19 January 2022

 Flippant: Not showing a serious or respectful attitude. 

• This is being flippant about a virus that has the potential to cause multisystem symptoms that can persist over a long period of time. 

13 January 2022

Malaise: A general feeling of discomfort, illness, or unease whose exact cause is difficult to identify. 

• Vice President Kamala Harris fielded a question about administration's "stalled" agenda- and ended up dropping the politically taboo phrase of nationwide "malaise". 

10 January 2022

Prodigality: The quality or fact of being prodigal; wasteful extravagance in spending. 

• Alas, O Prince, it is this prodigality which is the cause of the misery in which you find me. (Hafiz Shirazi reply to Tamerlane)

8 January 2022

Embellish: Make (something) more attractive by addition of decorative details or emotions. Make (a statement or story) more interesting by adding extra details that are often untrue.  

• This is the acid test of good storytellers: how they embellish a tale with details, color, emotions and thus capture their listeners. (Santiago Iniguez) 

7 January 2022

Regnant: Reigning; ruling. Currently having the greatest influence, dominant. 

• Firstly, by challenging the regnant TBL paradigm, we expose the misconception that both business and environment can "win".  (Ozgur Isil and Michael T. Hernke)

6 January 2022

Aficionado: A person who is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about  an activity, subject, or pastime. 

• No cricket aficionado found it at all surprising. (Dr. Michael Woolf)

5 January 2022

Affectation: Behavior, speech or writing that is pretentious or designed to impress.

• He wrote, "You are so liberal, so humane, who take the love of culture, to the point of affectation, you pretend to forget that you have colonies where massacres are committed in your name". (Sartre)

4 January 2022

Hokum: Nonsense. Trite, sentimental, or unrealistic situations and dialogue in a film or other work. 

• Five years ago, the Thirty-Two-Hour Workweek Act would have been dismissed as progressive hokum. (Cal Newport)     

3 January 2022

Gesticulation: A gesture, especially a dramatic one, used instead of speaking or to emphasize one's words.

• In a coffee shop in New York City, I sat beside a man with impaired speech. I nod to him, he nods back, and we begin a conversation with arms, fingers and haphazard gesticulations. (Emmanuel Iduma)

2 January 2022

Pet Peeve: Something that a particular person finds especially annoying.  

• My biggest pet peeve is when authors hide their thoughts behind opaque language- arcane words and dense sentences. 

1 January 2022

Prefigure: Be an early indication of version of (something). 

• These early novels prefigure many of the themes of her iconic Neapolitan stories, focusing on female relationships, motherhood and class. (Mariella Radaelli)