gremlin \GREM-lin\ (noun) - A mischievous sprite imagined to cause the inexplicable problems in the real and virtual machinery of technology.

"I received your e-mail alright but the attachment was snatched by the gremlins of cyberspace."

Although today's word first emerged during World War II, evidence suggests a predecessor was in circulation...Read more

wamble \WOM-buhl\ (verb intr.) - 1 : To move unsteadily; to totter, waver, roll, etc. 2 : To feel nausea. 3 : (Of a stomach) To rumble or growl.

(noun) - 1 : An unsteady motion. 2 : A feeling of nausea.

"Such was the wamble introduced to the craft by the sea's violent pitching that Nell began to lurch and wamble about the interior of the cabin...Read more

supererogatory \soo-puhr-ih-ROG-uh-tor-ee\ (adjective) - 1 : Going beyond what is required or expected. 2 : Superfluous; unnecessary.

"He deemed the leading of an ascetic life ultimately as a supererogatory act, since baptism was the sole criterion by which one's Christian identity could be defined." -- Willemien Otten, 'Augustine on marriage,...Read more

aplomb \uh-PLOM\ (noun) - Assurance of manner or of action; self-possession; confidence; coolness.

"His initial broadcasting success was due at least as much to his considerable professional aplomb as it was to his father's broadcasting connections." -- John A. Jackson, 'American Bandstand: Dick Clark and the Making of a Rock 'n' Roll Empire' ...Read more

lissom \LISS-uhm\ (adjective) also lissome - 1 : Limber; supple; flexible. 2 : Light and quick in action; nimble; agile; active.

"Her foot touches the plate and sets off the trap, but so swift and lissome is she that her ankles evade the clash of the serrated iron jaws as they spring together." -- John Bayley, 'Iris and Her Friends'

Lissom ...Read more

pestiferous \pes-TIF-uh-ruhs\ (adjective) - 1 : Bearing or bringing disease. 2 : Infected with or contaminated by a pestilential disease. 3 : Morally evil or dangerous to society; pernicious. 4 : Bothersome; troublesome; annoying.

"Equatorial climate and pestiferous conditions made Guayaquil such an unattractive port in the past that it was ...Read more

amative \AM-uh-tiv\ (adjective) - Pertaining to or disposed to love, especially sexual love; full of love; amorous.

"Theoretically, any given left-kisser should meet more right-kissers and, over an amative lifetime, or even good year in junior high, be subtly pressured to shift to the right in order to land a wet one -- or just avoid a broken ...Read more

magniloquent \mag-NIL-uh-kwent\ (adjective) - Lofty or grandiose in speech or expression; using a high-flown style of discourse; bombastic.

"Although Napoleon presented himself as 'the Enlightenment embodied, bringing rationality and justice to peoples hitherto ruled in the interests of privileged castes,' and although he may even have believed...Read more

countervail \kown-tur-VAYL\ (transitive verb) - 1 : To act against with equal force, power, or effect; to counteract. 2 : To compensate for; to offset; to furnish or serve as an equivalent to.

(intransitive verb) - To exert force against an opposing, often bad, influence or power.

"In spite of its keel's weight, and even without the ...Read more

eructation \ih-ruhk-TAY-shuhn\ (noun) - The act of belching; a belch.

"Ignatius belched, the gassy eructations echoing between the walls of the alley." -- John Kennedy Toole, 'A Confederacy of Dunces'

Eructation comes from Latin eructatio , from eructare , from e- , "out" + ructare , "to belch."

contravene \kon-truh-VEEN\ (transitive verb) - 1 : To act or be counter to; to violate. 2 : To oppose in argument; to contradict.

"In 1620 most people considered the likelihood of reversing the seasons inside a building impossible, and many deemed it sacrilege, an attempt to contravene the natural order, to twist the configuration of the ...Read more

agon \AH-gahn; ah-GOHN\ (noun) - A struggle or contest; conflict; especially between the protagonist and antagonist in a literary work.

"Conflicts about moral claims are part of what it means to be human, and a political ideal stripped of sentimentality and the utopian temptation is one committed to the notion that political life is a permanent...Read more

discomfit \dis-KUHM-fit; dis-kuhm-FIT\ (transitive verb) - 1 : To make uneasy or perplexed, or to put into a state of embarrassment; to disconcert; to upset. 2 : To thwart; to frustrate the plans of. 3 : (Archaic) To defeat in battle.

"Starr Bright was used to the attention of strangers and would have been discomfited if no one noticed her, so...Read more

perfunctory \pur-FUNGK-tuh-ree\ (adjective) - 1 : Done merely to carry out a duty; performed mechanically or routinely. 2 : Lacking interest, care, or enthusiasm; indifferent.

"His hugs, although expansive and affectionate, did not linger, seemed perfunctory." -- Susan Bordo, 'The Male Body'

Perfunctory derives from Late Latin perfunctorius ,...Read more

aggress \uh-GRES\ (intransitive verb) - To commit the first act of hostility or offense; to make an attack.

"Nagaraj can never bring himself to aggress or fight back, but he is capable of a delicious malice." -- Julian Moynahan, 'India of the Imagination'

Aggress is from French agresser , from Latin aggredi , aggress- , "to approach, to ...Read more

faction /FAK-shuhn/ (noun) - 1 : A usually contentious or self-seeking group within a larger group, party, government, etc. 2 : Party strife and intrigue; internal dissension.

"For most of his colleagues, Leonid Ilich Brezhnev, who had succeeded Khrushchev as First (later General) Secretary, was a far more reassuring figure -- affable, ...Read more

supernal \soo-PUR-nuhl\ (adjective) - 1 : Being in or coming from the heavens or a higher place or region. 2 : Relating or belonging to things above; celestial; heavenly. 3 : Lofty; of surpassing excellence.

"In 1616, a pope and a cardinal inquisitor reprimanded Galileo, warning him to curtail his forays into the supernal realms." -- Dava ...Read more

effrontery \ih-FRUN-tuh-ree\ (noun) - Insulting presumptuousness; shameless boldness; insolence.

"Passionately she sang of Yoshitsune, her love and yearning for him, and her joy that he had successfully managed to evade his evil half-brother Yoritomo. Yoritomo was torn between rage at such effrontery and pleasure at the exquisite beauty of ...Read more

parse \PAHRS\ (transitive verb) - 1 : To resolve (as a sentence) into its component parts of speech with an explanation of the form, function, and syntactical relationship of each part. 2 : To describe grammatically by stating its part of speech, form, and syntactical relationships in a sentence. 3 : To examine closely or analyze critically, ...Read more

Five hundred years ago, if I had called one of my students "a shrewd lad with dogged ambition," he might have left the classroom in tears.

Back in 1526, "shrewd" meant hurtful, a "lad" was a lowly servant, "dogged" meant malicious, and "ambition" denoted "excessive striving for wealth or power." Since then, these words have undergone "...Read more