Word Power Made Easy - Norman Lewis 2014

14 How to talk about common phenomena and occurrences (Sessions 39-41)
Part three Finishing with a feeling of complete success

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What word aptly describes:

✵ dire poverty?

✵ emotion experienced without direct participation?

✵ something which lasts a very short time?

✵ an inoffensive word for an unpleasant idea?

✵ light and easy banter?

✵ someone who is cowlike in his stolidity?

✵ homesickness?

✵ harsh sound?

✵ a meat-eating animal?

✵ something kept secret?

Session 39

This world, Robert Louis Stevenson once claimed—with, I think, questionable logic—is so full of a number of things that we should all be as happy as kings.

I doubt very strongly that happiness comes from the outside, or that kings are necessarily happy. But I will go this far (and no further) with Stevenson: the world is certainly full of a number of things. For instance, poverty and misery, hospitals and insane asylums, slums and racial restrictions, cut-down forests and once fertile lands becoming progressively more arid, war and death and taxes and bumbling diplomats. I know that Stevenson had a different sort of thing in mind, for romantic poets tend to view the world through rose-tinted spectacles, but it is often necessary to counter one extreme with another—and I simply wish to set the record straight.

In this chapter we are going to discuss a number of things to be found in the world and in the minds of its inhabitants—poverty and wealth; secondhand emotions; the relativity of time; praise of various sorts; small talk and how to indulge in it; animals; longings for the past; sounds; eating habits; and many kinds and conditions of secrecy.

As you see, when you start exploring ideas, as we constantly do in these chapters, you never know what will turn up.

Ideas

1. for want of the green stuff

There are those people who are forced (often through no fault of their own) to pursue an existence not only devoid of such luxuries as radios, television sets, sunken bathtubs, electric orangejuice squeezers, automobiles, Jacuzzis, private swimming pools, etc., but lacking also in many of the pure necessities of living— sufficient food, heated homes, hot water, vermin- and rodent-free surroundings, decent clothing, etc.

Such people live: in penury

2. at least watch it.

All normal people want and need love and at least a modicum of excitement in their lives—so say the psychologists. If no one loves them, and if they can find no one on whom to lavish their own love, they may often satisfy their emotional longings and needs by getting their feelings secondhand—through reading love stories, attending motion pictures, watching soap operas, etc.

These are: vicarious feelings

3. time is fleeting

During the late winter and early spring of 1948-49, great numbers of people went practically berserk joining and forming “pyramid clubs.” If you have not heard of this amazing phenomenon, I won’t attempt to describe it in any of its multifarious ramifications, but the main point was that you paid two dollars, treated some people to coSee and doughnuts, and shortly thereafter (if you were gullible enough to fall for this get-rich-quick scheme) supposedly received a return of some fantastic amount like $2,064 for your investment.

For a short time, pyramid clubs were a rage—soon they had vanished from the American scene.

Anything that lasts for but a short time and leaves no trace is: ephemeral

4. how not to call a spade ...

Words are only symbols of things—they are not the things themselves. (This, by the way, is one of the basic tenets of semantics.) But many people identify the word and the thing so closely that they fear to use certain words that symbolize things that are unpleasant to them.

I know that this is confusing, so let me illustrate.

Words having to do with death, sex, certain portions of the anatomy, excretion, etc. are avoided by certain people.

These people prefer circumlocutions—words that “talk around” an idea or that mean or imply something but don’t come right out and say so directly.

For example:

The left-hand column is the direct, non-pussyfooting word. The right-hand column is made up of: euphemisms

5. small talk

“Whenever I’m in the dumps, I get a new suit”

“Oh, so that’s where you get them!”

“Lend me a dime—I want to phone one of my friends.”

“Here’s a quarter—call them all.”

“The doctor says I have snoo in my blood!”

“Snoo? What’s snoo?”

“Not a darn! What’s new with you?”

“What are twins?”

“Okay, what are twins?”

“Womb mates!”

“I took a twip yesterday.”

“A twip?”

“Yes, I took a twip on a twain!”

These are examples of: badinage

6. everything but give milk

You’ve seen a cow contentedly munching its cud. Nothing seems capable of disturbing this animal—and the animal seems to want nothing more out of life than to lead a simple, vegetable existence.

Some people are like a cow—calm, patient, placid, phlegmatic, vegetable-like. They are: bovine*

7. good old days

Do you sometimes experience a keen, almost physical, longing for associations or places of the past?

When you pass the neighborhood in which you were born and where you spent your early years, do you have a sharp, strange reaction, almost akin to mild nausea?

When you are away from home and friends and family, do pleasant remembrances crowd in on your mind to the point where your present loneliness becomes almost unbearable, and you actually feel a little sick?

This common feeling is called: nostalgia

* Remember Ogden Nash’s delightful definition?

The cow is of the bovine ilk,

One end moo, the other end milk.

8. sounds that grate

Some sounds are so harsh, grating, and discordant that they offend the ear. They lack all sweetness, harmony, pleasantness. Traffic noises of a big city, electronic rock music, chalk squeaking on a blackboard. ...

Such blaring, ear-splitting, or spine-tingling sounds are called: cacophonous

9. eating habits

Lions, tigers, wolves, and some other mammals subsist entirely on flesh. No spinach, salad greens, whole-wheat cereals, sugar, or spices—just good, red meat.

These mammals are: carnivorous

10. private and public

There are certain things most of us do in private, like taking a bath. Some people like to engage in other activities in complete privacy—eating, reading, watching TV, sleeping, for example.

The point is that, while these activities may be conducted in privacy, there is never any reason for keeping them secret.

But there are other activities that are kept not only private, but well-shrouded in secrecy and concealed from public knowledge. These activities are unethical, illegal, or unsafe—like having an affair with someone whose spouse is your best friend, betraying military secrets to the enemy, trading in narcotics, bribing public officials, etc.

Arrangements, activities, or meetings that fall under this category are called: clandestine

Using the words

Can you pronounce the words?

Can you work with the words?

1. penury

2. vicarious

3. ephemeral

4. euphemism

5. badinage

6. bovine

7. nostalgia

8. cacophony

9. carnivorous

10. clandestine

a. impermanent

b. banter

c. homesickness

d. meat-eating

e. circumlocution

f. harsh noise

g. poverty

h. secret

i. placid; stolid; cowlike

j. secondhand

Key: 1-g, 2-j, 3-a, 4-e, 5-b, 6-i, 7-c, 8-f, 9-d, 10-h

Do you understand the words? (I)

Key: 1-no, 2-no, 3-yes, 4-yes, 5-yes, 6-no, 7-yes, 8-no, 9-yes, 10-yes

Do you understand the words? (II)

Key: 1-O, 2-O, 3-O, 4-S, 5-S, 6-O, 7-O, 8-O, 9-O, 10-S

(The new words used in this test will be discussed in later sections of this chapter.)

Can you recall the words?

1. harsh sound

2. having a short life

3. dire poverty

4. substitution of an indirect or pleasant word or phrase for a possibly offensive one of the same meaning

5. experienced as a spectator, rather than as a participant

6. acute feeling of homesickness

7. light, half-teasing banter

8. subsisting solely on meat

9. cowlike; stolid

10. secret; concealed

1. C ...

2. E ...

3. P ...

4. E ...

5. V ...

6. N ...

7. В ...

8. C ...

9. В ...

10. C ...

Key: 1-cacophony, 2-ephemeral, 3-penury, 4-euphemism, 5-vicarious, 6-nostalgia, 7-badinage, 8-carnivorous, 9-bovine, 10-clandestine

(End of Session 39)

Session 40 Origins and related words

1. money, and what it will buy

The modern world operates largely by means of a price structure—wealth and poverty are therefore words that indicate the possession, on the one hand, or the lack, on the other, of money. Penury, from Latin penuria, need, neediness, is dire, abject poverty, complete lack of financial resources. It is one of the two strongest English words there are to denote absence of money. The adjective form, penurious strangely enough, may mean poverty-stricken, but more commonly signifies stingy, close-fisted, niggardly; so sparing in the use of money as to give the appearance of penury.

Penurious is a synonym of parsimonious but is much stronger in implication. A parsimonious person is stingy; a penurious person is twice as stingy. Penury, then, is poverty; penuriousness is stinginess, excessive frugality. The noun form of parsimonious is parsimony

A somewhat milder word than penury for poverty (if you can imagine a mild degree of poverty) is indigence Indigent people are not absolutely penniless—they are simply living in reduced circumstances, forgoing many creature comforts, forced to undergo the type of hardships that may accompany a lack of sufficient funds.

On the other hand, a close synonym of penury, and one of equal strength, is destitution Destitute people do not even have the means for mere subsistence—as such, they are perhaps on the verge of starvation. Penuty and destitution are not merely straitened circumstances—they are downright desperate circumstances.

To turn now to the brighter side of the picture, the possession of money, especially in increasing amounts, is expressed by affluence Affluent people, people of affluence, or those living in affluent circumstances, are more than comfortable; in addition, there is the implication that their wealth is increasing. People who live in affluence probably own large and costly homes, run big, new cars, belong to expensive golf or country clubs, etc.

A much stronger term is opulence which not only implies much greater wealth than affluence, but in addition suggests lavish expenditures and ostentatiously luxurious surroundings. People of opulence own estates; drive only outrageously expensive and specially equipped cars (Rolls-Royces, Mercedes-Benzes, Porsches, etc.); have a corps of servants, in- eluding a major-domo; belong to golf and yacht and country clubs, etc., etc. Embroider the fantasy as much as you wish to. Opulent may describe people, surroundings, styles of life, or the like.

Affluent is a combination of the prefix ad-, to, toward (changing to af- before a root beginning with /), plus the Latin verb fluo, to flow—affluence is that delightful condition in which money keeps flowing to us, and no one ever turns off the spigot. Other words from the same root, fluo, to flow, are fluid, influence, confluence (a “flowing together”), fluent (the words flow smoothly), etc.

Opulent is from Latin opulentus, wealthy. No other English words derive from this root.

2. doing and feeling

If you watch a furious athletic event, and you get tired, though the athletes expend all the energy—that’s vicarious fatigue.

If your friend goes on a bender, and as you watch him absorb one drink after another, you begin to feel giddy and stimulated, that’s vicarious intoxication.

If you watch a mother in a motion picture or dramatic play suffer horribly at the death of her child, and you go through the same agony, that’s vicarious torment.

You can experience an emotion, then, in two ways: firsthand, through actual participation; or vicariously, by becoming em- pathetically involved in another person’s feelings.

Some people, for example, lead essentially dull and colorless lives. Through their children, through reading or attending the theater, however, they can experience all the emotions felt by others whose lives move along at a swift, exciting pace. These people live at second hand; they live vicariously.

3. time is relative

Elephants and turtles live almost forever; human beings in the United States have a life expectancy in general of sixty-eight to seventy-six years (though the gradual conquest of disease is constantly lengthening our span);dogs live from seven to ten years; and some insects exist for only a few hours or days.

One such short-lived creature is the dayfly, which in Greek was called ephemera. Hence anything so short-lived, so unenduring that it scarcely seems to outlast the day, may be called ephemeral.

A synonym of ephemeral is evanescent fleeting, staying for a remarkably short time, vanishing. Something intangible, like a feeling, may be called evanescent; it’s here, and before you can quite comprehend it, it’s gone—vanished.

The noun is evanescence the verb is to evanesce

Evanescent is built on the prefix e- (ex-), out, the root vanesco, to vanish, and the adjective suffix -ent.

The suffix -esce often, but not always, means begin to. -Escent may mean becoming or beginning to. Thus:

adolescent—beginning to grow up;

beginning to become an adult

evanesce—begin to vanish

convalesce—begin to get well after illness

putrescent—beginning to rot;

beginning to become putrid

obsolescent—becoming obsolete

4. an exploration of various good things

A euphemism is a word or expression that has been substituted for another that is likely to offend—it is built on the Greek prefix eu-, good, the root pheme, voice, and the noun suffix -ism. (Etymologically, “something said in a good voice!”) Adjective: euphemistic

Other English words constructed from the prefix eu-:

1. euphony — good sound; pleasant lilt or rhythm (phone, sound)

Adjective: euphonic or euphonious

Latest figures, 1978, for the United States: males, 68.5 years; females, 76.4 years.

2. eulogy — etymologically, “good speech”; a formal speech of praise, usually delivered as a funeral oration. Logos in this term means word or speech, as it did in philology (Chapter 6). Logos more commonly means science or study, but has the alternate meaning in eulogy, philology, monologue, dialogue, epilogue (words upon the other words, or “after-words”), and prologue (words before the main part, “before-words,” or introduction).

Adjective: eulogistic verb: eulogize person who delivers a eulogy: eulogist

3. euphoria — good feeling, a sense of mental buoyancy and physical well-being

Adjective: euphoric

4. euthanasia — etymologically, “good death”; method of painless death inflicted on people suffering from incurable diseases—not legal at the present time, but advocated by many people. The word derives from eu- plus Greek thanatos, death.

5. exploration of modes of expression

Badinage is a half-teasing, non-malicious, frivolous banter, intended to amuse rather than wound. Badinage has a close synonym, persiflage which is a little more derisive, a trifle more indicative of contempt or mockery—but still totally unmalicious.

In line with badinage and persiflage, there are four other forms of expression you should be familiar with: cliché bromide platitude and anodyne

A cliche is a pattern of words which was once new and fresh, but which now is so old, worn, and threadbare that only banal, unimaginative speakers and writers ever use it. Examples are: fast and furious; unsung heroes; by leaps and bounds; conspicuous by its absence; green with envy; etc. The most devastating criticism you can make of a piece of writing is to say, “It is full of cliches”; the most pointed insult to a person’s way of talking is, “You speak in cliches.”

A bromide is any trite, dull, and probably fallacious remark that shows little evidence of original thinking, and that therefore convinces a listener of the total absence of perspicacity on the part of the speaker.

For instance, some cautious, dull-minded individual might warn you not to take a chance in these words: “Remember it’s better to be safe than sorry!”

Your sneering response might be: “Oh, that old bromide!”

A platitude is similar to a cliche or bromide, in that it is a dull, trite, hackneyed, unimaginative pattern of words—but, to add insult to injury (cliche), the speaker uses it with an air of novelty— as if he just made it up, and isn’t he the brilliant fellow!

An anodyne, in the medical sense, is a drug that allays pain without curing an illness, like aspirin or morphine. Figuratively, an anodyne is a statement made to allay someone’s fears or anxieties, not believed by the speaker, but intended to be believed by the listener. “Prosperity is just around the comer” was a popular anodyne of the 1930s.

A bromide is also a drag, formerly used as a sedative. Sedatives dull the senses—the statement labeled a bromide comes from a speaker of dull wit and has a sedative effect on the listener. The adjective is bromidic as in “his bromidic way of expressing himself.”

Platitude derives from Greek platys, broad or flat, plus the noun suffix -tude. Words like plateau (flat land), plate and platter (flat dishes), and platypus (flat foot) all derive from the same root as platitude, a flat statement, i.e., one that falls flat, despite the speaker’s high hopes for it. The adjective is platitudinous as in, “What a platitudinous remark.”

Anodyne is a combination of the negative prefix an- with Greek odyne, pain. Anodynes, as drags, lessen pain; as statements, they are intended to reduce or eliminate emotional pain or anxiety.

Review of etymology

Using the words

Can you pronounce the words? (I)

Can you pronounce the words? (II)

Can you pronounce the words? (Ill)

Can you work with the words? (I)

1. penurious

2. indigent

3. affluent

4. evanescent

5. euphemistic

6. euphonious

7. euphoric

8. platitudinous

a. poor; of limited means

b. inoffensive

c. flat, trite

d. feeling tiptop

e. wealthy

f. pleasant in sound

g. stingy; tight-fisted

h. fleeting

Key: 1-g, 2-a, 3-e, 4-h, 5-b, 6-f, 7-d, 8-c

Can you work with the words? (II)

1. parsimony

2. destitution

3. opulence

4. evanescence

5. euphony

6. euphoria

7. euthanasia

8. platitude

a. lavish luxury

b. painless death

c. pleasant sound

d. trite remark

e. impermanence

f. feeling of well-being

g. stinginess

h. poverty

Key: 1-g, 2-h, 3-a, 4-e, 5-c, 6-f, 7-b, 8-d

Can you work with the words? (Ill)

1. anodyne

2. bromide

3. persiflage

4. eulogy

5. penuriousness

6. indigence

7. affluence

a. light, teasing banter

b. tightfistedness

c. statement intended to allay anxiety

d. poverty, want

e. high, formal praise

f. wealth

g. trite statement

Key: 1—c, 2-g, 3-a, 4-e, 5-b, 6-d, 7-f

Can you work with the words? (IV)

1. parsimonious

2. destitute

3. opulent

4. vicarious

5. euphonic

6. eulogistic

7. evanesce

8. eulogize

9. bromidic

10. cliche

a. begin to vanish

b. stingy, frugal

c. highly praising

d. hackneyed phrase

e. ostentatiously wealthy

f. stilted in expression

g. pleasant-sounding

h. in want

i. secondhand

j. praise

Key: 1-b, 2-h, 3-e, 4-i, 5-g, 6-c, 7-a, 8-j, 9-f, 10-d

Do you understand the words? (I)

Key: 1-no, 2-yes, 3-no, 4-yes, 5-no, 6-yes, 7-no, 8-yes, 9-no, 10-yes

Do you understand the words? (II)

Key: 1-yes, 2-no, 3-yes, 4-yes, 5-yes, 6-no, 7-yes, 8-no, 9-no, 10-yes

Do you understand the words? (Ill)

Key: 1-yes, 2-no, 3-yes, 4-yes, 5-yes

Can you recall the words?

1. a statement, usually untrue, meant to alleviate fear

2. light banter

3. a hackneyed phrase

4. fleeting—lasting a very short time (adj.)

5. laudatory—delivered in tones of formal praise (adj.)

6. process of painlessly putting to death a victim of an incurable disease

7. stingy (adj.)

8. in want (adj.)

9. wealth

10. immense wealth

11. adverb describing the manner of responding empathetically to another’s acts

12. stinginess (noun)

13-14. poverty

15. impermanence

16. pleasing sound

17. substituting inoffensive words (adj.)

18. sense of well-being

19. trite remark

20. banal remark

21. begin to vanish (v.)

22. poverty-stricken (adj.)

23-24. wealthy (two udjs.)

25. feeling tiptop (adj.)

26. pleasant in sound (adj.)

27. formal praise

28. trite (adj.)

29. flat, dull (adj.)

30. to praise

1. A ...

2. P ...

3. C ...

4. E ...

5. E ...

6. E ...

7. P ... or P ...

8. D ...

9. A ...

10. О ...

11. V ...

12. P ... or P ...

13. I ...

14. D ...

15. E ...

16. E ...

17. E ...

18. E ...

19. В ...

20. P ...

21. E ...

22. I ...

23. A ...

24. О ...

25. E ...

26. E ... or E ...

27. E ...

28. В ...

29. P ...

30. E ...

Key: 1-anodyne, 2-persiflage, 3-cliche, 4-evanescent, 5-eulogistic, 6-euthanasia, 7-parsimonious or penurious, 8-destitute, 9-affluence, 10-opulence, 11-vicariously, 12-parsimony or penuriousness, 13-indigence, 14-destitution, 15-evanescence, 16-euphony, 17-euphemistic, 18-euphoria, 19-bromide, 20-platitude, 21-evanesce, 22-indigent, 23-affluent, 24-opulent, 25-euphoric, 26-euphonic or euphonious, 27-eulogy, 28-bromidic, 29-platitudinous, 30-eulogize

(End of Session 40)

Session 41 Origins and related words

1. people are the craziest animals

Bovine, placid like a cow, stolid, patient, unexcitable, is built on the Latin word for ox or cow, bovis, plus the suffix -ine, like, similar to, or characteristic of. To call someone bovine is of course far from complimentary, for this adjective is considerably stronger than phlegmatic, and implies a certain mild contempt on the part of the speaker. A bovine person is somewhat like a vegetable: eats and grows and lives, but apparently is lacking in any strong feelings.

Humans are sometimes compared to animals, as in the following adjectives:

1. leonine — like a lion in appearance or temperament.

2. canine — like a dog. As a noun, the word refers to the species to which dogs belong. Our canine teeth are similar to those of a dog.

3. feline — catlike. We may speak of feline grace; or (insultingly) of feline temperament when we mean that a person is “catty.”

4. porcine — piglike.

5. vulpine — foxlike in appearance or temperament. When applied to people, this adjective usually indicates the shrewdness of a fox.

6. ursine — bearlike.

7. lupine — wolflike.

8. equine — horselike; “horsy.”

9. piscine — fishlike.

All these adjectives come from the corresponding Latin words for the animals; and, of course, each adjective also describes, or refers to, the specific animal as well as to the person likened to the animal.

1. leo lion

2. canis dog

3. felis cat

4. porcus pig

5. vulpus fox

6. ursus bear

7. lupus wolf

8. equus horse

9. piscis fish

The word for meat from a pig—pork—derives, obviously, from porcus. Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the Great Bear and the Little Bear, the two conspicuous groups of stars in the northern sky (conspicuous, of course, only on a clear night), are so labeled because in formation they resemble the outlines of bears. The feminine name Ursula is, by etymology, “a little bear,” which, perhaps, is a strange name to burden a child with. The skin disease lupus was so named because it eats into the flesh, as a wolf might.

2. you can’t go home again

Nostalgia, built on two Greek roots, nostos, a return, and algos, pain (as in neuralgia, cardialgia, etc.), is a feeling you can’t ever understand until you’ve experienced it—and you have probably experienced it whenever some external stimulus has crowded your mind with scenes from an earlier day.

You know how life often seems much pleasanter in retrospect? Your conscious memory tends to store up the pleasant experiences of the past (the trauma and unpleasant experiences may get buried in the unconscious), and when you are lonely or unhappy you may begin to relive these pleasant occurrences. It is then that you feel the emotional pain and longing that we call nostalgia.

The adjective is nostalgic as in “motion pictures that are nostalgic of the fifties,” or as in, “He feels nostalgic whenever he passes 138th Street and sees the house in which he grew up.”

3. soundings

Cacophony is itself a harsh-sounding word—and is the only one that exactly describes the unmusical, grating, ear-offending noises you are likely to hear in man-made surroundings: the New York subway trains thundering through their tunnels (they are also, these days in the late 1970s, eye-offending, for which we might coin the term cacopsis, noun, and cacoptic, adjective), the traffic bedlam of rush hours in a big city, a steel mill, an automobile factory, a blast furnace, etc. Adjective: cacophonous

These words are built on the Greek roots kakos, bad, harsh, or ugly, and phone, sound.

Phone, sound, is found also in:

1. telephone—etymologically, “sound from afar”

2. euphony—pleasant sound

3. phonograph—etymologically, “writer of sound”

4. saxophone—a musical instrument (hence sound) invented by Adolphe Sax

5. xylophone—a musical instrument; etymologically, “sounds through wood” (Greek xylon, wood)

6. phonetics — the science of the sounds of language; the adjective is phonetic the expert a phonetician

7. phonics—the science of sound; also the method of teaching reading by drilling the sounds of letters and syllables

4. the flesh and all

Carnivorous combines carnis, flesh, and voro, to devour. A carnivorous animal, or carnivore is one whose main diet is meat.

Voro, to devour, is the origin of other words referring to eating habits:

1. herbivorous — subsisting on grains, grasses, and other vegetation, as cows, deer, horses, etc. The animal is a herbivore Derivation: Latin herba, herb, plus voro, to devour

2. omnivorous — eating everything: meat, grains, grasses, fish, insects, and anything else digestible. The only species so indiscriminate in their diet are humans and rats, plus, of course, some cats and dogs that live with people (in contrast to felines and canines—lions, tigers, bobcats, wolves, etc.—that are not domesticated). Omnivorous (combining Latin omnis, all, with voro, plus the adjective suffix -ous) refers not only to food. An omnivorous reader reads everything in great quantities (that is, devours all kinds of reading matter).

3. voracious — devouring; hence, greedy or gluttonous; may refer either to food or to any other habits. One may be a voracious eater, voracious reader, voracious in one’s pursuit of money, pleasure, etc. Think of the two noun forms of loquacious. Can you write two nouns derived from voracious? (1) ..., (2) ...

5. “allness”

Latin omnis, all, is the origin of:

1. omnipotent — all-powerful, an adjective usually applied to God; also, to any ruler whose governing powers are unlimited, which allows for some exaggeration, as King Canute the Great proved to his sycophantic courtiers when he ordered the tide to come so far up the beach and no further. He got soaking wet! (Omnis plus Latin potens, potentis, powerful, as in potentate, a powerful ruler; impotent potent, powerful; and potential, possessing power or ability not yet exercised). Can you write the noun form of omnipotent?

2. omniscient — all-knowing: hence, infinitely wise. (Omnis plus sciens, knowing.) We have discussed this adjective in a previous chapter, so you will have no problem writing the noun: ...

3. omnipresent — present in all places at once. Fear was omnipresent in Europe during 1939 just before WorldWar IL A synonym of omnipresent is ubiquitous from Latin ubique, everywhere. The ubiquitous ice cream vendor seems to be everywhere at the same time, tinkling those little bells, once spring arrives. The ubiquitous little red wagon rides around everywhere in airports to refuel departing planes. ’’Ubiquitous laughter greeted the press secretary’s remark,” i.e., laughter was heard everywhere in the room. The noun forms are ubiquity or ... (Can you think of the alternate form?)

4. omnibus — etymologically, “for all, including all.” In the shortened form bus we have a public vehicle for all who can pay; in a John Galsworthy omnibus we have a book containing all of Galsworthy’s works; in an omnibus legislative bill we have a bill containing all the miscellaneous provisions and appropriations left out of other bills.

6. more flesh

Note how carnis, flesh, is the building block of:

1. carnelian — a reddish color, the color of red flesh.

2. carnival — originally the season of merry making just before Lent, when people took a last fling before saying “Carne vale!” “Oh flesh, farewell!” (Latin vale, farewell, goodbye). Today a carnival is a kind of outdoor entertainment with games, rides, side shows, and, of course, lots of food—also any exuberant or riotous merrymaking or festivities.

3. carnal — most often found in phrases like“carnal pleasures” or “carnal appetites,” and signifying pleasures or appetites of the flesh rather than of the spirit—hence, sensual, lecherous, lascivious, lubricious, etc. The noun is carnality

4. carnage — great destruction of life (that is, of human flesh), as in war or mass murders.

5. reincarnation — a rebirth or reappearance. Believers in reincarnation maintain that one’s soul persists after it has fled the flesh, and eventually reappears in the body of a newborn infant or animal, or in another form. Some of us, according to this interesting philosophy, were once Napoleon, Alexander the Great, Cleopatra, etc. The verb is to reincarnate to bring (a soul) back in another bodily form.

6. incarnate — in the flesh. If we use this adjective to call someone “the devil incarnate,” we mean that here is the devil in the flesh. Or we may say that someone is evil incarnate, that is, the personification of evil, evil invested with human or bodily form. The verb to incarnateis to embody, give bodily form to, or make real.

7. dark secrets

Clandestine comes from Latin clam, secretly, and implies secrecy or concealment in the working out of a plan that is dangerous or illegal. Clandestine is a close synonym of surreptitious which means stealthy, sneaky, furtive, generally because of fear of detection.

The two words cannot always, however, be used interchangeably. We may speak of either clandestine or surreptitious meetings or arrangements; but usually only of clandestine plans and only of surreptitious movements or actions. Can you write the noun form of surreptitious? ...

Review of etymology

Using the words

Can you pronounce the words? (I)

Can you pronounce the words? (II)

Can you pronounce the words? (Ill)

Can you pronounce the words? (IV)

Can you work with the words? (I)

1. leonine

2. canine

3. feline

4. porcine

5. vulpine

6. ursine

7. voracious

8. omnipotent

9. omniscient

10. surreptitious

a. doglike

b. greedy, devouring

c. foxlike

d. all-powerful

e. stealthy, clandestine

f. lionlike

g. all-knowing

h. bearlike

i. catlike

j. piglike

Key: 1-f, 2-a, 3-i, 4-j, 5-c, 6-h, 7-b, 8-d, 9-g, 10-e

Can you work with the words? (II)

1. nostalgic

2. cacophonous

3. herbivorous

4. omnivorous

5. ubiquitous

6. carnal

7. incarnate

a. harsh-sounding

b. eating everything

c. lewd, lecherous, lubricious

d. found everywhere

e. homesick

f. grass-eating

g. in the flesh

Key: 1-e, 2-a, 3-f, 4-b, 5-d, 6-c, 7-g

Can you work with the words? (Ill)

1. phonetics

2. carnivore

3. voracity

4. omnipotence

5. omniscience

6. omnipresence

7. omnibus

8. carnelian

9. carnality

10. carnage

11. surreptitiousness

12. reincarnation

a. universality

b. a color

c. infinite power

d. furtiveness; stealth; sneakiness

e. lechery, lasciviousness, lubricity

f. infinite wisdom

g. science of speech sounds

h. slaughter

i. a collection of all things

j. greediness

k. meat-eater

l. a return to life in a new body or form

Key: 1-g, 2-k, 3-j, 4-c, 5-f, 6-a, 7-i, 8-b, 9-e, 10-h, 11-d, 12-1

Can you work with the words? (IV)

1. lupine

2. equine

3. piscine

4. phonetician

5. impotent

6. ubiquity

7. reincarnate (v.)

8. incarnate (v.)

a. fishlike

b. powerless

c. wolflike

d. bring back into a new body or form

e. occurrence, or existence, everywhere

f. horselike

g. expert in speech sounds

h. embody; make real; put into bodily form

Key: 1-c, 2-f, 3-a, 4-g, 5-b, 6-e, 7-d, 8-h

Do you understand the words? (I)

Key: 1-F, 2-T, 3-T, 4-F, 5-T, 6-T, 7-T, 8-F, 9-F, 10-T

Do you understand the words? (II)

Key: 1-F, 2—T, 3-T, 4-T, 5-T, 6-T, 7-T, 8-F, 9-F, 10-T, 11-F, 12-T

Can you recall the words?

l—adverbs

1-2. secretly (two forms)

3. in a harsh and noisy manner

4. in a homesick manner

5. in a greedy, devouring manner

1.C ...

2. S ...

3. C ...

4. N ...

5. V ...

Key: 1-clandestinely, 2-surreptitiously, 3-cacophonously, 4-nostalgically, 5-voraciously

II—nouns

1. greediness

2. unlimited power

3. infinite knowledge

4. a gathering of all things

5. lechery; indulgence in fleshly pleasures

6. slaughter

7. stealthiness; secretiveness

8. harsh sound

9. science of speech sounds

10. a return to life in new form

1. V ...

2. О ...

3. О ...

4. О ...

5. С ...

6. С ...

7. S ...

8. С ...

9. Р ...

10. R ...

Key: 1-voracity, 2-omnipotence, 3-omniscience, 4-omnibus, 5-camality, 6-carnage, 7-surreptitiousness, 8-cacophony, 9-phonetics, 10-reincamation

III—adjectives

1. lionlike

2. doglike

3. catlike

4. cowlike

5. foxlike

6. bearlike

7. homesick

8. grating in sound

9. meat-eating

10. grass-eating

11. all-eating; indiscriminate

12. devouring; greedy

13. in the flesh

1. I ...

2. C ...

3. F ...

4. В ...

5. V ...

6. U ...

7. N ...

8. C ...

9. C ...

10. H ...

11. O ...

12. V ...

13. I ...

Key: 1-leonine, 2-canine, 3-feline, 4-bovine, 5-vulpine, 6-ursine, 7-nostaigic, 8-cacophonous, 9-carnivorous, 10-herbivorous, 11-omnivorous, 12-voracious, 13-incamate

IV. more adjectives

1. all-powerful

2. all-knowing

3. present or existing everywhere

4. found everywhere

5. lewd, lascivious, lecherous

6. secret

1. O ...

2. O ...

3. O ...

4. U ...

5. C ...

6. C ...

Key: 1-omnipotent, 2-omniscient, 3-omnipresent, 4-ubiquitous, 5-camal, 6-clandestine

V. final mop-up

1. wolflike

2. horselike

3. fishlike

4. referring to speech sounds

5. expert in speech sounds

6. powerless

7-8. existence everywhere

9. to bring back into another body or form

10. to embody, make real, or put into bodily form

1. I ...

2. E ...

3. P ...

4. P ...

5. P ...

6. I ...

7. or U ...

8. O ...

9. R ...

10. I ...

Key: 1-lupine, 2-equine, 3-piscine, 4-phonetic, 5-phonetician, 6-impotent, 7-ubiquity or ubiquitousness, 8-omnipresence, 9-reincamate, 10-incarnate

Chapter review

A. Do you recognize the words?

1. Utter want:

(a) aflluence, (b) opulence, (c) penury

2. Experienced secondhand:

(a) ephemeral, (b) vicarious, (c) evanescent

3. Inoffensive circumlocution:

(a) badinage, (b) persiflage, (c) euphemism

4. Homesick:

(a) nostalgic, (b) bromide, (c) clandestine

5. Meat-eating:

- (a) herbivorous, (b) voracious, (c) carnivorous

6. Stingy:

(a) indigent, (b) parsimonious, (c) opulent

7. Extreme financial need:

(a) destitution, (b) aflluence, (c) parsimony

8. Great and increasing wealth:

(a) penuriousness, (b) aflluence, (c) omnipresence

9. Remaining for a short time:

(a) euphemistic, (b) evanescent, (c) eulogistic

10. Sweet-sounding:

(a) euphonious, (b) cacophonous, (c) euphoric

11. Praise glowingly:

(a) evanesce, (b) eulogize, (c) reincarnate

12. Sense of physical well-being:

(a) euthanasia, (b) euphoria, (c) persiflage

13. Hackneyed expression:

(a) anodyne, (b) badinage, (c) cliche

14. catlike:

(a) leonine, (b) feline, (c) canine

15. Bearlike:

(a) vulpine, (b) ursine, (c) porcine

16. All-knowing:

(a) omnipotent, (b) omniscient, (c) omnipresent

17. Found everywhere:

(a) ubiquitous, (b) omnivorous, (c) omnibus

18. Destruction:

(a) carnage, (b) carnality, (c) reincarnation

19. Stealthy:

(a) voracious, (b) surreptitious, (c) incarnate

Key: 1—c, 2-b, 3-c, 4-a, 5-c, 6-b, 7-a, 8-b, 9-b, 10-a, 11-b, 12-b, 13-c, 14-b, 15-b, 16-b, 17-a, 18-a, 19-b

B. Can you recognize roots?

Key: 1-want, neediness, 2-to flow, 3-wealthy, 4-dayfly, 5-to vanish, 6-voice, 7-sound, 8-word, speech, 9-death, 10-flat, broad, 11-pain, 12-lion, 13-cat, 14-pig, 15-dog, 16-fox, 17-wolf, 18-horse, 19-fish, 20-a return, 21-pain, 22-bad, harsh, ugly, 23-wood, 24-flesh, 25-to devour, 26-herb, 27-all, 28-powerful, 29-knowing, 30-every- where, 31-farewell!, 32-secretly

Teaser questions for the amateur etymologist

1. American poet William Cullen Bryant wrote a poem in 1811 called Thanatopsis. You are familiar with both roots in the word. Gan you figure out the meaning? ...

2. If you wanted to coin a word for the study or science of death and dying, what would you come up with? ...

3. Theme, as you know from euphemism, means voice. This root derives from a Greek verb phanai, to speak, which, as it traveled through Latin, Old French, and Middle English, finally took on the spelling phet-, phec-, or phes-. And you recall that the Greek prefix pro- means beforehand or ahead (as in prognosis, prologue, etc.). Can you now combine elements to form a word meaning:

(a) to say beforehand; to foretell (an occurrence before it actually happens)? ...

(b) the foretelling of such an occurrence? ...

(c) the person who foretells? ...

4. Can you combine a Latin prefix and root to form words of the same meaning?

(a) to foretell: ...

(b) the act of foretelling: ...

5. An eminent psychoanalyst, Richard Karpe of Connecticut, has coined the term nostopathy for an emotional disorder he diagnosed among a number of his patients who were returning veterans of World War П and of the Korean and Vietnam wars. You know both roots in the word. Can you figure out the meaning? ...

6. Coin a word that means:

(a) the killing of foxes: ...

(b) die killing of wolves: ...

(c) the killing of lions, tigers, and other cats: ...

(d) the killing of bears: ...

7. Figure out an adjective that means:

(a) fish-eating: ...

(b) insect-eating: ...

8. Have you ever wondered whether the Canary Islands were named after fee Latin root canis, dog? They were. Large, wild dogs inhabited the area. Pretty songbirds also abounded there. What were these birds called? ...

9. A new verb was coined some years ago, based on the Latin potons, meaning (of a drug) to make more effective or powerful; to augment the effect of another drug. Can you figure out what this verb would be? …

(Answers in Chapter 18)

Getting used to new words

Reference has been made, in previous chapters, to the intimate relationship between reading and vocabulary building. Good bools and the better magazines will not only acquaint you with a host of new ideas (and, therefore, new words, since every word is the verbalization of an idea), but also will help you gain a more complete and a richer understanding of the hundreds of words you are learning through your work in this book. If you have been doing a sufficient amount of stimulating reading—and that means, at minimum, several magazines a week and at least three books of nonfiction a month—you have been meeting, constantly, over and over again, the new words you have been learning in these pages. Every such encounter is like seeing an old friend in a new place. You know how much better you understand your friends when you have a chance to see them react to new situations; similarly, you will gain a much deeper understanding of the friends you have been making among words as you see them in different contexts and in different places.

My recommendations in the past have been of non-fiction titles, but novels too are a rich source of additions to your vocabulary—provided you stay alert to the new words you will inevitably meet in reading novels.

The natural temptation, when you encounter a brand-new word in a novel, is to ignore it—the lines of the plot are perfectly clear even if many of the author’s words are not.

I want to counsel strongly that you resist the temptation to ignore the unfamiliar words you may meet in your novel reading: resist it with every ounce of your energy, for only by such resistance can you keep building your vocabulary as you read.

What should you do? Don’t rush to a dictionary, don’t bother underlining the word, don’t keep long lists of words that you will eventually look up en masse—these activities are likely to become painful and you will not continue them for any great length of time.

Instead, do something quite simple—and very effective.

When you meet a new word, underline it with a mental pencil. That is, pause for a second and attempt to figure out its meaning from its use in the sentence or from its etymological root or prefix, if it contains one you have studied. Make a mental note of it, say it aloud once or twice—and then go on reading.

That’s all there is to it. What you are doing, of course, is developing the same type of mind-set toward the new word that you have developed toward the words you have studied in this book. And the results, of course, will be the same—you will begin to notice the word occurring again and again in other reading you do, and finally, having seen it in a number of varying contexts, you will begin to get enough of its connotation and flavor to come to a fairly accurate understanding of its meaning. In this way you will be developing alertness not only to the words you have studied in this book, but to all expressive and meaningful words. And your vocabulary will keep growing.

But of course that will happen only if you keep reading.

I do not wish to recommend any particular novels or novelists, since the type of fiction one enjoys is a very personal matter. You doubtless know the kind of story you like—mystery, science fiction, spy, adventure, historical, political, romantic, Western, biographical, one or all of the above. Or you may be entranced by novels of ideas, of sexual prowess, of fantasy, of life in different segments of society from your own. No matter. Find the kind of novel or novelist you enjoy by browsing in the public library or among the thousands of titles in bookstores that have a rich assortment of paperbacks as well as hardbacks.

And then read! And keep on the alert for new words! You will find them by the hundreds and thousands. Bear in mind: people with rich vocabularies have been reading omnivorously, voraciously, since childhood—including the ingredients listed in small print on bread wrappers and cereal boxes.

(End of Session 41)

Brief Intermission Eight

How to spell a word

The spelling of English words is archaic, it’s confusing, it’s needlessly complicated, and, if you have a sense of humor, it’s downright comical. In fact, any insulting epithet you might wish to level against our weird methods of putting letters together to form words would probably be justified—but it’s our spelling, and we’re stuck with it.

How completely stuck we are is illustrated by a somewhat ludicrous event that goes back to 1906, and that cost philanthropist Andrew Carnegie $75,000.

Working under a five-year grant of funds from Carnegie, and headed by the esteemed scholar Brander Matthews, the Simplified Spelling Board published in that year a number of recommendations for bringing some small semblance of order out of the great chaos of English spelling. Their suggestions affected a mere three hundred words out of the half million then in the language. Here are a few examples, to give you a general idea:

These revisions seemed eminently sensible to no less a personage than the then President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. So delighted was he with the new garb in which these three hundred words could be clothed that he immediately ordered that all government documents be printed in simplified spelling. And the result? Such a howl went up from the good citizens of the republic, from the nation’s editors and schoolteachers and businessmen, that the issue was finally debated in the halls of Congress. Almost to a man, senators and representatives stood opposed to the plan. Teddy Roosevelt, as you have doubtless heard, was a stubborn fellow—but when Congress threatened to hold up the White House stationery appropriation unless the President backed down, Teddy rescinded the order. Roosevelt ran for re-election some time later, and lost. That his attitude toward spelling contributed to his defeat is of course highly doubtful— nevertheless an opposition New York newspaper, the day the returns were in, maliciously commented on the outgoing incumbent in a one-word simplified-spelling editorial: “THRU!”

Roosevelt was not the first President to be justifiably outraged by our ridiculous orthography. Over a hundred years ago, when Andrew Jackson was twitted on his poor spelling, he is supposed to have made this characteristic reply, “Well, sir, it is a damned poor mind that cannot think of more than one way to spell a word!” And according to one apocryphal version, it was Jackson’s odd spelling that gave birth to the expression “okay.” Jackson thought, so goes the story, that “all correct” was spelled “orl korrect,” and he used O.K. as the abbreviation for these words when he approved state papers.

Many years ago, the British playwright George Bernard Shaw offered a dramatic proposal for reducing England’s taxes. Just eliminate unnecessary letters from our unwieldy spelling, he said, and you’ll save enough money in paper and printing to cut everyone’s tax rate in half. Maybe it would work, but it’s never been put to the test—and the way things look now, it never will be. Current practice more and more holds spelling exactly where it is, bad though it may be. It is a scientific law of language that if enough people make a “mistake,” the “mistake” becomes acceptable usage. That law applies to pronunciation, to grammar, to word meanings, but not to spelling. Maybe it’s because of our misbegotten faith in, and worship of, the printed word—maybe it’s because written language tends to be static, while spoken language constantly changes. Whatever the cause, spelling today successfully resists every logical effort at reform. “English spelling,” said Thorstein Veblen, “satisfies all the requirements of the canons of reputability under the law of conspicuous waste. It is archaic, cumbrous, and ineffective.” Perfectly true. Notwithstanding, it’s here to stay.

Your most erudite friend doubtless misspells the name of the Hawaiian guitar. I asked half a dozen members of the English department of a large college to spell the word—without exception they responded with ukelele. Yet the only accepted form is ukulele.

Judging from my experience with my classes at Rio Hondo College, half the population of the country must think the word is spelled alright. Seventy-five per cent of the members of my classes can’t spell embarrassing or coolly. People will go on misspelling these four words, but the authorized spellings will remain impervious to change.

Well, you know the one about Mohammed and the mountain. Though it’s true that we have modernized spelling to a microscopic extent in the last eighty years (traveler, center, theater, medieval, labor, and honor, for example, have pretty much replaced traveller, centre, theatre, mediaeval, labour, and honour), still the resistance to change has not observably weakened. If spelling won’t change, as it probably won’t, those of us who consider ourselves poor spellers will have to. We’ll just have to get up and go to the mountain.

Is it hard to become a good speller? I have demonstrated over and over again in my classes that anyone of normal intelligence and average educational background can become a good speller in very little time.

What makes the task so easy?

First—investigations have proved that 95 per cent of the spelling errors that educated people make occur in just one hundred words. Not only do we all misspell the same words—but we misspell them in about the same way.

Second—correct spelling relies exclusively on memory, and the most effective way to train memory is by means of association or, to use the technical term, mnemonics.

If you fancy yourself an imperfect or even a terrible speller, the chances are very great that you’ve developed a complex solely because you misspell some or all of the hundred words with which this Intermission deals. When you have conquered this single list, and I shall immediately proceed to demonstrate how easy it is, by means of mnemonics, to do so, 95 per cent of your spelling difficulties will in all likelihood vanish.

Let us start with twenty-five words from the list. In the first column you will find the correct spelling of each, and in the second column the simple mnemonic that will forevermore fix that correct spelling in your memory.

Whether or not you have much faith in your spelling ability, you will need very little time to conquer the preceding twenty-five demons. Spend a few minutes, now, on each of those words in the list that you’re doubtful of, and then test your success by means of the exercise below. Perhaps to your astonishment, you will find it easy to make a high score.

A test of your learning

Instructions: After studying the preceding list of words, fill in the missing letters correctly.

1. a...right

2. coo...у

3. super...

4. suc...

5. pro...

6. ex…

7. pre...

8. proc...dure

9. station...ry (paper)

10. station...ry (still)

11. sep...rate

12. compar...tive

13. re...о...end

14. ecsta...у

15. anal...e

16. paral...e

17. rep...tition

18. irrit...ble

19. inimit...ble

20. ab...ence

21. superintend...nt

22. con...nce

23. a...oint

24. r...diculous

25. d...spair

Mere repetitious drill is of no value in learning to spell a word correctly. You’ve probably heard the one about the youngster who was kept after school because he was in the habit of using the ungrammatical expression “I have went.” Miss X was going to cure her pupil, even if it required drastic measures. So she ordered him to write “I have gone” one thousand times. “Just leave your work on my desk before you go home,” she said, “and I’ll find it when I come in tomorrow morning.” Well, there were twenty pages of neat script on her desk next morning, one thousand lines of “I have gone’s,” and on the last sheet was a note from the child. “Dear Teacher,” it read, “I have done the work and I have went home.” If this didn’t actually happen, it logically could have, for in any drill, if the mind is not actively engaged, no learning will result. If you drive a car, or sew, or do any familiar and repetitious manual work, you know how your hands can carry on an accustomed task while your mind is far away. And if you hope to learn to spell by filling pages with a word, stop wasting your time. All you’ll get for your trouble is writer’s cramp.

The only way to learn to spell those words that now plague you is to devise a mnemonic for each one.

If you are never quite sure whether it’s indispensible or indispensable, you can spell it out one hundred, one thousand, or one million times—and the next time you have occasion to write it in a sentence, you’ll still wonder whether to end it with -ible or -able. But if you say to yourself just once that able people are generally indispensable, that thought will come to you whenever you need to spell the word; in a few seconds you’ve conquered another spelling demon. By engineering your own mnemonic through a study of the architecture of a troublesome word, you will become so quickly and completely involved with the correct spelling of that word that it will be impossible for you ever to be stumped again.

Let us start at once. Below you will find another twenty-five words from the list of one hundred demons, each offered to you in both the correct form and in the popular misspelling. Go through the test quickly, checking off what you consider a proper choice in each case. In that way you will discover which of the twenty-five you would be likely to get caught on. Then devise a personal mnemonic for each word you flunked, writing your ingenious result out in the margin of the page. And don’t be alarmed if some of your mnemonics turn out kind of silly—the sillier they are the more likely you are to recall them in an emergency. One of my pupils, who could not remember how many l’s to put into tranquillity (or is it tranquility?), shifted his mind into high gear and came up with this: “In the old days life was more tranquil than today, and people wrote with quills instead of fountain pens. Hence—tranquillity!" Another pupil, a girl who always chewed her nails over irresistible before she could decide whether to end it with -ible or -able, suddenly realized that a certain brand of lipstick was called irresistible, the point being of course that the only vowel in lipstick is i—hence, -ible! Silly, aren’t they? But they work. Go ahead to the test now; and see how clever—or silly—you can be.

Spelling test

1. a. supprise b. surprise

2. a. inoculate b. innoculate

3. a. definitely b. definately

4. a. priviledge b. privilege

5. a. incidently b. incidentally

6. a. predictible b. predictable

7. a. dissipate b. disippate

8. a. descriminate b. discriminate

9. a. description b. discription

10. a. balloon b. balloon

11. a. occurence b. occurrence

12. a. truly  b. truly

13. a. arguement b. argument

14. a. assistant b. asisstant

15. a. grammer b. grammar

16. a. parallel  b. paralell

17. a. drunkeness b. drunkenness

18. a. suddeness b. suddenness

19. a. embarassment b. embarrassment

20. a. weird  b. wierd

21. a. pronounciation b. pronunciation

22. a. noticeable b. noticable

23. a. developement b. development

24. a. vicious  b. viscious

25. a. insistent  b. insistant

Key: 1-b, 2-a, 3-a, 4-b, 5-b, 6-b, 7-a, 8-b, 9-a, 10-b, 11-b, 12-b, 13-b, 14-a, 15-b, 16-a, 17-b, 18-b, 19-b, 20-a, 21-b, 22-a, 23-b, 24-a, 25-a

By now you’re well on the way toward developing a definite superiority complex about your spelling—which isn’t a half-bad thing, for I’ve learned, working with my students, that many people think they’re awful spellers, and have completely lost faith in their ability, solely because they get befuddled over no more than two dozen or so common words that they use over and over again and always misspell. Every other word they spell perfectly, but they still think they’re prize boobs in spelling until their selfconfidence is restored. So if you’re beginning to gain more assurance, you’re on the right track. The conquest of the one hundred common words most frequently misspelled is not going to assure you that you will always come out top man in a spelling bee, but it’s certain to clean up your writing and bolster your ego.

So far you have worked with fifty of the one hundred spelling demons. Here, now, is the remainder of the list. Test yourself, or have someone who can keep a secret test you, and discover which ones are your Waterloo. Study each one you miss as if it were a problem in engineering. Observe how it’s put together and devise whatever association pattern will fix the correct form in your mind.

Happy spelling!

Spelling demons

These fifty words complete the list of one hundred words that most frequently stump the inexpert spellers:

1. embarrassing 14. dilemma

2. judgment  15. perseverance

3. indispensable 16. until (but till)

4. disappear 17. tyrannize

5. disappoint 18. vacillate

6. corroborate 19. oscillate

7. sacrilegious 20. accommodate

8. tranquillity 21. dilettante

9. exhilaration 22. changeable

10. newsstand 23. accessible

11. license  24. forty

12. irresistible 25. desirable

13. persistent 26. panicky

27. seize  39. vacuum

28. leisure  40. benefited

29. receive  41. committee

30. achieve  42. grievous

31. holiday  43. conscious

32. existence 44. plebeian

33. pursue  45. tariff

34. pastime  46. sheriff

35. possesses 47. connoisseur

36. professor  48. necessary

37. category  49. sergeant

38. rhythmical 50. misspelling