Egregious

Wednesday 30^th November 2016

Egregious - /ɪˈɡriːdʒəs/

Adjective 

1) Outstandingly bad; shocking

2) archaic Remarkably good.

Example sentences

Adjective

‘Egregious abuses of copyright’

‘I am not so egregious a mathematician as you are’

Origin

Mid 16th century (in egregious): from Latin egregius illustrious, literally standing out from the flock, from ex- out + grex, greg- flock. Sense 1 (late 16th century) probably arose as an ironic use.

Thanks to: www.oxforddictionaries.com

Mundane

Tuesday 29^th November 2016

Mundane - /ˈmʌndeɪn/ - /mʌnˈdeɪn/

Adjective
1) Lacking interest or excitement; dull

2) Of this earthly world rather than a heavenly or spiritual one

2.1) Relating to or denoting the branch of astrology that deals with the prediction of earthly events

Example sentences

Adjective

‘His mundane, humdrum existence’

‘According to the Shinto doctrine, spirits of the dead can act upon the mundane world’

‘Every indication is negative for peace as fas as mundane astrology is concerned’

Origin

Late Middle English (in mundane): from Old French mondain, from late Latin mundanus, from Latin mundus world. Mundane dates from the late 19th century.

Thanks to: www.oxforddictionaries.com

Didactic

Monday 28^th November 2016

Didactic - /dɪˈdaktɪk/

Adjective
1) Intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive

1.1) In the manner of a teacher, particularly so as to appear patronizing

Example sentences

Adjective

‘A didactic novel that set out to expose social injustice’

‘His tone ranged from didactic to backslapping’

Origin

Mid 17th century: from Greek didaktikos, from didaskein teach.

Thanks to: www.oxforddictionaries.com

Facetious

Friday 25^th November 2016

Facetious - /fəˈsiːʃəs/

Adjective 

Treating serious issues with deliberately inappropriate humour; flippant

Example sentences

Adjective

‘A facetious remark’

Origin 

Late 16th century (in the general sense ‘witty, amusing’): from French facétieux, from facétie, from Latin facetia jest, from facetus witty.

Thanks to: www.oxforddictionaries.com

Superfluous

Thursday 24^th November 2016

Superfluous - /suːˈpəːflʊəs/

Adjective 

Unnecessary, especially through being more than enough

Example sentences

Adjective

‘The purchaser should avoid asking for superfluous information’

Origin 

Late Middle English: from Latin superfluus, from super- over + fluere to flow.

Thanks to: www.oxforddictionaries.com

Prudent

Wednesday 23^rd November 2016

Prudent - /ˈpruːd(ə)nt/

Adjective
Acting with or showing care and thought for the future

Example sentences

Adjective

‘No prudent money manager would authorize a loan without first knowing its purpose’

Origin 

Late Middle English: from Old French, or from Latin prudent-, contraction of provident- foreseeing, attending to (see provident).

Thanks to: www.oxforddictionaries.com

Epic

Tuesday 22^nd November 2016

Epic - /ˈɛpɪk/

Noun

1) A long poem, typically one derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the past history of a nation.

1.1) [mass noun] The genre of epics

1.2) A long film, book, or other work portraying heroic deeds and adventures or covering an extended period of time

2) Informal An exceptionally long and arduous task or activity

Adjective
1) Relating to or characteristic of an epic or epics

2) Heroic or grand in scale or character

2.1) Informal Particularly impressive or remarkable

Example sentences

Noun

‘Maybe she was some sort of scribe, writing epics about their heroic journey?’

‘The romances display gentler emotions not found in Greek epic’

‘A Hollywood biblical epic’

‘The business of getting hospital treatment soon became an epic’

Adjective

‘Our national epic poem Beowulf’

‘His epic journey around the world’

‘The gig last night was epic’

Origin

Late 16th century (as an adjective): via Latin from Greek epikos, from epos word, song, related to eipein say.

Thanks to: www.oxforddictionaries.com

Obsequious

Monday 21^st November 2016

Obsequious - /əbˈsiːkwɪəs/

Adjective
Obedient or attentive to an excessive or servile degree

Example sentences

Adjective

‘They were served by obsequious waiters’

Origin

Late 15th century (not depreciatory in sense in early use): from Latin obsequiosus, from obsequium compliance, from obsequi follow, comply with.

Thanks to: www.oxforddictionaries.com

Cognitive

Friday 18^th November 2016

Cognitive - /ˈkɒɡnɪtɪv/

Adjective
Relating to cognition

Example sentences

Adjective

‘The cognitive processes involved in reading’

Origin

Late 16th century: from medieval Latin cognitivus, from cognit- known, from the verb cognoscere.

Thanks to: www.oxforddictionaries.com

Cynical

Thursday 17^th November 2016

Cynical - /ˈsɪnɪk(ə)l/

Adjective
1a) Believing that people are motivated purely by self-interest; distrustful of human sincerity or integrity

1b) Doubtful as to whether something will happen or whether it is worthwhile

1c) Contemptuous; mocking

2) Concerned only with one's own interests and typically disregarding accepted standards in order to achieve them

Example sentences

Adjective

‘He was brutally cynical and hardened to every sob story under the sun’

‘Most residents are cynical about efforts to clean mobsters out of their city’

‘He gave a cynical laugh’

‘A cynical manipulation of public opinion’

Origin

No history / origin found

Thanks to: www.oxforddictionaries.com

Paradigm

Wednesday 16^th November 2016

Paradigm - /ˈparədʌɪm/

Noun
1a) A typical example or pattern of something; a pattern or model

1b)  A world view underlying the theories and methodology of a particular scientific subject

2) Linguistics - A set of linguistic items that form mutually exclusive choices in particular syntactic roles

3) (In the traditional grammar of Latin, Greek, and other inflected languages) a table of all the inflected forms of a particular verb, noun, or adjective, serving as a model for other words of the same conjugation or declension.

Example sentences

Noun

‘Society’s paradigm of the ‘ideal woman’’

‘The discovery of universal gravitation became the paradigm of successful science’

‘English determiners form a paradigm: we can say ‘a book’ or ‘his book’ but not ‘a his book’’

‘Reformers rejected the teaching of modern languages through grammatical paradigms, specimen sentences, and word lists.’

Origin

Late 15th century: via late Latin from Greek paradeigma, from paradeiknunai show side by side, from para- beside + deiknunai to show.

Thanks to: www.oxforddictionaries.com

Leverage

Tuesday 15^th November 2016

Leverage - /ˈliːv(ə)rɪdʒ/

Noun
1a) The exertion of force by means of a lever

1b) Mechanical advantage gained by leverage

1c) The power to influence a person or situation

2a) Finance - The ratio of a company's loan capital (debt) to the value of its ordinary shares (equity); gearing.

2b) The use of credit or borrowed capital to increase the earning potential of shares.

Verb

1) Usually as adjective leveraged Use borrowed capital for (an investment), expecting the profits made to be greater than the interest payable

2) Use (something) to maximum advantage

Example sentences

Noun

‘Use a metal bar to increase the leverage’

‘Use a metal bar to increase the leverage’

‘The right wing had lost much of its political leverage in the Assembly’‘Reckless companies used leverage to do $3 trillion of mergers and acquisitions in 2006, at the top of the market’

Verb

‘A leveraged takeover bid’

‘The organization needs to leverage its key resources’

Origin

No history / origin found.

Thanks to: www.oxforddictionaries.com