Hey, June: Words for National Yo-Yo Day: June 6

Don't let your vocabulary skills yo-yo! National Yo-Yo Day is June 6th, so after you practice your "walk-the-dog," learn these terms related to the metaphor "yo-yo" — having a tendency to make progress, only to regress shortly after.

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. yo-yo
    a toy with a spool that is reeled up and down on a string
    She spun like a yo-yo, choosing mortal embarrassment over mortal end. Life of Pi
    The yo-yo is a metaphor for the behavior of falling back into old habits. In a more innocent time, calling someone a yo-yo was also an insult, equivalent to calling them a lunkhead.
  2. relapse
    a failure to maintain a higher state
    He was concerned that the shock of this news would cause a relapse in his wife's illness. Ambushed!
    Relapse describes falling back into patterns or a returning to a previous state of ill health. Although technically it means “fall into a former state,” one would never say that he “relapsed into happiness” or that the former millionaire who lost it all and then regained it “relapsed into a fortune.” It is the “fall” part of the definition that is crucial here — someone who relapses is at a lower state than they were.
  3. regress
    go back to bad behavior
    The regent was loath to have me visit Qunu, thinking I would regress and fall into bad company back in my old village. Long Walk to Freedom
  4. renege
    fail to fulfill a promise or obligation
    But another part of my heart can’t forgive them for reneging on their promise. Love, Hate & Other Filters
    More of a conscious choice than sliding down the slippery slope of relapse, renege is a verb meaning to “deny, renounce, abandon.” To renege on a former promise means that expectations collapse like a slack yo-yo string.
  5. retrograde
    moving or directed or tending in a backward direction
    In that letter Jefferson had mentioned Adams in passing as a retrograde thinker opposed to all forms of progress, one of the “ancients” rather than “moderns.” Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation
    Retrograde is a celestial word appropriate for the world of yo-yo-ing bodies. The word can mean going backwards metaphorically speaking, and implies a reversal or lack of progress.
  6. recidivism
    habitual relapse into crime
    Many judges, prosecutors, and defense lawyers do a poor job of recognizing the special needs of the mentally disabled, which leads to wrongful convictions, lengthier prison terms, and high rates of recidivism. Just Mercy
    Recidivism is a term used to describe repeatedly committing illegal or immoral acts. English adapted this word from French which took it from Latin recidivare, “to relapse into sin.”
  7. mercurial
    liable to sudden unpredictable change
    In Lagos, the harmattan was a mere veil of haze, but in Nsukka, it was a raging, mercurial presence; the mornings were crisp, the afternoons ashen with heat, and the nights unknown. Americanah
  8. perigee
    the nearest point in an orbit around the Earth
    She said the moon was in perigee that night, the closest it got to the planet of humans and dogs. 100 Sideways Miles
    A circling, spinning yo-yo most resembles a planet moving around the sun, or the moon in orbit around Earth. Perigee refers to the point at which the orbiting object is closest to the object it is spinning around.
  9. apogee
    the farthest point in an orbit around the Earth
    The sun reached its apogee and started down the blue sky of early afternoon. Julie of the Wolves
    Apogee refers to the point where the orbiting object is farthest from the thing it spins around.
  10. erratic
    liable to sudden unpredictable change
    She was strange now, erratic, sometimes needing my friendship, trusting me with her dangerous longings for freedom, her wild plans to run away again; and sometimes hating me, blaming me for her trouble. Kindred
  11. wayward
    resistant to guidance or discipline
    I didn’t want to be fetching him any more than he wanted his ragamuffin daughter summoning him home like a wayward schoolboy. The Glass Castle
  12. revert
    go back to a previous state
    For what seemed like an infinite time they stood immobile, adjusting to the changes and the new distances, but then a sparrow trilled and everything reverted to the way it had been the preceding summer. The House of the Spirits: A Novel
Created on Thu May 31 23:34:26 EDT 2018 (updated Thu May 11 15:13:35 EDT 2023)

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