1. Given to plunder; seizing by force. 2. Subsisting on prey. 3. Grasping; greedy.
In the course of the 1650s they became progressively disenchanted with Cromwell's regime, disliking the compromises with the old order and hating what had become a rapacious army that seemed interested solely in its own well-being and future. -- James Walvin, The Quakers
Osbert gallantly defended the reputation of his forebear in his autobiography but she remains one of the most rapacious harpies ever to have plundered the royal coffers. -- Philip Ziegler, Osbert Sitwell
The insurance companies responded by pointing to a handful of rapacious residents who claimed they'd lost possessions, even entire floors of houses, that in fact had never existed. -- David L. Kirp, Almost Home
Rapacious comes from Latin rapax, rapac-, "seizing, grasping, greedy," from rapere, "to seize, to snatch."
The weather is gelid on a recent Thursday night--so uninviting that it's hard to imagine anyone venturing out. -- Letta Tayler, "The Accent's on Brooklyn", Newsday, April 6, 2000
Last January a major crisis arose when the Argentine naval supply ship Bahia Paraiso foundered near an island off the Antarctic Peninsula, creating a diesel-oil spill that inflicted untold damage on the ecosystems clinging to the edges of the icy continent or swimming in its gelid seas. -- Christopher Redman Paris, "Could anything be more terrible than this silent, windswept immensity?", Time, October 23, 1989
The house was silent, filled with a gelid, wintery hush even as lilac and dogwood leaves brushed darkly against the windowpanes. -- Michael Cunningham, A Home at the End of the World: A Novel
Gelid comes from Latin gelidus, from gelu, "frost, cold."
A song or poem greeting the dawn; also, a composition suggestive of morning.
He was usually still awake when the birds began to warble their aubade. -- Christopher Buckley, "What was Robert Benchley?", National Review, June 16, 1997
And there he lingered till the crowing cock... Sang his aubade with lusty voice and clear. -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Emma and Eginhard
Gwynn was up the back, playing a soft aubade on the piano that Feni had installed years ago when business was brisker and he could afford to pay entertainers. -- K.J. Bishop, The Etched City
Aubade comes from the French, from aube, dawn + the noun suffix -ade: aube ultimately derives from Latin albus, white, pale, as in "alba lux," the "pale light" of dawn.
Eager or excessive desire, especially for wealth; greed; avarice.
Curiosity was a form of lust, a wandering cupidity of the eye and the mind. -- John Crowley, "Of Marvels And Monsters", Washington Post, October 18, 1998
At the end, all but rubbing his hands with cupidity, Rockefeller declares he will now promote abstract art--it's better for business. -- Stuart Klawans, "Rock in a Hard Place", The Nation, December 27, 1999
This strain of cupidity sprang from the mean circumstances of his youth in the Finger Lakes district of upstate New York. -- Jack Beatty, "A Capital Life", New York Times, May 17, 1998
For such is human cupidity that we Thoroughbreds have but one chance to survive it -- to run so fast and to win so much money that we are retired in comfort in our declining days. -- William Murray, "From the Horse's Mouth", New York Times, August 8, 1993
Cupidity ultimately comes from Latin cupiditas, from cupidus, "desirous," from cupere, "to desire." It is related to Cupid, the Roman god of love.
1. Relating to money; monetary. 2. Consisting of money. 3. Requiring payment of money.
He lacked the finer element of conscience which looks upon Art as a sacred calling, she remembered, and because of "pecuniary necessities" he "scattered his forces in many different and unworthy directions." -- James F. O'Gorman, Accomplished in All Departments of Art
The young man of the house was absorbed in his vegetable garden and the possibilities for pecuniary profit that it held. -- Samuel Chamberlain, Clementine in the Kitchen
He sees the great pecuniary rewards and how they are gained, and naturally is moved by an impulse to obtain the same for himself. -- David J. Brewer, "The Ideal Lawyer", The Atlantic, November 1906
Over the decades, Pitt built an impressive roster of similarly well-heeled clients who stood accused by the SEC of securities fraud, misstating their finances, other pecuniary offenses. -- Jonathan Chait, "Invested Interest", The New Republic, December 17, 2001
Pecuniary comes from Latin pecuniarius, "of money, pecuniary," from pecunia, "property in cattle, hence money," from pecu, "livestock, one's flocks and herds."
Divided or withdrawn in attention, especially because of anxiety.
Yet when she stopped for a cup of coffee, finding herself too distrait to begin work, the picture was in the course of being removed from the window. -- Anita Brookner, Falling Slowly
He had painfully written out a first draft, and he intoned it now like a poet delicate and distrait. -- Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt
Virtually nobody noticed a more private and simultaneous cameo in a little bay in West Cork: of a delicate, somewhat distrait, gentleman of middle age being swept into the turbulent waters off Kilcrohane. -- Kevin Myers, "An Irishman's Diary", Irish Times, July 21, 1999
Distrait is from Old French, from distraire, "to distract," from Latin distrahere, "to pull apart; to draw away; to distract," from dis- + trahere, "to draw, to pull." It is related to distraught and distracted, which have the same Latin source.
My "perfect" reader is not a scholar but neither is he an ignoramus; he does not read because he has to, nor as a pastime, nor to make a splash in society, but because he is curious about many things, wishes to choose among them and does not wish to delegate this choice to anyone; he knows the limits of his competence and education, and directs his choices accordingly. -- Primo Levi, "This Above All: Be Clear", New York Times, November 20, 1988
I am quite an ignoramus, I know nothing in the world. -- Charlotte Bronte, Villette
Only the crassest ignoramus can still hold to the old-fashioned notion that seeing is believing. That which you see is the first thing to disbelieve. -- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
Ignoramus was the name of a character in George Ruggle's 1615 play of the same name. The name was derived from the Latin, literally, "we are ignorant," from ignorare, "not to know," from ignarus, "not knowing," from ig- (for in-), "not" + gnarus, "knowing, acquainted with, expert in." It is related to ignorant and ignore.
'You were probably very bored by it,' he said, catching at once, in mid-air, this ball of coquetry that she had thrown to him. -- Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Her pose, quite natural for a woman of the East, might perhaps in a Frenchwoman, have suggested a slightly affected coquetry. -- Alexandre Dumas père, The Count of Monte Cristo
Madame coquetted with him in the most captivating and naive manner, with eyes, gestures, and a profusion of compliments, till the Colonel's old head felt thirty years younger on his padded shoulders. Edna marveled, not comprehending. She herself was almost devoid of coquetry. -- Kate Chopin, The Awakening
Coquetry, French coquetterie, is from coquette, the feminine form of French coquet, "flirtatious man," diminutive of coq, "rooster, cock." The adjective form is coquettish. The verb coquet (also coquette) means "to flirt or trifle with."
1. The act of approving; formal or official approval. 2. Praise; commendation.
The speech struck a responsive chord among many and won him much approbation. -- George Bush and Brent Scowcroft, A World Transformed
More importantly, these drawings represented a first success, which brought the intoxicating rewards of approbation and cash. -- Matthew Sturgis, Aubrey Beardsley: A Biography
To some of his contemporaries, the episode seemed more the schemings of someone craving attention and the approbation of his peers than an act of sabotage. -- Richard Siklos, Shades of Black
Approbation is from Latin approbatio, from approbare, "to approve or cause to be approved," from ap- (for ad-), used intensively + probare, "to make or find good
1. To endue with life; to make alive; to animate. 2. To make more lively or intense.
Can the writer isolate and vivify all in experience that most deeply engages our intellects and our hearts? -- Annie Dillard, "Write Till You Drop", New York Times, May 28, 1989
Stories not only provide context for statistical statements but can illustrate and vivify them as well. -- John Allen Paulos, Once Upon a Number
They collaborated on, and for our benefit specialized in, like paleontologists, the painstaking reconstruction of vanished jokes from extant tag lines. They could vivify old New Yorker cartoons, source of many tag lines. -- Annie Dillard, An American Childhood
Vivify comes from French vivifier, from Late Latin vivificare, from Latin vivus, alive.
10 comments:
rapacious \ruh-PAY-shuhs\ , adjective:
1. Given to plunder; seizing by force.
2. Subsisting on prey.
3. Grasping; greedy.
In the course of the 1650s they became progressively disenchanted with Cromwell's regime, disliking the compromises with the old order and hating what had become a rapacious army that seemed interested solely in its own well-being and future.
-- James Walvin, The Quakers
Osbert gallantly defended the reputation of his forebear in his autobiography but she remains one of the most rapacious harpies ever to have plundered the royal coffers.
-- Philip Ziegler, Osbert Sitwell
The insurance companies responded by pointing to a handful of rapacious residents who claimed they'd lost possessions, even entire floors of houses, that in fact had never existed.
-- David L. Kirp, Almost Home
Rapacious comes from Latin rapax, rapac-, "seizing, grasping, greedy," from rapere, "to seize, to snatch."
gelid \JEL-id\, adjective:
Extremely cold; icy.
The weather is gelid on a recent Thursday night--so uninviting
that it's hard to imagine anyone venturing out.
-- Letta Tayler, "The Accent's on Brooklyn", Newsday, April 6, 2000
Last January a major crisis arose when the Argentine naval supply
ship Bahia Paraiso foundered near an island off the Antarctic
Peninsula, creating a diesel-oil spill that inflicted untold damage on
the ecosystems clinging to the edges of the icy continent or swimming
in its gelid seas.
-- Christopher Redman Paris, "Could anything be more terrible than
this silent, windswept immensity?", Time, October 23, 1989
The house was silent, filled with a gelid, wintery hush even as
lilac and dogwood leaves brushed darkly against the windowpanes.
-- Michael Cunningham, A Home at the End of the World: A Novel
Gelid comes from Latin gelidus, from gelu, "frost, cold."
aubade \oh-BAHD\, noun:
A song or poem greeting the dawn; also, a composition suggestive of morning.
He was usually still awake when the birds began to warble their aubade.
-- Christopher Buckley, "What was Robert Benchley?", National Review, June 16, 1997
And there he lingered till the crowing cock...
Sang his aubade with lusty voice and clear.
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Emma and Eginhard
Gwynn was up the back, playing a soft aubade on the piano that Feni had installed years ago when business was brisker and he could afford to pay entertainers.
-- K.J. Bishop, The Etched City
Aubade comes from the French, from aube, dawn + the noun suffix -ade: aube ultimately derives from Latin albus, white, pale, as in "alba lux," the "pale light" of dawn.
cupidity \kyoo-PID-uh-tee\, noun:
Eager or excessive desire, especially for wealth; greed; avarice.
Curiosity was a form of lust, a wandering cupidity of the eye and the mind.
-- John Crowley, "Of Marvels And Monsters", Washington Post, October 18, 1998
At the end, all but rubbing his hands with cupidity, Rockefeller declares he will now promote abstract art--it's better for business.
-- Stuart Klawans, "Rock in a Hard Place", The Nation, December 27, 1999
This strain of cupidity sprang from the mean circumstances of his youth in the Finger Lakes district of upstate New York.
-- Jack Beatty, "A Capital Life", New York Times, May 17, 1998
For such is human cupidity that we Thoroughbreds have but one chance to survive it -- to run so fast and to win so much money that we are retired in comfort in our declining days.
-- William Murray, "From the Horse's Mouth", New York Times, August 8, 1993
Cupidity ultimately comes from Latin cupiditas, from cupidus, "desirous," from cupere, "to desire." It is related to Cupid, the Roman god of love.
pecuniary \pih-KYOO-nee-air-ee\, adjective:
1. Relating to money; monetary.
2. Consisting of money.
3. Requiring payment of money.
He lacked the finer element of conscience which looks upon Art as a sacred calling, she remembered, and because of "pecuniary necessities" he "scattered his forces in many different and unworthy directions."
-- James F. O'Gorman, Accomplished in All Departments of Art
The young man of the house was absorbed in his vegetable garden and the possibilities for pecuniary profit that it held.
-- Samuel Chamberlain, Clementine in the Kitchen
He sees the great pecuniary rewards and how they are gained, and naturally is moved by an impulse to obtain the same for himself.
-- David J. Brewer, "The Ideal Lawyer", The Atlantic, November 1906
Over the decades, Pitt built an impressive roster of similarly well-heeled clients who stood accused by the SEC of securities fraud, misstating their finances, other pecuniary offenses.
-- Jonathan Chait, "Invested Interest", The New Republic, December 17, 2001
Pecuniary comes from Latin pecuniarius, "of money, pecuniary," from pecunia, "property in cattle, hence money," from pecu, "livestock, one's flocks and herds."
distrait \dis-TRAY\, adjective:
Divided or withdrawn in attention, especially because of anxiety.
Yet when she stopped for a cup of coffee, finding herself too distrait to begin work, the picture was in the course of being removed from the window.
-- Anita Brookner, Falling Slowly
He had painfully written out a first draft, and he intoned it now like a poet delicate and distrait.
-- Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt
Virtually nobody noticed a more private and simultaneous cameo in a little bay in West Cork: of a delicate, somewhat distrait, gentleman of middle age being swept into the turbulent waters off Kilcrohane.
-- Kevin Myers, "An Irishman's Diary", Irish Times, July 21, 1999
Distrait is from Old French, from distraire, "to distract," from Latin distrahere, "to pull apart; to draw away; to distract," from dis- + trahere, "to draw, to pull." It is related to distraught and distracted, which have the same Latin source.
ignoramus \ig-nuh-RAY-mus\, noun:
An ignorant person; a dunce.
My "perfect" reader is not a scholar but neither is he an ignoramus; he does not read because he has to, nor as a pastime, nor to make a splash in society, but because he is curious about many things, wishes to choose among them and does not wish to delegate this choice to anyone; he knows the limits of his competence and education, and directs his choices accordingly.
-- Primo Levi, "This Above All: Be Clear", New York Times, November 20, 1988
I am quite an ignoramus, I know nothing in the world.
-- Charlotte Bronte, Villette
Only the crassest ignoramus can still hold to the old-fashioned notion that seeing is believing. That which you see is the first thing to disbelieve.
-- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
Ignoramus was the name of a character in George Ruggle's 1615 play of the same name. The name was derived from the Latin, literally, "we are ignorant," from ignorare, "not to know," from ignarus, "not knowing," from ig- (for in-), "not" + gnarus, "knowing, acquainted with, expert in." It is related to ignorant and ignore.
coquetry \KOH-ki-tree; koh-KE-tree\, noun:
Dalliance; flirtation.
'You were probably very bored by it,' he said, catching at once, in mid-air, this ball of coquetry that she had thrown to him.
-- Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Her pose, quite natural for a woman of the East, might perhaps in a Frenchwoman, have suggested a slightly affected coquetry.
-- Alexandre Dumas père, The Count of Monte Cristo
Madame coquetted with him in the most captivating and naive manner, with eyes, gestures, and a profusion of compliments, till the Colonel's old head felt thirty years younger on his padded shoulders. Edna marveled, not comprehending. She herself was almost devoid of coquetry.
-- Kate Chopin, The Awakening
Coquetry, French coquetterie, is from coquette, the feminine form of French coquet, "flirtatious man," diminutive of coq, "rooster, cock." The adjective form is coquettish. The verb coquet (also coquette) means "to flirt or trifle with."
approbation \ap-ruh-BAY-shuhn\, noun:
1. The act of approving; formal or official approval.
2. Praise; commendation.
The speech struck a responsive chord among many and won him much approbation.
-- George Bush and Brent Scowcroft, A World Transformed
More importantly, these drawings represented a first success, which brought the intoxicating rewards of approbation and cash.
-- Matthew Sturgis, Aubrey Beardsley: A Biography
To some of his contemporaries, the episode seemed more the schemings of someone craving attention and the approbation of his peers than an act of sabotage.
-- Richard Siklos, Shades of Black
Approbation is from Latin approbatio, from approbare, "to approve or cause to be approved," from ap- (for ad-), used intensively + probare, "to make or find good
vivify \VIV-uh-fy\, transitive verb:
1. To endue with life; to make alive; to animate.
2. To make more lively or intense.
Can the writer isolate and vivify all in experience that most deeply engages our intellects and our hearts?
-- Annie Dillard, "Write Till You Drop", New York Times, May 28, 1989
Stories not only provide context for statistical statements but can illustrate and vivify them as well.
-- John Allen Paulos, Once Upon a Number
They collaborated on, and for our benefit specialized in, like paleontologists, the painstaking reconstruction of vanished jokes from extant tag lines. They could vivify old New Yorker cartoons, source of many tag lines.
-- Annie Dillard, An American Childhood
Vivify comes from French vivifier, from Late Latin vivificare, from Latin vivus, alive.
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