Vocabulary Assignment - 9/24/2008

Wiki Vocab Template
This page is to help us with our vocabulary assignments for class. Just look to see which words need answering and pick one to define for everyone. Also put your name next to the word you defined. Just use edit at the bottom of the page.

Vocabulary for 9/24/2008

  • Lampoon - Cassaundra R.

Definition - a sharp, often virulent satire directed against an individual or institution; a work of literature, art, or the like, ridiculing severely the character or behavior of a person, society, etc.
Etymology - French lampon, perhaps from lampons, let us drink (from a common refrain in drinking songs)
Synonyms - Satire, mockumentary, spoof
Antonyms - Documentary, praise, account

  • Arbitrate -Colin

1. transitive and intransitive verb settle dispute between others: to act as a judge in a dispute between others

2. transitive verb ask somebody to settle dispute: to submit a dispute to be decided by a third party

[Late 16th century. < Latin arbitrat-, past participle of arbitrari "judge, decide" < arbiter "judge"]

Synonyms: judge, adjudicate, pass judgment, decide, settle, sort out, mediate, referee, intercede, determine, adjudge, assess

Antonyms - ????? These are my own antonyms, might want to think of your own.????
- sympathize, to relate with or to understand, to be non judging.

  • Edify

transitive verb

Definition: enlighten: to improve the morals or knowledge of somebody

[14th century. Via French édifier< Latin aedificare "build, construct, instruct" < aedis "building, temple" + facere "make"]

Synonyms: enlighten, inform, educate, instruct, improve, teach

Antonym: obfuscate

  • Naive

adjective

Definition:

1. extremely simple and trusting: having or showing an excessively simple and trusting view of the world and human nature, often as a result of youth and inexperience

2. not shrewd or sophisticated: showing a lack of sophistication and subtlety or of critical judgment and analysis
a politically naive statement

3. artless: admirably straightforward and uncomplicated or refreshingly innocent and unaffected

4. arts rejecting sophisticated techniques in art: not using the conventional styles and techniques of trained artists, e.g. in the treatment of perspective or light and shade

5. science not previously experimented on: not previously used in any scientific tests or experiments or not having previously used a particular drug
naive laboratory mice

[Mid-17th century. < French naïve, feminine of naïf< Latin nativus "born"]

Synonyms: simple, trusting, innocent, childlike, inexperienced, ingenuous, guileless

Antonym: suspicious

Synonyms: unsophisticated, gullible, wet behind the ears, green, foolish, credulous, unwise

Antonym: shrewd

  • Efficacy

Definition: effectiveness: the ability to produce the desired result

[Early 16th century. < Latin efficacia< efficac- (see efficacious)]

Synonyms: effectiveness, efficiency, usefulness, worth, value, ability

Antonym: sloppiness, ineffective

  • Hoary

adjective

Definition: 1. overused: old and stale from overuse
Do we have to hear those hoary knock-knock jokes again?

2. white with age: describes hair that has become white or gray with age

3. covered with pale hairs: covered with gray or white hairs
a plant with hoary leaves
Synonyms: overused, old, ancient, age-old, stale, worn, worn-out, antediluvian

Antonym: fresh

Synonyms: white, snow-white, whitened, snowy, silvery, silver, silvered, gray, grayed

  • Perfidy

noun

Definition: deliberate treachery: treachery or deceit ( formal )

[Late 16th century. < Latin perfidia< perfidus "treacherous" < per fidem decipere "deceive through trustingness" < fides "faith, trust"]

Synonyms: treachery, disloyalty, deceit, duplicity, betrayal, dishonesty, lying

Antonym: honesty

  • Augur (Jeffrey)

Definition: 1 : an official diviner of ancient Rome
2 : one held to foretell events by omens
Etymology - Latin; akin to Latin augēre
Synonyms - fortuneteller, vizier
Antonym: historian

  • Enigma Eric Delich

Definition - a person or thing that is mysterious, puzzling or difficult to understand
Etymology - Greek ainigma from ainissesthai: "speak allusively"
Synonyms - riddle
Antonyms - open book

  • Verdant (cardonick)

Definition - Green in color. Also has to do with vegetation, such as the land was verdant with plants and grass. Verdant also is used to describe inexperienced/unsophisticated people.
Etymology - Vend(ure) means green, such as plants but it also refers to freshness, such as a person's vigor;
-ant is a suffix used in French and Latin nouns and adjectives converting them from verbs. Adding -ant to a word means it is "characterized by or serving in the capacity of"
Synonyms - freshness, greenery, greenness. abundance
Antonyms -spareseness

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