Vocabulary I

Sheet Lightning

For the last several months I have wanted to begin recording words I happen upon and don't know in order to incorporate them into my vocabulary. During high school and particularly middle school my vocabulary was far and beyond that of my peers due simply to the fact that I read, on average, a novel a day. Towards the latter years of high school and during college I have had neither the time nor the discipline to bulk up my vocabulary as I did then. The plan, thus, is to write down unfamiliar words in my journal as I hear them and when I feel I've collected a sufficient number, post them here with definitions.

I remember, once a teacher asked the class if any of us knew what a particular word meant. Many of us raised our hands, self-assured and even a bit cocky, but when the teacher asked for a definition, none of us could really quite define it. Therefore, I'm going to include the words I brush past regularly, but in truth, know only vaguely.

As a note, I will be using the definition of the word according to the context of its hearing.

As a second note, to determine which photo or illustration will top each vocabulary entry I will simply enter each word in a Google Images search, looking only at the first page, and choose my favorite.

acclamation--a loud shout or other demonstration of welcome, goodwill, or approval.

catamount--a wild animal of the cat family, esp. the cougar or the lynx.

cataract--a descent of water over a steep surface; a waterfall, esp. one of considerable size.

cenotaph--a sepulchral monument erected in memory of a deceased person whose body is buried elsewhere.

disgorge--to eject, yield, or discharge something.

Gastein--Bad Gastein, a spa town in the Austrian state of Salzburg, situated at the northern rim of the Hohe Tauern national park.

Gatling--Richard Jordan, American firearms inventor of the first rapid-firing gun (patented 1862).

inimical--adverse in tendency or effect; unfavorable; harmful.

Leonids--any of a shower of meteors occurring around November 15 and appearing to radiate from a point in the constellation Leo.

ochre--the color of this, ranging from pale yellow to an orangish or reddish yellow.

peripatetic--a person who walks or travels about.

poltroon--a wretched coward; craven.

quoits--a game in which rings of rope or flattened metal are thrown at an upright peg, the object being to encircle it or come as close to it as possible.

rostrum--any platform, stage, or the like, for public speaking.

scree--a steep mass of rock in small particles or other material worn or broken away from a mass, as by the action of water or glacial ice on the side of a mountain.

sheet lightning--lightning appearing merely as a general illumination over a broad area, usually because the path of the flash is obscured by clouds.

sough--to speak, esp. to preach, in a whining, singsong voice.

vestibule--a passage, hall, or antechamber between the outer door and the interior parts of a house or building.