Chimera Vocab Final
Terms
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- archetypal
- an original model from which all others are patterened
- protean
- changeable
- amoral
- no admitting moral distinctions; neither moral nor immoral
- dichotomy
- a split, division
- esoteric
- understood by only a few
- disparate
- people or things so different they can't be compared
- equilibrium
- a mental state of calm and composure, a state in which opposing forces balance out, ability to mantain balance
- translucent
- allowing light to pass through but only diffusely so indistinct
- demise
- death, end of something
- bereft
- deprived of something, filled with a sense of loss
- lambency
- state of soft, glowing light, flickering light
- plangent
- expressing grief or sadness, resonating with a mournful sound, also a loud or resonant sound
- adamantine
- extremely hard and unyielding
- nimbus
- a halo, could of light often around a god or saint
- coruscate
- to give off flashes of bright light
- credulity
- tendency to believe too easily
- incantation
- ritual chanting
- invidious
- producing resentment or jealously
- castigate
- to criticize or punish
- craven
- cowardly
- iniquitous
- immoral, esp in sense of unjust or unfair
- turbid
- opaque and muddy, dense and cloudy, confused and muddled
- panoply
- an impressive display with all the accessories
- coy
- pretending to be reserved, actually shy, annoyingly reluctant to make a committment
- magnanimous
- very generous, kind or forgiving
- spurious
- being different than what it claims to be
- unctuous
- slippery, insincere
- antedate
- to come before
- arboreal
- having to do with trees
- tremulous
- quivering
- inchoate
- beginning, incipient
- addled
- muddled, confused
- calumniated
- slander, malign
- droll
- oddly amusing, whimsically comical
- exonerate
- to declare someone innocent, to relieve from responsibility
- obsequious
- excessively eager to please
- viscid
- thick and sticky
- Pointillist
- 19C paintng style comprised of dots
- prescience
- foreknowledge
- iridescent
- marked by rainbow colors, any brilliant appearance
- ambrosial
- linked to ambrosia, delightful to taste or smell
- patina
- a thin layer formed by corrosion on the surface of some metals, a surface sheen, any thin layer of something
- wan
- unnaturally pale, expressive of melancholy
- suffuse
- to spread over
- doleful
- very sad or mournful
- permeate
- to spread through
- propitious
- favorable or likely to lead to success
- sallow
- pale or yellow
- malleable
- capable of being persuaded, of being modled
- exodus
- a departure
- stacatto
- short, rapid detached notes
- diminution
- a lessening, a making smaller
- undulate
- wave-like
- mottled
- spotted
- incandescent
- emitting light because of great heat, shining or glowing
- pedagogic
- the art of teaching
- impeccable
- without flaw
- vortex
- a whirling mass that draws everything to its center
- alloy
- something added that lowers value or purity (cheap metal)
- succulent
- full of juice or sap
- deign
- to do someting in a way that suggests that it is beneath your dignity
- prevaricate
- to avoid direct and honest answer, esp. by quibbing and misleading
- arabesque
- an intricate and often symmetical design, highly decorative
- attenuation
- long, slender, narrow, to make narrower (attenuate)
- beatific
- expressing great happiness and inner peace (as with a saint)
- pander
- to indulge someone else's weaknesses; to procure sexual favors for someone
- expiate
- to make ammends, show remorse for something done wrong
- intimation
- hint, suggestion
- torpor
- lethargy, apathy
- obdurate
- hardened in wrongdoing or wickedness, hardened to feeling, not given to persuasion
- ossify
- to turn into bone, to become set to a conventional pattern
- pecuniary
- having to do with money
- incorrigible
- impossible to correct or reform, difficult to keep in order
- quibble
- to argue over unimportant things and make petty objections
- execrate
- to put a curse on someone, to declare someone to be loathsome
- dissemble
- to put on a false appearance, to hide one's true beliefs or intentions
- mitigate
- to make something less severe or harsh
- wanton
- w/out restraint or inhibition, esp sexual
- transfigure
- revealing great beauty or spiritiualiy, to transform the app. of someone
- promontory
- a point of land that juts into the sea
- circumspection
- unwillingness to act without weighing the consequences
- archipelago
- a group of islands
- comely
- physically good-looking
- paltry
- insignificant, low and contemptible
- supplication
- a humble appeal to someone who can grant favors
- commodious
- pleasantly spacious
- coalesce
- to merge into one
- marmoreal
- made of marble, especially in being cold, aloof
- lapidary
- suitable for engraving in stone
- lacunae
- a small gap
- feng shui
- connection of a person to environment
- sesquipedal
- foot and a half
- sinuous
- gracefully winding, full of bend and curves, indirect or devious
- anathema
- something greatly disliked, cursed
- desultory
- aimlessly passing from one thing to another, happening in a random, disorganized way
- bacchic
- riotous drunkenness
- perfidy
- treachery or deceit
- perspicacious
- discerning, perceptive, astute
- perspicuity
- quality of being expressed clearly
- impunity
- exemption from punishment or h arm
- paean
- hymn of praise
- reprobate
- a disreputable or immoral person
- glib
- fluent in a superficial or insincere way, shallow, lacking in thought, easily, unconcerned and informal
- odious
- inspiring hatred, contempt or disgust
- contrite
- deeply sorry about something
- ineluctable
- unable to be escaped from or avoided
- mephitic
- noxious, poisonous smell
- nemesis
- bitter enemy, a source of harm, the god of punishment and revenge
- allay
- to calm anxiety or fear, to relieve severity of pain
- hegemony
- control or dominating influence, esp by political group or nation
- lugubrious
- extremely sad, gloomy, or mournful
- palpitate
- to beat in a rapid way
- solace
- comfrot in sadness
- coquetry
- flirtatious
- premonition
- a strong feeling w/out rational basis that something is going to happen
- transient
- lasting for only a short time (ephemeral, evanescent, transitory)
- imbue
- to saturate with something
- muse
- to think about something either deeply or in a dreamy state; noun – source of inspiration, a particular talent, one of the 9 daughters of zeus and memory
- palatable
- having a good enough taste to be eaten, acceptable to one's senses
- heinous
- shockingly evil or wicked
- abate
- to lessen, suppress a nuisance
- salutary
- of value or benefit, healthy
- efface
- to remove or obliterate
- terse
- brief, conceise
- amphisband
- snake with two heads
- whorl
- having shape of a spiral
- herpentine
- reptiles or amphibians
- reliquary
- a container for relics
- pedophage
- having sex with a child
- baneful
- causing ruin or destruction
- equanimity
- evenness of temper
- emanate
- to come from or come out of, to emit
- perfidious
- guilty of treachery or deceit
- specter
- a ghostly presence or appartition, a threat
- pestilence
- epidemic, serious disease, a malevolent belief
- query
- a question
- pomposity
- excessive sense of self-importance usually displaye through exaggerated seriousness
- presumptuous
- inconsiderate, disrespectful in doing something when not entitled
- equivocal
- open to more than one interpretation, difficult to interpret
- sodden
- saturated with moisture
- induce
- to persuade or influence, to cause to bring about
- to augur
- to indiciate what will happen next
- to goad
- to provoke or incite someone into action, to prod an animal
- nape
- back part of neck
- ruse
- a clever trick or plot to deceive
- petrifacient
- able to turn something into stone
- gyre
- spiral
- peunultimate
- next to last
- avuncular
- pertaining to an uncle
- manumit
- to free (send from hand)
- uncial
- a letter used in Greek and Latin manuscripts between 3rd and 9th C that resembles a modern capital but is more rounded
- vituperate
- to attack in abusive language
- omphalos
- delphi stone – center of world, the central or focal point
- dhow
- a sailboat used by Arab sailors
- flaccid
- soft, limp, lacking energy, enthusiasm or competence
- pantheon
- all the dieties of a particular Religion considered collectively, a group of people who are the most famous in a particular Field, a temple dedicated to the dieties
- callow
- young, immature
- corporeal
- relating to the body
- subterfuge
- a plan, action, device to hide the real objective, trickery
- progenitor
- a direct ancestor
- ire
- anger
- obsequies
- rites or ceremonies at a funeral
- surrogate
- a substitue
- circumlocution
- using more words than necessary in order not to be direct
- ignominy
- a total loss of dignity, a public disgrace
- hubris
- excessive pride or arrogance
- epistolary
- taking the form of letters, associated with letters
- tryst
- a secret meeting between lovers
- cowl
- the hood of a monk's cloak
- aegis
- the shielf of athena or zeus, protection, sponsorship
- imprecation
- an oath or curse
- gaucherie
- a lack of grace or tact in social situations
- remonstrate
- to reason or argue forcefully with someone
- estellation
- to turn into stars
- surfeit
- an excessive number, overindulgence
- timber
- the pitch
- prototype
- the model on which later versions are developed
- reciprocity
- something done mutally in return or in interchange
- mollify
- to calm or soothe
- truncate
- to make shorter
- scylla and charybdis
- in a spot where avoiding one danger puts you in danger of something else
- penury
- extreme poverty
- elysian fields
- the home of the blessed after death, any ideal or blissful place
- medley
- a mixture or an assortment of various things
- cuckold
- a husband with an unfaithful wife
- quondam
- of an earlier time
- proclivity
- a natural tendency to behave in a particular way
- clairvoyance
- to see things beyond the range of normal human vision
- guffaw
- a loud or raucous laugh
- bullion
- gold or silver in bars
- to query
- to ask a question
- opalescent
- showing shimmering milky colors
- denouement
- the final part wherein everything is made clear
- procrustean bed
- arbitrary standard to which conformity is demanded
- sisyphean
- an arduous task impssible to complete
- shibboleth
- a test word, slogan, catchword (hebrews asked enemies to say it, knowing they couldn't)
- myrmidon
- a faithful folower who carries out order without question (followers of Achilles from Thrace)
- halcyon
- a mythical bird who had the power to calm the waves, hence – calm, peaceful, also prosperous
- laconic
- using few words
- piquant
- pungent
- alacrity
- cheerful readiness, liveliness and eagerness
- salubrious
- promoting health
- assiduous
- hardworking, busy
- vernal
- spring-like
- ebullient
- overflowing with enthusiasm
- epiphany
- sudden revelation
- feckless
- ineffectual, ineffective over another
- gilt
- golden
- plethora
- a large amount or number
- quiddity
- the essential nature of something (the "whatness")
- opprobrium
- disgrace, shameful conduct
- paradigm
- model, pattern, example
- sedulous
- diligent, industrious
- turpitude
- disgraceful conduct
- vertiginous
- dizziness
- disseminate
- to scatter or spread widely
- evanescent
- vanishing or fading
- impugn
- to refute, criticize
- deliquesce
- to dissolve gradually by absorbing water, to form many brances without a main stream
- voluptuary
- hedonist
- lucubration
- hard study, study at night like a scholar
- nugatory
- of little importance
- borborygmic
- rumbling of gas in the stomach
- bovine
- like a clow, esp slowness, body type
- sardonic
- disdainfully mocking
- enervate
- to weaken, physical, mental, moral
- languor
- a pleasant feeling of weariness; listlessness, indifference
- diaphanous
- delicacy of form, so fine as to be transparent; vague or insubstantial
- penchant
- a tendency
- palliative
- something that makes less severe or intense
- demagogue
- a leader who gains power by emotional appeal, leader of common people
- cant
- hypocritical pious language, special language of a profession
- touchstone
- a criterion or standard (hard black stone used to test gold)
- indigence
- extreme poverty
- felicity
- happiness
- clandestine
- secretive or furtive
- quiescent
- inactive or at rest
- pristine
- so clean and neat as to look like new, in an original condition
- augury
- the interpretation of natural phenomenon as signs of favor or disfavor from the gods
- persiflage
- light bantering style
- farrago
- medley, conglomeration
- consanguine
- blood relationship, close relation
- panegyric
- lofty praise
- parracide
- killing of parents
- garrulous
- extremely talkative
- munificient
- very generous
- neophyte
- a beginner