New words!

Alacrity	eagerness; enthusiasm; quickness
Burgeon	grow; flourish; put forth new shoots
Deleterious	harmful
Euphemism	a polite phrase to cover something unpleasant
Hypocritical	insincere
Lethargic	tired; without energy
Ogle	stare at; observe in an obvious manner
Postulate	hypothesize; propose
Robust	strong; healthy; tough
Tractable	obedient; dutiful; polite

Assortment!

Alibi	an excuse that shows someone was not at a crime scene
Buttress	strengthen; support
Delineation	demarcation; explanation; definition; outlining
Evacuate	vacate; empty; abandon
Idiosyncrasy	a personal peculiarity; something unique to an individual
Libertarian	someone who opposes tyranny
Ominous	threatening
Potent	powerful; compelling; strong
Ruminate	think over something; ponder
Transcribe	copy

Midsummer Night's Dream: Act 2 scene 1

dale(noun)-- valley
pale(noun) -- fenced in area, enclosure
pensioners(noun)-- gentleman of the royal bodyguard
changeling(noun)-- a child stolen by fairies, a stolen child
anon(adv)-- soon
shrewd(adj)-- mischievous
knavish(adj)-- dishonest
beguile(verb)-- hoodwink
dewlap(noun)-- fold of loose skin around the neck
forsooth(adv)-- in truth
tarry(verb)-- linger
amorous(adj)-- strongly moved by love(often sexual love)
margent(noun)-- edge, border
yoke(noun)-- a wooden bar or frame by which two draft animals are joined at the heads or necks for working together
murrain(adj)-- infected with plague
rheumatic diseases(adj)-- with symptoms of watery discharge, cold-like
wonted(adj)-- accustomed, customary
progeny(noun)-- outcome, product
dissension(noun)-- disagreement
promontory(noun)-- prominent landmass that overlooks lowland or a body of water
dulcet(adj)-- pleasant, agreeable
leviathan(noun)-- sea monster

Midsummer's Night's Dream: Act 1 Scene 1

Nuptial (adj)-- Having to do with marriage

Yes, this word is still in use.

Apace (adv)-- quickly

No, this word is mostly used in archaic situations

Methinks (verb)-- it seems that...

No, this word is mostly used in archaic situations

Vexations (noun)-- something annoying

Yes, this word is still in use.

Nosegay (noun)-- a small bouquet of flowers usually with a pleasing scent

Yes, this word is still in use.

Notes: 

Philostrate is the 'Master of Revels' in Theseus' Court. In other words, the manager of entertainment. 

Bosum in this situation refers to Hermia's heart, not her cleavage.

explosives

petard /puh-tarhd/ noun
a case containing an explosive to break down a door or gate or breach a wall

ex. The blast occurred on Sunday afternoon in a farmer's house in the Anhui Province, destroying six rooms which stored materials for making petards and firecrackers.

Claymore mine: noun
a usually electrically fired land mine containing steel fragments that are discharged in a predetermined direction.
*Important: Claymore and Claymore mine are 2 completely different words. One is a 2-edged blade and the other is an explosive.

ex. When the claymore mine was set off, it took out half of our unit.

TNT: noun
a flammable toxic compound C₇H₅N₃O₆ used as a high explosive and in chemical synthesis
Etymology: trinitrotoluene

ex. The TNT exploded, causing for the sides of the tunnel to collapse.

Jabberwocky

Jabberwocky- (noun) Invented or meaningless language, nonsense
Term originated from Lewis Carroll's classic nonsensical poem, Jabberwocky

Jabberwocky, included in Lewis Carroll's well known story of Alice's Adventures through the Looking-Glass, is one of the most famous poems in recent history. Most of his words are nonsensical, yet from the mere context, we can derive those which are nouns, adjectives, and verbs. Some of these portmanteaus, or combined words, have been included in the modern dictionary.

Today, we ask you to find the words in the excerpts of this poem that have been adopted into the modern english language. More complicated words are emboldened, to make it easier. All the words you need to find will be within those that are bold.


Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Eating Off of Words

pannikin- A small metal cup

Demitasse- A small coffee cup

Chalice- an ornate goblet cast from metal

Salver- A tray used in formal circumstances

Paten- a shallow plate or dish

Crock- A jug or jar

Porringer- a small bowl used for soups and stews

Antonyms

These terms are all antonyms of more common terms. Name the opposite term.

Estivate (verb)- (of a plant or animal) to spend a warm dry season in a state of dormancy
The Giant African Snail spends most of the hot summer in estivation to prevent it's soft body from drying out.

Vernal (adj)- In or relating to spring
The Vernal equinox takes place every year on March 21st.

Occidental (adj)- of or relating to western countries.
Immigrants to America are often overwhelmed by the occidental cultural practices.

Quiz

here's a short quiz to help you with definitions

Architectural Components.

So today we take the liberty of swerving away from our mainstream synonym postings, and bring you a varied assortment of some possibly useful architectural terms. Each of these terms have an example that can be identified on our campus. See if you can point these out.

Cupola (noun)- A small dome atop a building, sometimes used for light or aeration.
He ran up the stairs to the balcony, swung off the wing of the gargoyle and landed on the stone cupola, refusing to come down.


Rotunda (noun) a small round building, sometimes attached to another building
The twisted politicians secretly met in the rotunda in the rose garden to plot the downfall of their libertarian opponents

Clerestory (noun) a raised section of roof in which short windows are placed.
She stood on her toes to reach the clerestory, desperate to catch a glimpse of the mysterious robber who had locked her in the attic.

Gable (noun) the pointed part of a wall that supports the peak of a sloped roof.
There was a small vine climbing up the gable of the country house.

Updates, no more words D: (for now)

Please take the time to test yourself by taking the quiz on the sidebar. You can look forward to some short competition style activities in the future in lieu of our daily vocabulary thing. We all admit, it's getting a bit tiresome, we can see it on your faces. So yes, bear with us, we'll figure something out more interesting.

A little Bit.

Modicum (noun) A small amount of something.
The bored students snuck out of Dillingham quietly in order to preserve the modicum of consciousness they had left.

Soupçon (noun) A tiny quantity of something.
He delicately spooned a soupçon of Hollandaise sauce onto the plate of food, hoping that the putrid smelling tidbits would taste a bit better.

Scintilla (noun) A small trace of a feeling or quality.
His evidence has not a scintilla of truth behind it!

Property

Demesne (historical noun)- the land of an estate
When she learned she had inherited a grand manor in Wales, she had no idea of the vastly stretching demesne with it's deep woodlands and glens.

Duchy (noun) the land belonging to the reign of a duke or duchess
The Grand Duchy of Luxenbourg is now an independent country.

Poor

Hardscrabble-(adjective) returning little for a great amount of effort, characteristic of poverty.
Reviving the hardscrabble slum neighborhood became the frivolous dream of the Bollywood millionaire

Penury-(noun) extreme poverty
She wanted to disprove the common belief that art majors in college are destined for a life of penury

Destitute- (adjective) without basic necessities of life
Even after dollar bills began to fall from the clouds, the drought stricken town still suffered.

Dictionary Fight

lo·gom·a·chy (noun) an argument concerning or using a great deal of complex words
The law school students broke into a noisy logomachy over the definitions provided by the defense attorney.

roots: Greek logomachia and machesthai, to fight

the title

compendium: a list or collection of various items

erudition: deep extensive learning

lexeme: a minimal unit (as a word or stem) in the lexicon of a language

Make oneself Uncomfortable

Ab·ne·gate- (verb) denial of comfort to oneself
The holy man slept on the floor, took only cold showers, and generally followed other practices of abnegation.

Other Forms:
abnegation (noun)

Talkative

Gar·ru·lous (adjective) given to prosy, rambling, or tedious loquacity : pointlessly or annoyingly talkative

The boy's garrulousness got on the hoary man's nerves so he transformed into a Man bear pig, and scared the boy away.

Other Forms
garrulously: adverb
garrulousness: noun


Vol•u•ble (adj)- characterized by ready or rapid speech

When the little boy was on a sugar high, his voluble speech was too fast to understand, so the crowd thought he was insane.

Other Forms
-volubility: noun
-volubleness: noun
-volubly: adverb

Synonyms for "Wordiness"

Logorrhea- (noun) a tendency to extreme wordiness
Other Forms:
Logorrheic (adj)
The amused teacher had a tendency of logorrhea in his lectures, which was really aimed at confusing the students.

Loquacity- (adj) talkative
The loquacious socialites gossiped over their tea and petit fours.

Prolix- (adj) using or containing too many words; tediously lengthy
She thought the epic poem was horribly prolix, and soon fell asleep at her desk

to get rid of

Abjure- (verb) to reject, renounce
To prove his coolness, the dean abjured the evil dress code of his wicked predecessor.

Repudiate- (verb) to refuse to accept or be associated with
Mr. Georgi repudiated his ties to the Marines after some embarrassing youtube videos were found on a commander's blog.

Flout- (verb) openly disregard
Rick Astley flouted the dress code on the Carnival weekend by wearing a skimpy bikini. The deans ignored it.