Friday, February 24, 2012

Vocabulary expansion

During my exploration of the thesaurus, I discovered a few words that I had heard, but never took the time to fully understand. There were also some others that I'd never come across before, but they are so colorful I can't resist hanging on to them.

Expostulate - Express strong disapproval or disagreement.

Quidnunc - An inquisitive and gossipy person.

Procure - To obtain something or someone, especially with care or effort.

Lackluster - Lacking in vitality, force, or conviction; uninspired.

Glib - readily fluent, often thoughtlessly, superficially, or insincerely so

Impetuous - Acting or done quickly and without care; impulsive.

Numskull - A stupid person; a nitwit.

Palpable - Able to be touched or felt.

Disenthrall - Set free.

Lascivious - Given to or expressing lust.


Journalese



 




I've heard of "legalese" before, but not "journalese" so needless to say, I was curious what I would learn upon reading chapter 6. Obviously, I've been inundated with this kind of verbiage because I barely noticed anything wrong with the examples until they were pointed out. I definitely needed to read this chapter because I realized that I have a tendency to fall into that rut. Anyhow, below are a few examples I pulled out from the article I found to demonstrate journalese in action.
 "the cats wasted no time fitting into their new home"
"the Jungs' happy day took a turn for the worse"
"That's when Pudding sprang into action."
"The fast-acting feline"