Fall Vocabulary List #6

Beatitude: supreme blessedness; exalted happiness
--It was said that in the last picture he took of himself, Christopher McCandless had a look of pure beatitude on his face.
Bete noire: a person or thing especially disliked or dreaded; bane
--The SAT test is the bete noire of high school students everywhere.
Bode: to be an omen of; portend
--The AP student has failed all of his practice essays so far; this does not bode well for his score on the real exam.
Dank: unpleasantly moist or humid; damp, and often, chilly
--The basement was dark and dank, and just creepy in general.
Ecumenical: general, universal/pertaining to the whole Christian church/promoting or fostering Christian unity around the world/interreligious or interdenominational
--Though the parents of the couple balked at the idea of an ecumenical wedding, the couple did not care; their religions could not separate them.
Fervid: heated or vehement in spirit, enthusiasm, etc./burning, glowing, intensely hot
--When the artist was feeling it, he would work fervidly on a project nonstop and get it done in less than a day.
Fetid: having an offensive odor, stinking
--Not only was the basement dark, dank, and creepy, but the air was thick and fetid.
Gargantuan: gigantic, enormous, colossal
--The trees in Sequoia National Park are very old and positively gargantuan.
Heyday: the stage or period of greatest vigor, strength, success, etc.
--During the company's heyday, it was raking in millions of dollars from customers from around the world.
Incubus: an imaginary demon or evil spirit supposed to descend upon sleeping persons, especially one fabled to have sexual intercourse with women during their sleep/a nightmare/something that weighs upon or
oppresses one like a nightmare
--When I asked the women why she was selling her house, she began to yell and rant about an incubus that lived there and visited her every night...needless to say, I did not buy that house. I also do not talk to that woman anymore.
Infrastructure: the basic, underlying framework or features of a system or organization/the fundamental facilities and systems serving a country, city, or area, as transportation and communication systems, power plants, and schools
--One of the reasons why Rome fell was because of its crumbling infrastructure; perhaps we should be looking after ours a little better.
Inveigle: to entice, lure, or ensnare by flattery or artful talk or inducements/to acquire, win, or obtain by beguiling talk or methods
 --He had to inveigle his mother and compliment her until she finally let him go to the concert on a school night.
Kudos: honor, glory, acclaim
 --I give Kasie kudos for recognizing the word "kudos" in class today.
Lagniappe: a gratuity or tip/an unexpected or indirect benefit/a small gift given with a purchase to a customer, by way of a compliment or for good measure; bonus
 --The customers treated Jessica, the waitress, so well that she threw in some extra dessert as a lagniappe on their way out.
Obsequious: characterized by or showing servile complaisance or deference; fawning/servilely compliant and deferential
--Nobody cared much for the obsequious student; he proved himself a "teacher's pet" early in the year.
Prolix: extended to great, unnecessary or tedious length; long and wordy
--The professor's stories could have been around five minutes long, each, but she made them prolix and stretched them into twenty or more minutes.
Protege: a person under the patronage, care, or protection of someone who is interested in his/her care or welfare
 --As my little cousin stared up at my kayaks, I imagined taking him out on a lake one day and having him as my little boating protege.
Prototype: the original model on which something is based or formed
--The inventor first had to create a prototype model, test it, tweak it, then get a patent on the device before creating an official model for public consumption.
Sycophant: a self-seeking, servile flatterer; fawning parasite
--The sycophant used his inveigling ways to get what he wanted.
Tautology: needless repetition of an idea, especially in words other than those of the immediate context, without imparting additional force or clearness/an instance of repetition
--He told me that the "widow woman" was getting along better without her husband; I felt badly because I laughed at the tautology of that phrase during a serious conversation.

Truckle: to submit or yield obsequeously or tamely
--The child knew his father would give him anything he wanted as long as he truckled to his demands and did whatever chores and work he needed.