Vocab #6

abase - verb cause to feel shame; hurt the pride of
He was abased after costing his team the game.

abdicate - verb give up, such as power, as of monarchs and emperors, or duties and obligations
The king abdicated his powers to his son while he was on his deathbed.

abomination - noun an action that is vicious or vile; an action that arouses disgust or abhorrence; a person who is loathsome or disgusting; hate coupled with disgust
In the movie "300" the hunch back is an abomination.

brusque - adj. marked by rude or peremptory shortness
The man was brusque.

saboteur - noun someone who commits sabotage or deliberately causes wrecks; a member of a clandestine subversive organization who tries to help a potential invader
The saboteur open the gates for the enemy.

debauchery - noun a wild gathering involving excessive drinking and promiscuity
There was a debauchery last night by the riverbed.

proliferate - verb cause to grow or increase rapidly; grow rapidly
The water proliferated the parched plants.

anachronism - noun an artifact that belongs to another time; a person who seems to be displaced in time; who belongs to another age; something located at a time when it could not have existed or
occurred
After traveling through the time machine the men felt like anachronism in the time.

nomenclature - noun a system of words used to name things in a particular discipline
The nomenclature itself has become tricky.

expurgate - verb edit by omitting or modifying parts considered indelicate
The artist had to expurgate the profanity from his songs.

bellicose - adj. having or showing a ready disposition to fight
The bellicose teens were held from each other in the hallway.

gauche - adj. lacking social polish
He tried so hard to talk to people but he was extremely gauche.

rapacious - adj. excessively greedy and grasping; devouring or craving food in great quantities; living by preying on other animals especially by catching living prey
The rapacious polo players ate a total of sixteen sushi rolls at the sushi bar.

paradox - noun (logic) a statement that contradicts itself
The philosophy teacher often talks about life's paradoxes.

conundrum - noun a difficult problem
The math problem was a conundrum to many students.

anomaly - noun (astronomy) position of a planet as defined by its angular distance from its perihelion (as observed from the sun); a person who is unusual; deviation from the normal or common order or form or rule
The  man standing in the corner is an anomaly.

ephemeral - adj. lasting a very short time; noun anything short-lived, as an insect that lives only for a day in its winged form
The hype from winning the game was ephemeral due to the crushing defeat hours later.

rancorous - adj. showing deep-seated resentment
The rancorous man always dogs his ex bestfriend.

churlish - adj. having a bad disposition; surly; rude and boorish
The churlish girl was disliked by many of her peers.

precipitous - adj. characterized by precipices; extremely steep; done with very great haste and without due deliberation
The precipitous work was rushed and sloppy.

Phonar

This is a picture I didn't take of the sun rising over the trees on the outskirts of a college campus. The the bass of a song from a car of three teenagers as the drive to their destination. The the wind blowing through the hair of the boy in the passengers seat as he leaned his window to take a picture of the sunrise.

Masterpiece idea

For my project I want to set up possibly a few trips to study animals in nature.  I have found a trip were you get to join wildlife biologist at their base camp near Big Sur to study the California Condors living in the area.  I also want to try and get the UCSB marine science department to take a group of people out to their tide pools at Hollister Ranch.  I'd like to know if anyone would be interested in doing either of these trips so I can start getting in contact with the directors of each program and see how many people would be attending them.

The Point of Canterbury Tales is...

Compare and contrast a character from one of the tales to a person or character from another story.

Green Eggs and Hamlet

A) I have no knowledge of Hamlet or the "Melancholy Dane"

B)Shakespeare was a playwright who wrote famous plays such as "Romeo and Juliet" or "Julius Cesaer"

C) Many students dislike Shakespeare due to the boring environment they first experience him in.

D) I think making this as interactive as possible in class will make this play much more enjoyable.

vocab 4

obsequious - adj. attentive in an ingratiating or servile manner; attempting to win favor from influential people by flattery
The obsequious player tried to brown nose his way to a spot on the team.

beatitude - noun one of the eight sayings of Jesus at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount; in Latin each saying begins with `beatus' (blessed); a state of supreme happiness
The beatitude I recieved after accomplishing my life goals was amazing.

bode - verb indicate by signs
He was boded to leave his house by the packed bags in his room.

dank - adj. unpleasantly cool and humid
The atmosphere of the cellar was dank.

ecumenical - adj. of worldwide scope or applicability; concerned with promoting unity among churches or religions
After seeing all of the violence in the world Jame set out to try to make ecumenical peace.

fervid - adj. extremely hot; characterized by intense emotion
The two rivals got in a frevid arguement over who was right.

fetid - adj. offensively malodorous
The rotting food had a fetid stench to it.

gargantuan - adj. of great mass; huge and bulky
The gargantuan building towered over the city.

heyday - noun the period of greatest prosperity or productivity
Families were making twice the amount now back in the heydays.

incubus - noun a male demon believed to lie on sleeping persons and to have sexual intercourse with sleeping women; someone who depresses or worries others; a situation resembling a terrifying dream
The women's incubus caused people to feel bad for her.

infrastructure - noun the stock of basic facilities and capital equipment needed for the functioning of
a country or area; the basic structure or features of a system or organization
The cities infastructure revolved around to production of brown hats.

inveigle - verb influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering
The man inveigled good calls from the female referee.

kudos - noun an expression of approval and commendation
I gave Tommy kudos for his excellent work.

lagniappe - noun a small gift (especially one given by a merchant to a customer who makes a purchase)
He bought her a lagniappe instead of a big gift for their anniversary.

prolix - adj. tediously prolonged or tending to speak or write at great length
The essay given to the class was just a prolix assignment.

protege - noun a person who receives support and protection from an influential patron who furthers the protege's career
The protege was working under Bill Gates, the best in his industry.

prototype - noun a standard or typical example
They created a protoype for the trial.

sycophant - noun a person who tries to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage
He is a sycophant.

tautology - noun useless repetition; (logic) a statement that is necessarily true
The statement is a tautology.

truckle - noun a low bed to be slid under a higher bed; verb yield to out of weakness; try to gain favor by cringing or flattering
I truckled my way to this position.