Fall Vocab List #9

Abortive: failing to produce the intended result


Bruit: spread a report or rumor widely


Contumelious: scornful and insulting behavior

Dictum: a formal pronouncement from an authoritative source; a short statement that expresses a general truth or principle


Ensconce: establish or settle


Iconoclastic: characterized by attack on established beliefs or institutions


In medias res: a narrative that begins somewhere in the middle of a story rather than the beginning

Internecine: destructive to both sides in a conflict


Maladroit: ineffective or bungling; clumsy

Maudlin: self-pitying or tearfully sentimental, often through drunkenness


Modulate: exert a modifying or controlling influence on


Portentous: of or like a portent; done in a pompously or overly solemn manner


Prescience: the power to foresee the future


Quid pro quo: a favor or advantage granted in return for something


Salubrious: health-giving, healthy; pleasant, not run-down


Saturnalia: the ancient Roman festival of Saturn in December; an occasion of wild revelry


Touchstone: a standard or criterion by which something is judged or recognized


Traumatic: emotionally disturbing or distressing; relating to or causing psychological trauma


Vitiate: spoil or impair the quality or efficiency of; destroy or impair the legal validity of


Waggish: humorous in a playful, mischievous, or facetious manner