(in) abeyance (noun) = to be temporarily unused (pronounced ‘uh-bey-uhns’) from the Old French abeance: aspiration to a title, from a: toward + beer: to gape
e.g. Her hair was unkempt and her appearance slovenly: from this, he deduced her love-life was in abeyance
abject (adj.) = (of a situation) very degrading; (of a person) very degraded from the Latin abjectus, past participle of abjicere: to reject, from ab-: away, and jacere: to throw
e.g. One art critic has described Tracy Emin’s condom-filled tent as ‘abject’
to abjure (verb) = to renounce in a solemn way (pronounced ‘ab-jur’) from the Latin abjurare, from ab-: away, and jurare: to swear
e.g. Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe has said of his drinking, ‘As much as I would love to be a person that goes to parties and has a couple of drinks and has a nice time, that doesn’t work for me. I do that very unsuccessfully’; consequently, the star has now abjured alcohol
abnegation (noun) = saying ‘no’ to something desired from the Latin abnegare, from ab-: away, and negare: to deny
e.g. The late Christopher Hitchens – who was a militant atheist – once described religious belief as ‘limitless abnegation…of self: a celestial North Korea’
abrasion (noun) = the process of gradually wearing away from the Latin abradere, from ab-: away, and radere: to scrape
e.g. He spent too much time at work, and the resulting abrasions in their relationship caused them to divorce
abrogate (verb) = (of an agreement) to reject (pronounced ‘ab-ruh-geyt’) from the Latin, abrogare: to repeal, from ab-: away, and rogare: to propose a law
e.g. Critics of Bill Clinton said that, as a result of his behaviour with Monica Lewinsky, he had abrogated his marital responsibilities
acedia (noun) = unaccountable melancholy (pronounced ‘a-see-dee-a’) from the Greek, akedia: indifference, from a-:without, and kedos: care
e.g. Halfway through my boss’s motivational speech, my mind began to wander, and soon acedia took a grip of me
to acquiesce (verb) = to accept something with reluctance but without protesting (pronounced ‘ak-wee-es’) from the Latin, acquiescere, from ad-: to + quiescere: to rest
e.g. When he was 25, Ayrton Senna dated 15-year-old Adriane Yamin, whose mother insisted on acting as chaperone on dates; Senna had no choice but to acquiesce
acrostic (noun) = a poem in which the first letter of each line – when viewed together – forms a word (pronounced ‘uh-kros-tik’) from the Greek akrostikhis, from akron: end + stikhos: line of verse
e.g. In the Dictionary of Modern English Grammar, Ned Halley defined an acrostic as:
Acrostics are playful
contrivances of prose or verse
rendered so that each line
opens or closes with words in
sequence to read from
top to bottom, their
initial or final letters
constituting a word or phrase.
ad hominem (adj.) = (of a verbal attack) criticising an opponent’s character rather than his policies (pronounced ‘ad hom-uh-nem’) from the Latin ad hominem: to the person
e.g. Certain political rivals have launched vicious ad hominem attacks on Obama, questioning his US citizenship
adamantine (adj.) = impossible to break (pronounced ‘ad-uhman-tie-n’) from the Greek, adamas: untamable, from a: not + daman: to tame
e.g. Beatrix Potter formed an adamantine bond with her nanny’s children, and used to write them letters dotted with pictures, which she eventually collected into her first book
adepts (of) (noun) = a person who is skilled (at something) from the Latin adeptus: achieved
e.g. Journalists enjoy ridiculing adepts of Scientology for their beliefs
adipose (adj.) = (of body tissue) used for the storage of fat (pronounced ‘ad-uh-pohs’) from the Latin, adeps, adipis: fat
e.g. Teenagers who spend all day in front of the TV soon develop adipose layers around their midriff
to adumbrate (verb) = to outline (pronounced ‘ad-uhm-breyt’) from the Latin ad-: to, and umbrare: to cast a shadow (from umbra: shade)
e.g. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding adumbrated the way society can quickly revert to savagery
agitprop (noun) = political propaganda, especially in drama and art (pronounced ‘aj-it-prop’) from the Russian agitatsiya: agitation, and propaganda: propaganda
e.g. Harold Pinter’s earlier plays, focusing on love and power struggles, are much more popular than the agitprop drama of his later years
akimbo (adv.) = (of arms) with hands on the hips and elbows turned outward in a V-formation; (of legs) flung out wildly from the Middle English in: in, and kenebowe: bend
e.g. If you come across a celebrity in a bar, you will normally see a bodyguard beside them, dressed in black and with arms akimbo
alarmist (adj.) = causing needless alarm from the Old French alarme: alarm, from Italian allarme, from all’arme!: to arms!
e.g. Some scientists say talk of global warming is alarmist
albatross (around the neck) (set phrase) = a source of annoyance or guilt for full explanation, see box below
e.g. Pavarotti was known as ‘the king of cancellations’ and – as he often pulled out of events at the very last minute – often ended up as an albatross for organisers
This metaphorical sense of ‘albatross’ derives from Coleridge’s poem Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798), which features a sailor who shoots an albatross dead.
After the shooting, the guilty sailor in the poem is then forced to wear the bird’s carcass everywhere he goes – as a sign that he alone, and not the rest of the crew, was responsible for the death of the albatross (which was traditionally seen as a good-luck charm).
And so an albatross becomes an encumbrance for the sailor, and entered the language as a metaphor for a source of negative emotion.
ambit (noun) = the scope of something from the Latin, ambitus: circuit, from ambire: to go around
e.g. After he turned 40, he decided that any girl between the ages of 20 and 40 fell within his dating ambit
amour fou (set phrase) = an uncontrollable passion (pronounced ‘amore foo’) from the French, amour fou: insane love
e.g. Romeo and Juliet is Shakespeare’s classic tale of amour fou: the two lovers cannot give up their liaison, even though they know it will result in their deaths
-ana (suffix) = (put at the end of another word) denoting things associated with a person or with a subject from the neuter plural of the Latin adjectival ending -anus
e.g. Harry Houdini died in 1926, but his props – such as his Chinese Water Torture Cell – are still actively sought out by collectors of Houdiniana
anagnorisis (noun) = the moment in the plot when the hero makes a discovery that explains what he did not understand before (pronounced ‘an-ag-nawr-uh-sis’) from the Greek anagnorisis: recognition; for full explanation, see box below
e.g. Boris Johnson has said that Greece has experienced hubris and nemesis but now needs anagnorisis: the recognition it would be better off abandoning the euro
In Aristotle’s Poetics, there are several stages for a hero to go through; and the classics scholar and Mayor of London Boris Johnson summarised these in an article about the Greek debt crisis entitled The greatest gift to the Greeks might be to let them go it alone:
‘…we have had hamartia – the tragic flaw in the system that allowed high-spending countries to free ride on low interest rates. We have had the hubris – the belief the good times would never end. We have had nemesis – disaster. We now need the anagnorisis – the moment of recognition that Greece would be better off in a state of Byronic liberation, forging a new economic identity with a New Drachma. Then there will be catharsis, the experience of purgation and relief.’
analogue (noun) = a thing comparable to another thing from the Greek, analogos: proportionate
e.g. The English phrase ‘self-deprecation’ has no analogue in the French language: cynics say that, for French people, no such concept exists
to anatomise (verb) = to dissect in detail from the Greek ana-: up, and tomia: cutting
e.g. Fifty Shades of Grey anatomises the sadomasochistic relationship between a college graduate, Anastasia Steele, and a manipulative billionaire, Christian Grey
anhedonic (adj.) = unable to feel pleasure (pronounced ‘an-hee-doh-nik’) from the Greek, an: without + hedone: pleasure
e.g. In Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore is an ‘old grey donkey’ who wanders around emitting an anhedonic listlessness
animadversion (noun) = (formal) a critical statement from the Latin, animadvertere: to criticise, from animus: mind + advertere, from a: toward, and vertere: to turn
e.g. Germany’s approach to the euro has been subjected to severe animadversion by Southern countries desperate for greater financial assistance
antic (adj.) = grotesque and strange from the 16th-century Italian antico: antique (with the connotation of ‘grotesque’)
e.g. One of the reasons why sculptor Auguste Rodin is so celebrated is that his statues appear far from static, emitting an antic energy
antonym (noun) = a word that is opposite in meaning to another word from the French, antonyme, from the Greek, ant-, from anti: against + onuma: a name
e.g. Militant atheists see religion as the antonym of tolerance
aperçu (noun) = an illuminating comment (pronounced ‘a-per-su’) from the French apercevoir: to perceive
e.g. Author Theodor Seuss Geisel aka Dr Seuss had no children of his own; when asked why, he’d deliver this aperçu, ‘You have ’em; I’ll entertain ’em.’
apotropaic (adj.) = supposedly possessing the power to avert bad luck (pronounced ‘ap-uh-truhpey-ik’) from the Greek, apotropaios: averting evil, from apotrepein: to turn away from
e.g. After a person dies, the calming funeral service serves an apotropaic function
appurtenances (pl. noun) = an item associated with a particular activity from the Old French apertenance, from the Latin, appertinere: to belong to
e.g. Men who work in finance are often obsessed with acquiring yachts and other appurtenances of wealth
aquiline (adj.) = (of a nose) curved or hooked, in a similar way to an eagle’s beak from the Latin aquila: an eagle
e.g. Abraham Lincoln sported a fine aquiline nose
arabesque (noun) = an ornamental design composed of intertwined flowing lines (originally found in Arabia); or (of ballet) a posture in which the body is supported on one leg, while the other leg is kept flat and extended backward from the Italian arabesco: in the Arabic style, referring to ornamental Moorish architecture and to musical work with an ornamental theme, from arabo: Arab
e.g. When it’s very cold, arabesques of snowflakes alight on your overcoat and dissolve or, the audience gasped as the male ballet dancer lifted his female counterpart in arabesque
to arraign (verb) = to call (someone) before a court to answer a criminal allegation (pronounced ‘uh-reyn’) from the Latin, ad: to, and ration-: reason
e.g. After Bruce Lee’s son, Brandon, was shot dead on the set of The Crow, the fellow actor who’d fired the bullet was not arraigned as it was clearly an accident (a live cartridge had been left in the chamber by mistake)
arrant (adj.) = complete and utter from the Middle English, a variant of ‘errant’ (meaning ‘travelling’), originally in phrases such as ‘an arrant thief’, meaning ‘a roving thief’, then, in time, ‘a total thief’
e.g. When the fawning North Korean media reported in 2010 that Kim Jong Il’s distinctive jumpsuits had set fashion trends in the West, European journalists dismissed these claims as arrant nonsense
to arrogate (a right) (verb) = to claim (a right) without good cause (pronounced ‘ar-uh-geyt’) from the Latin arrogare: to claim for oneself, from ad: to, and rogare: to ask
e.g. Alfred Hitchcock arrogated the right to appear in every film he directed; in Strangers on a Train, for example, you can see him struggling to get a double bass onto a train
asperity (noun) = (of someone’s manner) roughness from the Latin asperitas: roughness, from asper: rough
e.g. One way of stopping a compliment from sounding too cloying is to deliver it with some asperity in your voice
(set in) aspic (set phrase) = to be perfectly preserved from an earlier era for full etymology, see box below
e.g. Some men over 70 have an attitude towards women that seems set in aspic
The phrase ‘set in aspic’ literally refers to food – such as leftover chicken – that’s been set in a mould of ‘aspic’, a kind of savoury jelly that dates from the Middle Ages.
In fact, ‘aspic’ is originally a French word, deriving from ‘asp’, referring to the asp snake, a viper with similar colouring to the jelly.
Today, when we say of a person or situation that they’re ‘set in aspic’, we mean that they’re frozen in the past.
astringent (adj.) = (of someone’s manner) severe; (of a taste) sharp from the Latin astringere: to pull tight, from ad: toward, and stringere: to pull tight
e.g. Whereas certain politicians found Margaret Thatcher’s style astringent, the late Alan Clark MP found her ways positively arousing (a fact he documented in his diaries)
to attenuate (verb) = to reduce the effect of from Latin, attenuare: to make slender, from ad-: to, and tenuare: to make thin; ‘to attenuate’ literally means ‘to make thin’
e.g. Cynics say the best way to attenuate heartache is to kiss someone else
au courant (adj.) = up-to-date with events (pronounced ‘au-kur-ohn’) from the French au courant: in the (regular) course
e.g. Before directing Raging Bull, Martin Scorcese went to numerous boxing matches, so as to be au courant with details like ‘the blood sponge’ to wipe away blood
autarky / autarchy (noun) = an entity that is economically independent (pronounced ‘aw-tar-kee’) from the Greek autarkes: self-sufficiency, from autos: self and -arkhein: to suffice
e.g. With its refusal to deal with other countries, North Korea is perhaps the last remaining autarky in the world
(an) avatar (of) (noun) = an embodiment (of) from the Sanskrit, avatar: descent, from ava: down + tar-: cross
e.g. For film buffs, John Wayne remains an avatar of alpha masculinity
to aver (verb) = to state to be the case (pronounced ‘uh-ver’) from the Old French, averer: to aver, based on the Latin, ad: to (implying ‘cause to be’) + verus: true
e.g. Bruce Lee’s name meant ‘return again’ in Cantonese; his mother chose it as she averred her son would one day return to the United States (where he was born), and she was proved right
avowedly (+ adj.) (adv.) = openly confessing to being (+ adj.) from the Old French, avouer: to acknowledge, from the Latin, advocare: to summon in defence
e.g. When his ex-wife started dating billionaire Ted Turner, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Olen Butler wrote in an email, ‘She will not be Ted’s only girlfriend. Ted is permanently and avowedly non-monogamous.’
