5 Words. What they mean, where they come from and relevant popular culture or literary references. Build your vocabulary by reading this all in one post.

1. carapace

noun. the hard upper shell of a tortoise, crustacean, or arachnid.
Pronunciation: [kar-uh-peys]
Related: carapaced, carapacial
Origin: 1836, from French carapace “tortoise shell”, from Spanish carapacho or Portuguese carapaça, which is of uncertain origin, perhaps somehow from Latin capa.

The word carapace has been used beautifully by Vikram Seth in one of the verses in The Golden Gate. Discriminating though dogmatic / Tender beneath a carapace / Of well-groomed tastes and tasteful grooming / John, though his corporate stock is booming.

2. amnesty

noun. an official pardon for people who have been convicted of political offences.
verb. grant an official pardon to.
Pronunciation: [am-nuh-stee]
Origin: “pardon of past offenses,” 1570s, from French amnestie “intentional overlooking,” from Latin amnestia, from Greek amnestia “forgetfulness (of wrong); an amnesty.

Amnesty International is also commonly known as Amnesty. A non-governmental organization focused on human rights with over 7 million members and supporters. Know more about Amnesty.

3. levity

noun. the treatment of a serious matter with humour or lack of due respect.
Pronunciation: [lev-i-tee]
Origin: “want of seriousness, frivolity,” 1560s, from Latin levitatem (nominative levitas) “lightness, frivolity,” from levis “light” in weight + -ity.

Levity is a 2003 drama film starring Billy Bob Thornton, Morgan Freeman, Holly Hunter, and Kirsten Dunst. Also, read Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, where she writes: “I believe the dead are at peace, but it is not right to speak of them with levity.”

4. inebriate

verb. make (someone) drunk; intoxicate.
noun. a drunkard.
adjective. drunk; intoxicated.
Pronunciation: [in-ee-bree-eyt, in-ee-bree-it]
Related: inebriation, uninebriated, uninebriating
Origin: late 15c., from Latin inebriatus, past participle of inebriare “to make drunk,” from “in” + ebriare “make drunk,” from ebrius “drunk,” of unknown origin.

Read Catch-22 by Joseph Heller where he writes: He broke out the bottles of bourbon he had managed to buy on his four-day weekly circuits with the courier plane and laughed, sang, shuffled and shouted in a festival of inebriated ecstasy until he could no longer keep awake and receded peacefully into slumber.

5. prehensile

adjective.  (chiefly of an animal’s limb or tail) capable of grasping.
Pronunciation: [pri-hen-sil, -sahyl]
Related: prehensility, nonprehensile, subprehensile
Origin: 1771, from French préhensile “adapted for grasping” (Buffon), from Latin prehensus, past participle of prehendere ‘to grasp, seize, get hold of’.

Must watch this video of a prehensile-tailed porcupine. They have unspined prehensile tails and make a distinctive “baby-like” sound to communicate. Wow!

Sources:
Apart from Google search, the data in this series is taken from Dictionary.com, Online Etymology Dictionary and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

5 Words. What they mean, where they come from and relevant popular culture or literary references. Build your vocabulary by reading this all in one post.

1. zephyr

noun. a soft gentle breeze.
Pronunciation: [zef-er]
Origin: from Old English Zefferus, from Latin Zephyrus, from Greek Zephyros “the west wind”, probably related to zophos “the west, the dark region, darkness, gloom.” Extended sense of “mild breeze” is c. 1600.

Zephyrus is the Greek god of the west wind. The gentlest of the winds, Zephyrus is known as the fructifying wind, the messenger of spring. Listen to “The Zephyr Song” by Red Hot Chili Peppers from the band’s eighth studio album, By the Way.

2. quixotic

adjective. extremely idealistic; unrealistic and impractical.
Pronunciation: [kwik-sot-ik]
Related: quixotically, half-quixotic, half-quixotically, unquixotic, unquixotical,
Origin: “extravagantly chivalrous,” 1791, from Don Quixote, romantic, impractical hero of Cervantes’ satirical novel “Don Quixote de la Mancha”.

What reference can one give than the origin of the word itself? Don Quixote is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. It follows the adventures of a nameless hidalgo who reads so many chivalric romances that he loses his sanity and decides to set out to revive chivalry, undo wrongs, and bring justice to the world, under the name Don Quixote.

3. countenance

noun. a person’s face or facial expression. support or approval.
verb. admit as acceptable or possible.
Pronunciation: [koun-tn-uh ns]
Related: countenancer, uncountenanced, undercountenance
Origin: mid-13c., from Old French contenance “demeanor, bearing, conduct,” from Latin continentia “restraint, abstemiousness, moderation”. Meaning evolving Middle English from “appearance” to “facial expression betraying a state of mind,” to “face” itself (late 14c.)

Jane Austen, in Pride and Prejudice writes: Mr. Bingley was good looking and gentlemanlike; he had a pleasant countenance, and easy, unaffected manners. His sisters were fine women, with an air of decided fashion.

4. ameliorate

verb. make (something bad or unsatisfactory) better.
Pronunciation: [uh-meel-yuh-reyt]
Related: ameliorable, ameliorant, ameliorative, amelioratory
Origin: 1650s, from French amélioration, from Old French ameillorer “to better,” from Late Latin meliorare “improve,” from Latin melior “better”.

Read The Time Machine by H. G. Wells. The term “time machine”, coined by Wells, is now almost universally used to refer to a vehicle used for the purpose of time travel. He writes: The work of ameliorating the conditions of life – the true civilizing process that makes life more and more secure – had gone steadily on to a climax.

5. faux pas

noun. an embarrassing or tactless act or remark in a social situation.
Pronunciation: [foh pah]
Origin: “breech of good manners, any act that compromises one’s reputation,” 1670s, French, literally “false step”.

Something that will help you remember this word/term is this video. Hilarious!

Sources:
Apart from Google search, the data in this series is taken from Dictionary.com, Online Etymology Dictionary and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

5 Words. What they mean, where they come from and relevant popular culture or literary references. Build your vocabulary by reading this all in one post.

1. pauper

noun. a very poor person.
Pronunciation: [paw-per]
Related: pauperage, pauperdom
Origin: 1510s, “person destitute of property or means of livelihood,” from Latin pauper “poor, not wealthy, of small means”.

Read The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain. Set in 1547, it tells the story of two young boys who are identical in appearance: Tom Canty, a pauper who lives with his abusive father in Offal Court off Pudding Lane in London, and Prince Edward, son of King Henry VIII.

2. castigate

verb. reprimand (someone) severely.
Pronunciation: [kas-ti-geyt]
Related: castigation, castigative, castigatory, castigator
Origin: from Latin castigatus, past participle of castigare “to correct, set right; purify; chastise, punish,” from castus “pure” + agere “to do”.

William Shakespeare writes in Timon of Athens: If thou didst put this sour-cold habit on to castigate thy pride, ’twere well: but thou Dost it enforcedly; thou’dst courtier be again, Wert thou not beggar. It is said that ‘castigate’ is one of the words invented by Shakespeare.

3. ingenuity

noun. the quality of being clever, original, and inventive.
Pronunciation: [in-juh-noo-i-tee, -nyoo-]
Related:  hyperingenuity, superingenuity
Origin: 1590s, “honor, nobility,” from Middle French ingénuité and directly from Latin ingenuitatem “condition of a free-born man,” figuratively “generosity, noble-mindedness,” from ingenuus.

You may want to read The Ingenuity Gap by Canadian academic Thomas Homer-Dixon. The book argues that the nature of problems faced by our society are becoming more complex and that our ability to implement solutions is not keeping pace.

4. curmudgeon

noun. a bad-tempered or surly person.
Pronunciation: [ker-muhj-uh n]
Related: curmudgeonly
Origin: 1570s, of unknown origin; Liberman says the word “must have been borrowed from Gaelic (and references muigean “disagreeable person”), with variant spelling of intensive prefix ker-.

Dyskolos, an ancient Greek comic play by Menander is sometimes translated as The Curmudgeon. If you prefer music, then check this 1992 song by Nirvana. Some people are curmudgeon enough to make a documentary called I, Curmudgeon.

5. prelude

noun. an action or event serving as an introduction to something more important; an introductory piece of music.
Pronunciation: [prel-yood, preyl-, prey-lood, pree-]
Related: preluder, preludial, preludious
Origin: Middle French prélude “notes sung or played to test the voice or instrument”, from Medieval Latin preludium “prelude, preliminary”.

The Prelude is an autobiographical conversation poem by the English poet William Wordsworth. Also, have a look at Prelude to a Kiss, a 1992 film starring Alec Baldwin and Meg Ryan, which was called ‘the kind of movie that can inspire long conversations about the only subject really worth talking about’ by Roger Ebert.

Sources:
Apart from Google search, the data in this series is taken from Dictionary.com, Online Etymology Dictionary and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

5 Words. What they mean, where they come from and relevant popular culture or literary references. Build your vocabulary by reading this all in one post.

1. punitive

adjective. inflicting or intended as punishment.
Pronunciation: [pyoo-ni-tiv]
Related: punitively, punitiveness, nonpunitive, nonpunitory, self-punitive
Origin: 1620s, “inflicting or involving punishment,” from French punitif or directly from Latin punitus, past participle of punire “to punish, correct, chastise”.

Punitive damages are damages intended to reform or deter the defendant and others from engaging in conduct similar to that which formed the basis of the lawsuit. Also, the name of a 1999 documentary on New Zealander Helen Todd’s law suit against an Indonesian general that she pursued after her son, Kamal, was shot dead in the Dili massacre in East Timor.

2. chaste

adjective. abstaining from or not having any sexual nature or intention. without unnecessary ornamentation; simple or restrained.
Pronunciation: [cheyst]
Related: chastely, chasteness
Origin: “virtuous, pure from unlawful sexual intercourse”, from Old French chaste “morally pure”, from Latin castus “clean, pure, morally pure”.

Sweet little chaste woman / Why are you holding your breath in an ocean? / Where the abyss is infinitely deep / Skiing mountains, dangerously steep: from Chastity, a song by iiO.

3. impediment

noun. a hindrance or obstruction in doing something.
Pronunciation: [im-ped–uh-muh nt]
Related: impedimental, impedimentary, nonimpedimental
Origin: c. 1400, from Latin impedimentem “hindrance,” from impedire “impede,” literally “to shackle the feet”.

From the world of Harry Potter, Impedimenta or the impediment jinx is used to slow the target. “Swift use of this jinx can freeze an attacker for a few moments, or stop a magical beast in its tracks.” – Miranda Goshawk in the Book of Spells.

4. corroborate

verb. confirm or give support to (a statement, theory, or finding).
Pronunciation: [kuh–rob–uh-reyt] / [kuh–rob-er-it]
Related: corroborative, corroboratively, corroboratorily, corroborator
Origin: 1530s, “to give confirmation to,” from Latin corroboratus, past participle of corroborare “to strengthen, invigorate”.

In The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle writes: Their evidence, corroborated by that of several friends, tends to show that Sir Charles’s health has for some time been impaired, and points especially to some affection of the heart, manifesting itself in changes of color, breathlessness, and acute attacks of nervous depression.

5. exhume

verb. dig out (something buried, especially a corpse) from the ground.
Pronunciation: [ig-zoom, –zyoom, eks-hyoom]
Related: exhumation, exhumer
Origin: early 15c., from Medieval Latin exhumare “to unearth”, from Latin ex-“out of” + humare “bury,” from humus “earth”.

Watch The Case of the Exhumed Client, the 31th episode of the 1954-55 Sherlock Holmes series where Sir Charles Farnsworth is found dead in his mysterious Farnsworth Castle.

Sources:
Apart from Google search, the data in this series is taken from Dictionary.com, Online Etymology Dictionary and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.