Nth vocabulary lesson

February 22, 2009

Nth vocabulary lesson

1. Celerity – “rapidity of motion or action”
2. Macabre – “having death as a subject , comprising or including a personalized representation of death”, “dwelling on the gruesome”
3. Yen – craving
4. Dipsomania – “an uncontrollable craving for alcoholic liquors”
5. Trocar – “a sharp-pointed surgical instrument fitted with a cannula and used especially to insert the cannula into a body cavity as a drainage outlet”
6. Cannula – “a small tube for insertion into a body cavity or into a duct or vessel”
7. Greenhorn – “an inexperienced or naive person”, “a newcomer (as to a country) unacquainted with local manners and customs”
8. Beelzebub – devil, “a fallen angel in Milton’s Paradise Lost ranking next to Satan”
9. Ted – “to spread or turn from the swath and scatter (as new-mown grass) for drying”
10. Skinflint – “a person who would save, gain, or extort money by any means”, miser
11. Aspersion – “a sprinkling with water especially in religious ceremonies”, “ a false or misleading charge meant to harm someone’s reputation”
12. Tala – “one of the ancient traditional rhythmic patterns of South Asian music”

All definitions are from Merriam-Webster online

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