapples . . . .
-- Arthur C. Danto, "Sometimes Red", ArtForum, January 2002

70 diamond- and hexagonal-shaped holes, 35 between the North End ramp and the northbound lanes, and 35 between the northbound and southbound lanes, allow light to filter through and dapple the river below.
-- Raphael Lewis, "A walk into the future", Boston Globe, May 9, 2002

Gentle shafts of sunlight . . . dapple the grass.
-- Gail Sheehy, Hillary's Choice

Dapple derives from Old Norse depill, "a spot."

【deprecate】 \DEP-rih-kayt\, transitive verb:
1. [Archaic] To pray against, as an evil; to seek to avert by prayer.
2. To disapprove of strongly.
3. To belittle; to depreciate.

Although Stalin at times deprecated his cult, he also tolerated and perhaps covertly encouraged it.
-- Sheila Fitzpatrick, Everyday Stalinism

Copland humorously deprecated his looks, finding in his gaunt physique, narrow face, prominent nose, and buckteeth a comic resemblance to a giraffe.
-- Howard Pollack, Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man

We experience such augmentations as pleasure, which may be why aesthetic values have always been deprecated by social moralists, from Plato through our current campus Puritans.
-- Harold Bloom, How to Read and Why

Deprecate comes from the past participle of Latin deprecari, "to avert by prayer, to deprecate," from de-, "from" + precari, "to pray."

【dissolute】 \DIS-uh-loot\, adjective:
Loose in morals and conduct; marked by indulgence in sensual pleasures or vices.

I had heard talk that Tosca, for all the dissolute life she led, was a pious person who frequented churches with scrupulous regularity, yet in this conduct I had always suspected a pose, an affectation.
-- Paola Capriolo, Floria Tosca (translated by Liz Heron)

In 1788 . . . George III succumbed to the first attack of madness, the violent symptoms of which required the appointment of his oldest son, the Prince of Wales, as Regent. The King regained his reason the following year and resumed power, but already the high living "Prinnie" and his dissolute friends had changed the tone of the court.
-- Benita Eisler, Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame

Dissolute comes from the past participle of Latin dissolvere, "to loosen," from dis- + solvere, "to release."

【emolument】 \ih-MOL-yuh-muhnt\, noun:
The wages or perquisites arising from office, employment, or labor; gain; compensation.

The record indicates that few grandees who pleaded poverty to avoid service were left without substantial maintenance grants and emoluments and that the Crown gladly financed their luxurious military lifestyles.
-- Fernando Gonzales de Leon, "Aristocratic draft-dodgers in 17th-century Spain", History Today, 7/1

Although not very rich, he is easy in his circumstances and would not with a view to emolument alone wish for employment.
-- Henry Dundas, quoted in The Elgin Affair, by Theodore Vrettos

And they are not obliged to follow those occupations, if they prefer leisure to emolument.
-- John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

Emolument derives from Latin emolumentum, originally a sum paid to a miller for grinding out one's wheat, from molere, "to grind." It is related to molar, the "grinding" tooth.

【glower】 \GLAU-uhr\, intransitive verb:
1. To look or stare angrily or with a scowl.

noun:
1. An angry or scowling look or stare.

At one point, the head of the institute started chatting with colleagues sitting at a table behind Yeltsin, prompting the Russian President to interrupt his reading and glower at them.
-- Bruce W. Nelan, "The Last Hurrah?", Time, April 26, 1993

A baby wearing a disposable nappy has been placed on a tree trunk in dark woodland: he seems to glower at us disapprovingly, like a troll, or a mini-Churchill.
-- Margaret Walters, "The secret life of babies", New Statesman, September 13, 1996

A boyish-looking man who frowned and glowered, trying to look more authoritative than his twenty-nine years, Andrei said his job was to focus on the convolutions in Russian property law.
-- Eleanor Randolph, Waking the Tempest

Floyd approached me with a glower, cheeks reddened, indignant.
-- William Peter Blatty, Demons Five, Exorcists Nothing

Glower is from Middle English gloren, perhaps ultimately of Scandinavian origin.

【incipient】 \in-SIP-ee-uhnt\, adjective:
Beginning to exist or appear.

Also, improved diagnostic techniques can alert individuals to incipient illnesses.
-- James Flanigan, "Patients' Rights and Health-Care Costs Are Expanding Together", Los Angeles Times, May 2, 1999

Shiv gradually became aware that he was onto something big, bigger than anything he had ever done before. He was nudged by an incipient awareness that perhaps it was even too big for him.
-- Ken Kalfus, Pu-239 and Other Russian Fantasies

She sighed for him; so young, and yet so passé, and with an incipient beer belly.
-- Shena MacKay, The Artist's Widow

Sir George devoted much of his energies to worrying about money and was preoccupied by thoughts of his incipient pauperdom.
-- Philip Ziegler, Osbert Sitwell

Incipient is derived from Latin incipere, "to undertake, to begin" (literally "to take in"), from in-, "in" + capere, "to take." It is related to inception, "beginning, commencement."

【nettlesome】 \NET-l-suhm\, adjective:
Causing irritation, vexation, or distress.

Unlike important men of affairs, novelists can turn midnight into sunrise and solve nettlesome world problems wherever their imaginations decree.
-- Herbert Mitgang, "Tales of a Tortured Holy Land", New York Times, August 16, 1988

They were certain that this problem, like so many other nettlesome problems, did not ever have to be faced, but could be quietly made to go away.
-- Lisa Belkin, Show Me a Hero

In the absence of any general agreement about these nettlesome issues, each school and local district arrived at its own answers.
-- Diane Ravitch, Left Back

Nettlesome is from the verb nettle, "to sting; to irritate or vex" (from nettle, a plant covered with minute sharp, stinging hairs) + -some.

【palindrome】 \PAL-in-drohm\, noun:
A word, phrase, sentence, or verse that reads the same backward or forward.

Madam, I'm Adam. (Adam's first words to Eve?)

A man, a plan, a canal -- Panama! (The history of the Panama Canal in brief.)

Able was I ere I saw Elba. (Napoleon's lament.)

Mom, Dad.

Palindrome comes from Greek palindromos, literally "running back (again)," from palin, "back, again" + dromos, "running."

【pugnacious】 \puhg-NAY-shuhs\, adjective:
Inclined to fight; combative; quarrelsome.

Roberto's pugnacious grandmother lived across the meadow and would yell threats and curses helplessly from her balcony.
-- Tag Gallagher, The Adventures of Roberto Rossellini

The idea that he was truculent or pugnacious, that he went about with a chip on his shoulder, that he loved fighting for the sake of fighting, was, however, a mistake.
-- William Roscoe Thayer, Theodore Roosevelt: An Intimate Biography

Pugnacious comes from Latin pugnare, "to fight," from pugnus, "fist."

【susurrus】 \su-SUHR-uhs\, noun:
A whispering or rustling sound; a murmur.

Still, the breeze is soothing, as is the susurrus of the branches.
-- Michael Finkel, "Tree Surfing and Other Lofty Pleasures", The Atlantic, March 1998

And there came, like the dry susurrus of wind before thunder peals and lightning, a great rustle of excitement.
-- Richard Whittington-Egan, "The Edwardian literary afternoon: part one", Contemporary Review, April 2000

He heard the susurrus of curtains luffed by the breeze.
-- Erik Larson, Isaac's Storm

Susurrus comes from the Latin susurrus, "a murmuring, a whispering, a humming."

【thaumaturgy】 \THAW-muh-tuhr-jee\, noun:
The performance of miracles or magic.

Of course, none of these improbable meetings ever took place in reality. But within the realm of showbiz thaumaturgy, they're perfectly acceptable examples of latter-day digital compositing, wherein it's possible to have anything share a frame of film or video with practically anything else.
-- John Voland, "Prez presses tech buttons", Variety, July 21, 1997

There was ever a cautious hesitancy on the part of the clergy to recognize evidence of thaumaturgy, and the superstitious use of relics.
-- John Mcgurk, "Devoted People: Belief and Religion in Early Modern Ireland", Contemporary Review, September 1998

Thaumaturgy comes from the Greek words for "wonder" (thauma) and "work" (ergon). A practitioner of thaumaturgy is a thaumaturgist or thaumaturge.

【umbrage】 \UHM-brij\, noun:
1. Shade; shadow; hence, something that affords a shade, as a screen of trees or foliage.
2. a. A vague or indistinct indication or suggestion; a hint.
3. b. Reason for doubt; suspicion.
4. Suspicion of injury or wrong; offense; resentment.

Burr finally took umbrage, and challenged him to a duel.
-- Richard A. Samuelson, "Alexander Hamilton: American", Commentary, June 1999

In almost all the walks of his life, he appears to have been both astoundingly rude and genuinely astonished that anyone should take umbrage.
-- Robert Winder, "A dying game", New Statesman, June 19, 2000

He had a devastating smile, which could wipe away the slightest umbrage.
-- Alec Guinness, A Positively Final Appearance

The river tumbling green and white, far below me; the dark high banks, the plentiful umbrage, many bronze cedars, in shadow; and tempering and arching all the immense materiality, a clear sky overhead, with a few white clouds, limpid, spiritual, silent.
-- Walt Whitman, Specimen Days & Collect

Umbrage is derived from Latin umbra, "shade."