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2014 Words Read Books and Articles
Aug 2014 -
10
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Undergraduate 1
08/12/2014

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Term
Obloquy
Definition

Dictionary.com:


noun, plural ob·lo·quies.

 

1. censure, blame, or abusive language aimed at a person or thing, especially by numerous persons or by the general public.

 

2. discredit, disgrace, or bad repute resulting from public blame, abuse, or denunciation.

 

"There would be another visit to the bar and, if he persisted in his obloquy, a letter from a bailiff with a thirty-day warning, and then a period of grace of up to nine months before he might be scheduled to appear in court, where he could be fined a maximum of $570."

 

Oh Canada, Oh Québec, Mordecai Richler, page 1

 

The offender posts an English only sign, and apparently this flying of non-French signs is considered an obloquy.

[obviously satire]

Term
Ostensibly
Definition

Dictionary.com

os·ten·si·ble

[o-sten-suh-buh[image][image]l] Show IPA

adjective

1.
outwardly appearing as such; professed; pretended: an ostensible cheerfulness concealing sadness. 

2.
apparent, evident, or conspicuous: the ostensible truth of their theories.

os·ten·si·bly, adverb
non·os·ten·si·ble, adjective
non·os·ten·si·bly, adverb
un·os·ten·si·ble, adjective
un·os·ten·si·bly, adverb
 
"Honoring this tradition, the sign law, ostensibly uncompromising, in practice does not so much prohibit exterior commercial signs in languages other than French as slap a surcharge on them."

Oh Canada, Oh Québec, Mordecai Richler, page 2.
Term
Sere
Definition

dry, withered [Synonyms: arid, parched, dessicated, wizened]

 

"Two nights earlier, Dacey had dreamt a sere winter landscape."

 

Fallsy Downsies, Stephanie Domet, p15

Term
Ennui
Definition

noun

a feeling of utter weariness and discontent resulting from satiety or lack of interest; boredom: The endless lecture produced an unbearable ennui.
 
 
"She had shot the scenes of ennui -- a muddy riverbank, the main street in town after a snowfall, the parking lot at the SlipNSlurp -- without purpose."
 
Falssy Downsies, Stephanie Domet, p15
Term
Dendritic
Definition

:  resembling or having dendrites :  branching like a tree <a dendritic drainage system> <dendritic cells>




"Centuries of compact and connected cities rapidly gave way to sparse, dendritic, “hierarchical” street networks."

The Suburbs Made Us Fat, James Hamblin, The Atlantic, August 13, 2014

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/08/blame-the-city/375888/

Term
Mawkish
Definition

adjective

1. characterized by sickly sentimentality; weakly emotional; maudlin.
2. having a mildly sickening flavor; slightly nauseating.

"It should be noted that in the summer of 1990, CBC-TV's annual soporific, "The Canada Day Special," inexcusably mawkish as ever, surfaced with a sponsor sufficiently patriotic not to worry about the ratings: Toshiba of Canada."

Oh Canada, Oh Québec, Mordecai Richler, p6
Term
Soporific
Definition
adjective
1. causing or tending to cause sleep.
2. pertaining to or characterized by sleep or sleepiness; sleepy; drowsy.
noun
3. something that causes sleep, as a medicine or drug.
 
 
"It should be noted that in the summer of 1990, CBC-TV's annual soporific, "The Canada Day Special," inexcusably mawkish as ever, surfaced with a sponsor sufficiently patriotic not to worry about the ratings: Toshiba of Canada."
 
 

Oh Canada, Oh Québec, Mordecai Richler, p6
Term
Ardour
Definition

noun

1. great warmth of feeling; fervor; passion:
She spoke persuasively and with ardor.
2. intense devotion, eagerness, or enthusiasm; zeal:
his well-known ardor for Chinese art.
3. burning heat.

"And afterward you'd go out to the merch table to press a little flesh; but tou'd really had no connection with the audience up to that point, and so it was abrasive the ardour that came his way from those strangers, instead of communal, a true exchange, which is what it should be, Lansing thought."

Fallsy Downsies, Stephanie Domet, p111
Term
Scud
Definition

verb (used without object), scudded, scudding.

1. to run or move quickly or hurriedly.
2. Nautical. to run before a gale with little or no sail set.
3. Archery. (of an arrow) to fly too high and wide of the mark.

noun

4. the act of scudding.
5. clouds, spray, or mist driven by the wind; a driving shower or gust of wind.
6. low-drifting clouds appearing beneath a cloud from which precipitation is falling.

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"Counds scudded in front of the moon, and for a moment Shadow could not be certain whether it was clouds or the moon that were moving."

American Gods, Neil Gaiman, p22 of 448 [Kobo-counting]
Term
Sublimate
Definition

verb (used with object), sublimated, sublimating.

1. Psychology. to divert the energy of (a sexual or other biological impulse) from its immediate goal to one of a more acceptable social, moral, or aesthetic nature or use.
2. Chemistry.
  1. to sublime (a solid substance); extract by this process.
  2. to refine or purify (a substance).
3. to make nobler or purer:
To read about great men sublimates ambition.

verb (used without object), sublimated, sublimating.

4. to become sublimated; undergo sublimation.

noun

5. Chemistry. the crystals, deposit, or material obtained when a substance is sublimated.

adjective

6. purified or exalted; sublimated.

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"And he came, spasming and dissolving, the back of his mind itself liquefying, then sublimating slowly from one state to the next."

American Gods, p166 of 448 [Kobo], Neil Gaiman
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