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The Highly Selective Dictionary of Golden Adjectives for the Extraordinarily Literate: For the Extraordinarily Literate

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Overview

Adjectives have long suffered from bad press. For many years, English teachers have been fond of telling students that "adjectives are the enemy of nouns, and adverbs are the enemy of everything else."

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Author Information

Bio of Eugene Ehrlich

Eugene Ehrlich is co-editor of the "Oxford American Dictionary" & author of numerous books on language, including "You've Got Ketchup on Your Muumuu: An A-to-Z Guide to English Words from Around the World". A former professor of English at Columbia University, he lives in Mamaroneck, NY. 010

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Imprint

PerfectBound

Filesize

1.74 MB

Number of Pages

272

eBook ISBN

9780060737436

Excerpt from: The Highly Selective Dictionary of Golden Adjectives for the Extraordinarily Literate by Eugene Ehrlich

A

abashed (e-BASHT)

From Middle English abaishen, meaning "to bring low, put down."

1. ashamed or embarrassed.

"A major-league second baseman cannot help feeling abashed when he finds himself unable to throw accurately to first base."

2. disconcerted.

"The boy was thoroughly abashed when, for the first time in his life, he faced having to use three forks to eat dinner and had no idea which to employ first."

Related words: abash (e-BASH) verb; abashedly (e-BASH-id-lee) adverb; abashedness (e-BASH-id-nis) and abashment (e-BASH-ment) both nouns.

abdominous (ab-DOM-e-nes)

From Latin abdomen, meaning "paunch, belly; gluttony."

1. potbellied.

"The tailor made a rich living through his specialty of accommodating comfortably abdominous clients who knew he would do everything possible to obscure their overeating."

2. having a paunch or prominent belly.

"The shah's collection of uncorseted, abdominous wives may not have appealed to Westerners, but it made him the envy of lecherous old men in his court."

Related words: abdomen (AB-de-men) noun; abdominal (ab-DOM-e-nl) adjective; abdominally (ab-DOM-i-ne-lee) adverb.

aberrant (e-BER-ent)

From Latin aberrans, present participle of verb aberrare, meaning "to wander."

1. straying from an expected course, for example, a moral standard.

"In the interest of preserving impeccable reputations, even the youngest divinity students eschewed aberrant behavior of any kind."

2. exceptional; deviating widely from the normal type; abnormal; irregular.

"School psychologists today are challenged to distinguish between adolescent experimentation and seriously aberrant behavior."

Related words: aberration (AB-e-RAY-shen), aberrance (e-BER-ens), and aberrancy (e-BER-en-see) all nouns; aberrantly (e-BER-ent-lee) adverb.

abortifacient (e-BOR-te-FAY-shent)

From Latin aboriri, meaning "to miscarry"; past participle abortus. The word is used as a noun in such sentences as "The young pharmacist still blushed slightly after dispensing prescribed abortifacients."

causing abortion.

Abortifacient pills have recently been approved for distribution in the United States for termination of early pregnancies."