week 39

When your friend tells you every detail of how she tripped over a rock, broke her ankle, and then got into a car accident on the way to the hospital, she is sharing a long, involved story known as a saga.
The word saga has its origins in the Middle Ages. In those days, a saga was an historical tale of the first families who lived in Norway or Iceland. Today the word is used to describe a very complicated or detailed series of events. A saga is the kind of long, drawn-out story that can cause the

If you go against or oppose what's good, you might earn opprobrium — the opposite of getting attention for something good. Bad behavior leads to opprobrium. If you throw a soft drink off the theater balcony, the opprobrium might keep you from getting dates to the movies.

Vindicate means to justify, prove, or reinforce an idea — or to absolve from guilt. If your family thinks you hogged the last piece of pie on Thanksgiving, you'll be vindicated when your younger brother fesses up.When a lawyer clears her client's name in a trial, she vindicates him. Machiavelli argued that the results he got vindicated his tactics — in other words, the ends justified the means.

When you break school rules about gum chewing, you commit an infraction. An infraction is a petty crime or a minor breaking of rules.
When you think of the word infraction, think that your offence has just crossed the line into wrong. Something like a parking ticket is an infraction. When you commit an infraction, you're not knee deep in wrong, you've just dipped your toe into wrong to see what it feels like. A misdemeanor is a more serious crime such as theft, and murder is considered a felony,

If you're imperturbable you are not easily upset. If your goal is to be imperturbable, then you can't let things bother you or get you stressed, confused, or angry.
The adjective imperturbable is the flip side of perturbable, which comes from perturb, which in turn traces back to the Latin word perturbare, meaning “to confuse” or “to disturb.” If something really annoying is going on, like one neighbor is jack-hammering his driveway and another has a dog that's barking while you're trying to sle

Especially when it's capitalized, the word Machiavellian is useful for talking about a person who follows Machiavelli's philosophical ideas. However, it's more frequently used to describe someone who is sneaky, cunning, and lacking a moral code.
You can use the adjective Machiavellian to describe someone who is a fan of the Italian philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli. Modern psychiatrists even use the adjective to describe a specific kind of personality disorder, a cold selfishness.

Nasty word, flay. It means to peel or beat the skin of a person or animal, and not necessarily a dead one, either. Nowadays it more commonly means to criticize harshly someone or something, usually in public, leaving them raw and wounded. To be flayed alive was a common punishment in ancient times for political enemies or traitors. The ancient Assyrians and the Chinese were particularly good at it. Today, if you want to have your skin — metaphorically — peeled in public, you go on reality TV. It

Something belated comes after the fact. If you are late to deliver a birthday greeting, then make it a "happy belated birthday" card.

Something that is almost unimaginably unacceptable is unconscionable. Think of it as being something that no reasonable person would even think of doing or saying — something unbelievable, outrageous, and often horrible.

Your demeanor is defined as being either your facial appearance or your behavior. When playing poker, don't let your demeanor give away how good your cards are.
Demeanor in English today has evolved from Middle English and Old French to refer to the way one manages or presents oneself, and this definition applies to conduct as well as facial expressions. The way you present yourself often affects how others make judgments about you and therefore, you might want your demeanor to reflect the situa

To viturperate is to speak or write in an extremely negative way about someone.
Just as vituperation consists of negative, explosive, malicious outbursts, to vituperate is to communicate in this way. Negative political ads vituperate against opponents. When you insult someone and swear at them, you vituperate. People with a short temper tend to vituperate often — it's similar to railing, vilifying, and reviling.

That building falling down on the corner of your block? It's decrepit. So is the old man who lives there, if he is weak from age. Decrepit means broken down by hard use.
Decrepit implies that something or someone is a weak, and run down — practically falling apart. It's really not a nice word to use about a person. If you are trying to say the same thing about a person, but more nicely, you might use the word, feeble, which means weak, but not disastrously falling apart.

Pandemonium is chaos, total and utter craziness — like the stampede after your team won the championship, when everyone spilled onto the field at once, bouncing off each other.
If you look carefully at the word pandemonium, you’ll see the word demon inside it. This makes sense, since the word pandemonium was coined in Milton’s Paradise Lost, where it was the name of the palace built in the middle of Hell. Milton wrote back in the 17th century. Nowadays, pandemonium crops up whenever journalists

A heinous crime is very evil or wicked. Of course, some people only use the term as an exaggeration, claiming that their parents' requirement that they write thank you notes after their birthdays is a heinous form of torture.

The verb redress is used when you are supposed to fix a problem and make amends. You want your parents to redress the fact that you don't have a pet. Your parents offer to get a hamster, but instead, you say you want a monkey.
Redress can be used as both a noun and a verb. In the noun form, it is the compensation for setting something right. As a verb it means to correct, right a wrong, or make restitution for something. The union organizers wanted the company to redress the fact that workers we

Vacillate means to waver back and forth, unable to decide. You might vacillate between ordering waffles and pancakes at your favorite diner — it’s hard to pick just one when both are so tasty!
Something that vacillates sways or fluctuates, often quite unsteadily. So use this verb to describe the staggering motions of a person who has had too much to drink, as well as the opinions of someone who can’t make up her mind. Synonyms include vibrate, hesitate, and waver.

As an adjective, staunch means firm. You might want to go to that concert Friday night, but your parents' staunch opposition prevents you.
Staunch is sometimes used as a verb to mean "to stop the flow of a liquid," but most usage books will tell you it's better to use the word stanch for the verb. Think of a soldier stopping and standing still, and you will understand the connection between the two meanings. The adjectival form should make you think of "stand," as in “stand firm,” or "take a sta

Delineation is the act of representing something or describing it. The portrait you paint of your best friend is a delineation of that person.
A delineation can refer to any kind of pictorial representation of something else, like a geometric sketch or a map of a city. A delineation more generally means any kind of accurate or vivid portrayal of something else.

If you are guilty of turpitude, you should be ashamed of yourself. Turpitude is a word that represents depraved behavior. Prisons are filled with criminals who have engaged in acts of moral turpitude.
Turpitude comes from the Latin word turpitudo, which means "repulsiveness." Corrupt politicians get booted out of office for acts of turpitude, like taking bribes in exchange for lucrative government contracts. Turpitude often follows the word moral, and acts of moral turpitude are usually crimes t