Monday, January 8, 2007

Words I've seen this week.

Here are some words I found while reading this week that I had to look up in the dictionary. I found that having a dictionary by my chair is helpful until I find an author that cranks out new words with every paragraph (too much distraction going between the book and the dictionary!). I decided to just write them down when first seen, then look-um-up later.

  • byopic - a biographical movie
  • calliope - wierd one, saw this while reading about Alfred Hitchcock's love for music.
  • maelstrom - a powerful often violent whirlpool sucking in objects within a given radius
  • vertiginous - characterized by or suffering from vertigo or dizziness b : inclined to frequent and often pointless change
  • archetype - the original pattern or model of which all things of the same type are representations or copies
  • travesty - a debased, distorted, or grossly inferior imitation. To make a travesty of something is to "dis" it.
  • eschew - to avoid habitually especially on moral or practical grounds
  • braggadocio - empty boasting
  • apartheid - racial segregation; specifically : a former policy of segregation and political and economic discrimination against non-European groups in the Republic of South Africa
  • coiffed - to arrange (hair) by brushing, combing, or curling
  • effulgent - radiant splendor

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