Vocabulary III

Inveterate

"Both Sides Now"

Rows and flows of angel hair, and icecream castles in the air,

and feathered canyons everywhere;
I've looked at clouds that way.
But now they only block the sun.
They rain and snow on everyone.
So many things I would have done,
but clouds got in my way.

I've looked at clouds from both sides now,
from up and down, and still somehow
it's cloud illusions I recall.

I really don't know clouds at all.

Moons and Junes and ferris wheels, the dizzy dancing way that you feel

as every fairy tale comes real;

I've looked at love that way.
But now it's just another show.

You leave 'em laughing when you go
and if you care, don't let them know,

don't give yourself away.

I've looked at love from both sides now,
from give and take, and still somehow
it's love's illusions I recall.
I really don't know love at all.

Tears and fears and feeling proud, to say "I love you" right out loud,

dreams and schemes and circus crowds;

I've looked at life that way.
But now old friends are acting strange,

they shake their heads,
they say that I've changed.
Something's lost but something's gained in living every day.

I've looked at life from both sides now,
from win and lose, and still somehow
it's life's illusions I recall.
I really don't know life at all.

-Joni Mitchell

agnatic--a relative whose connection is traceable exclusively through males.

autochthon--an aboriginal inhabitant.

breccia--rock composed of angular fragments of older rocks melded together.

caveat--a warning or caution; admonition.

cloaca--a sewer, esp. an ancient sewer.

contumacious--stubbornly perverse or rebellious; willfully and obstinately disobedient.

dearth--an inadequate supply; scarcity; lack.

deleterious--injurious to health.

doggerel--comic or burlesque verse, and usually loose or irregular in measure.

eidolon--a phantom; apparition.

eidos--the formal content of a culture, encompassing its system of ideas, criteria for interpreting experience, etc.

excoriate--to denounce or berate severely; flay verbally.

gibbet--a gallows with a projecting arm at the top, from which the bodies of criminals were formerly hung in chains and left suspended after execution.

hinterland--the remote or less developed parts of a country; back country.

hirsute--hairy; shaggy.

inveterate--settled or confirmed in a habit, practice, feeling, or the like.

lexical--of or pertaining to the words or vocabulary of a language, esp. as distinguished from its grammatical and syntactical aspects.

limpid--clear, transparent, or pellucid, as water, crystal, or air.

littoral--of or pertaining to the shore of a lake, sea, or ocean.

loquacious--talking or tending to talk much or freely.

ludic--playful in an aimless way.

malarky--speech or writing designed to obscure, mislead, or impress.

mandarin--a member of an elite or powerful group or class, as in intellectual or cultural milieus.

mawkish--characterized by sickly sentimentality; weakly emotional; maudlin.

militate--to have a substantial effect; weigh heavily.

moribund--in a dying state; near death.

oneiric--of or pertaining to dreams.

ontology--the branch of metaphysics that studies the nature of existence or being as such.

panegyric--a lofty oration or writing in praise of a person or thing; eulogy.

paucity--smallness of quantity; scarcity; scantiness.

recourse--a person or thing resorted to for help or protection.

regnal--of or pertaining to a sovereign, sovereignty, or reign.

salient--prominent or conspicuous.

shibboleth--a peculiarity of pronunciation, behavior, mode of dress, etc., that distinguishes a particular class or set of persons.

sinecure--an office or position requiring little or no work, esp. one yielding profitable returns.

speculum--a mirror or reflector, esp. one of polished metal, as on a reflecting telescope.

supra--above or over.

synod--any council.

topos--a convention or motif, esp. in a literary work; a rhetorical convention.