Vocabulary and Etymology / Week4

Red herring

A red herring is something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important issue. It may be either a logical fallacy or a literary device that leads readers or audiences towards a false conclusion. A red herring might be intentionally used, such as in mystery fiction or as part of rhetorical strategies (e.g. in politics), or it could be inadvertently used during argumentation.

The origin of the expression is unknown. Conventional wisdom has long supposed it to be the use of a kipper (a strong-smelling smoked fish) to train hounds to follow a scent, or to divert them from the correct route when hunting; however, modern linguistic research suggests that the term was probably invented in 1807 by English polemicist William Cobbett, referring to one occasion on which he had supposedly used a kipper to divert hounds from chasing a hare, and was never an actual practice of hunters. The phrase was later borrowed to provide a formal name for the logical fallacy and literary device.

WASP

White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) is an informal, sometimes disparaging term for a closed social group of high-status and influential white Americans of English Protestant ancestry. It is also sometimes applied to those of Scottish Protestant and Irish Protestant ancestry. The term applies to a group who control disproportionate financial, political and social power in the United States.

Scholars agree that the group's influence has waned since the end of World War II in 1945, with the growing influence of other ethnic groups. The term is also used in Australia and Canada for similar elites. The term is occasionally used by sociologists to include all Americans of Northern European ancestry regardless of their class or power. People rarely call themselves WASPs, except humorously. The acronym is typically used by non-WASPs.

•anti-

✓against; opposing

anticlerical (adj.)

-       meaning: opposed to the influence and activities of the clergy or the church insecular or public affairs.

-       example: The Vatican has also defended the pontiff, calling the charges a fantasy of “the anticlerical left.”

antisocial (adj.)

-     meaning: unwilling or unable to associate in a normal or friendly way with other               people

-     example: He's not antisocial, just shy.

✓opposite to

anticlimax (n.)

-       meaning: a descent in power, quality, dignity, etc.; a disappointing,  weak, oringlorious conclusion

-       example: After serving as president, he may find life in retirement ananticlimax.

✓rival; false

antipope

-    meaning: a person who is elected or claims to be pope in opposition to anotherheld to be canonically chosen.

-     example: It is the purpose of this short essay to explain the confusing array of names of popes and antipopes during this time.

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and perhaps its greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis. In doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy.

Born in Hodgenville, Kentucky, Lincoln grew up on the western frontier in Kentucky and Indiana. Largely self-educated, he became a lawyer in Illinois, a Whig Party leader, and was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives, in which he served for eight years. Elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1846, Lincoln promoted rapid modernization of the economy through banks, tariffs, and railroads. Because he had originally agreed not to run for a second term in Congress, and because his opposition to the Mexican–American War was unpopular among Illinois voters, Lincoln returned to Springfield and resumed his successful law practice. Reentering politics in 1854, he became a leader in building the new Republican Party, which had a statewide majority in Illinois. In 1858, while taking part in a series of highly publicized debates with his opponent and rival, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln spoke out against the expansion of slavery, but lost the U.S. Senate race to Douglas.

Sword of Damocles

Damocles (literally: "fame of the people") is a figure featured in a single moral anecdote commonly referred to as "the Sword of Damocles", an allusion to the imminent and ever-present peril faced by those in positions of power. The Damocles of the anecdote was an obsequious courtier in the court of Dionysius II of Syracuse, a 4th-century BC tyrant of Syracuse, Sicily.

The anecdote apparently figured in the lost history of Sicily by Timaeus of Tauromenium (c. 356–260 BC). The Roman orator Cicero may have read it in Diodorus Siculus. He made use of it in his Tusculanae Disputationes, V. 21, by which means it passed into the European cultural mainstream.

•-ary

✓of; related to; belonging to

cautionary (adj.)

-       meaning: of the nature of or containing a warning

-       example: The might be a cautionary tale about the dangers of a life of frivolo usluxury.

primary (adj.)

-       meaning: of chief importance; principal:

-       example: The government's primary aim is to see significant reductions in unemployment

✓a thing relating to; a place for

commentary (n.)

-       meaning: a series of comment, explanations, or annotations

example: A commentary on the Bible; news followed by a commentary.

✓a person connected with or engaged in

missionary (n.)

-       meaning: a person strongly in favor of a program, set of principles, etc., who attempts to persuade or convert others.

-       example: Bagaza called for the expulsion of all Italian priests and missionary  workers, but those who stayed received death threats.

military (n.)

-       meaning: the armed forces of a country

-       example: As a young man he joined the military and pursued a career in the Army.

vocabulary

effigy noun / a model or other object that represents someone, especially one of a hated person that is hanged or burned in a public place

exacerbate verb / to make something that is already bad even worse

flout verb / to intentionally not obey a rule, law, or custom

forthwith adverb / immediately

fray verb / to become or to cause the threads in cloth or rope to become slightly separated, forming loose threads at the edge or end

indigent adjective / very poor

jurisdiction noun / the authority of a court or official organization to make decisions and             

                               judgments

monolithic adjective / too large, too regular, or without interesting differences, and unwilling or      

                                    unable to be changed

ascend verb / to move up or climb something

excruciating adjective / extremely painful
fretful adjective / behaving in a way that shows you are unhappy, worried, or uncomfortable

harbinger noun / a person or thing that shows that something is going to happen soon, especially something bad

emaciated adjective / very thin and weak, usually because of illness or extreme hunger

malignant adjective / A malignant disease or growth is likely to get worse and lead to death.
malnutrition noun / physical weakness and bad health caused by having too little food, or too little              
                                of the types of food necessary for good health
privation noun / a lack of the basic things that are necessary for an acceptable standard of living
remote adjective / far away in distance or time, or not closely related

respite noun / a pause or rest from something difficult or unpleasant
sinister adjective / making you feel that something bad or evil might happen
succumb verb / to lose the determination to oppose something; to accept defeat
surge noun / a sudden and great increase
thwart verb / to stop something from happening or someone from doing something
tranquil adjective / calm and peaceful and without noise, violence, worry, etc.

ubiquitous adjective / seeming to be everywhere