Vocab Words Part 4

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    Imbroglio (n.)It may sound like an exotic vegetable or a pungent pasta dish, but it’s neither. Imbrogliocomes to us via mid-18th century Italian and has nothing to do with the kitchen. Instead itis related to the verb embroil and describes a confusing, and potentially embarrassing,situation.

    The chef cook-off featured one gourmand who had the unfortunate distinction of mixingthe wrong broths, creating an imbroglio that viewers will not soon forget.

     Juggernaut (n.)o many, this word was forever immortali!ed in "-#en $, when one of the maincharacters, %uggernaut, ran through walls, pulveri!ing them. his power to knock overand destroy anything in one’s path can also be traced to the original juggernaut, a wordthat comes to us via &indi. ' (uggernaut was a large temple vehicle)and when I meanlarge, I mean humongous)under which followers of *rishna would supposedly throwthemselves.oday, the word juggernaut doesn’t necessarily include any grisly sacrifices, but refers toany large force that cannot be stopped.

    a!oleon was considered a juggernaut, until he decided to invade "ussia in winter#within weeks his once seemingl$ indomitable arm$ was decimated b$ cold and famine.

    %chadenfreude (n.)%chadenfreude is one of those words that at first glance may seem gratuitous. 'fter all,do we really need a word that literally translates from the +erman as harm-(oynfortunately, a twisted uirk of human nature is that we can sometimes take (oy in thesuffering of others. /uckily, +erman has provided us a word to use if we ever see someonecackling sardonically at the suffering of others.&rom his warm a!artment window, %tanle$ reveled in schadenfreude as he laughed atthe figures below, huddled together in the arctic chill.

     'muck (adv.)

    o run amuck 0also spelled amok is to run about fren!ied. 2hile this word comes to usvia #alay, you don’t have to live on the #alaysian peninsula to witness people runningamuck.herever the bowl-cut teen-idol went, his legions of screaming fans ran through thestreets amuck, ho!ing for a glance of his bo$ish face. 314uggestions for this e5ook /eave us a comment here6 http677magoosh.com7gre7$1$7gre-vocabulary-ebook http677gre.magoosh.com7

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    ariah (n.) his word means an outcast. It comes from amil, a language spoken in4outh India and 9ortheast 4ri /anka. 2hile India is on the other side of the world 0at leastfrom where I’m sitting, it should come as no surprise that we have acuired words fromamil. 'fter all, the 5ritish 0remember, the people who :invented; onald rump a nabob tohis face. The nabobs can be seen, heads a bobbing, driving b$ in their Italian s!orts cars,

    listening to techno. *eitgeist (n.) ?kay, +erman is by no means a distant tongue, or

    for that matter, an exotic one. *eitgeist, however, doesn’t look anything like your typical

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    @rench 2ords%angfroid (n.)%angfroid literally means cold-blooded. It is defined as calmness and poise, especially intrying situations.The hostage negotiator exhibited a sangfroid that oftentimes was more menacing than

    the sword at his throat or the gun at his head.arvenu (n.)his is a person who has recently acuired wealth, and has therefore risen in class.arvenu has a derogatory connotation, meaning that if you win the lottery and someonecalls you a !arvenu they are not trying to be flattering.The theater was full of !arvenus who each thought that the$ were flanked b$aristocrats.

    2emur (v.)2emur means to ob(ect or express reluctance to do something. 2emur should not beconfused with demure, which as an ad(ective that means coy. hey both come fromaround the time of the 9orman Aonuest 0though the 'nglophiles may have demurred to

    use either.hen asked if she wanted to visit the war torn region without a translator b$ his side,the journalist demurred.

     'rriviste (n.)his word is similar to !arvenu 0though arriviste connotes more ruthless ambition. Itcame into the language much more recently, circa 1B.The cit$ center was aflutter with arrivistes who each tried to outdo one another withtheir ostentatious s!orts cars and chic evening dress.

    6elee (n.)I learned melee early in my life, because I had the peculiar misfortune of having asurname that rhymes with it. 2hile none of this schoolyard teasing resulted in any

    melees, melee is an important word and means a wild, confusing fight or struggle. ?h,and it comes from @rench 0rhyming similarities aside, my last name is not derived from@rench. 334uggestions for this e5ook /eave us a comment here6 http677magoosh.com7gre7$1$7gre-vocabulary-ebook http677gre.magoosh.com7

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    /et’s see if I can weave all the @rench-related words into one coherent sentence62es!ite the scornful stares from entrenched aristocrats, the !arvenu walked blithel$about the !alace grounds, maintaining his sangfroid and demurring to enter into themelees that the snobbish were so fond of baiting arrivistes into.?uiC

    7agnia!!e (n.)his word looks like it got (umbled up while I was typing. 5elieve it or not, lagnia!!e isnot the result of errant fingers on my part, but comes to us from /ouisiana. In Aa(uncountry, in the 1Bth Aentury, a lagnia!!e was any unexpected gift. 5y no means acommon +=< word)indeed, I doubt you’ll ever see it on the test)but if lagnia!!ehappens to show up on the test, then consider it an unexpected gift.The islanders thought that the seafarers had brought them a lagnia!!e when the latter

     !resented them with gold coins# little did the islanders know that their da$s of barteringwere numbered.

    ica$une (adj.)ica$une would make for a good $,-dollar (eopardy clue, one which would probablyread something like this682on1t trifle with usthis word comes from 9ajun countr$ via &rance and refers to a / thcentur$ coin of little value.:8hat is !ica$une;: would be the correct answer 0thanks, 'lexC.>erived from Aa(un via Drovencal @rance, picayune refers not only to a coin but also to anamount that is trifling or meager. It can also refer to a person who is petty. herefore, ifI’m being picayune, I’m fussing over some trivial point.nglish teachers are notorious for being !ica$une# however, the nglish language is sonuanced and so!histicated that often such teachers are not being contrar$ but are onl$adhering to the rules. 3E4uggestions for this e5ook /eave us a comment here6 http677magoosh.com7gre7$1$7gre-vocabulary-ebook http677gre.magoosh.com7

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    he end result was a city that was split up into the oddest arrangement of districts. 'ndcan you guess what a map of the city, gerrymandered, looked like ep, a salamander.oday the use of gerr$mander hasn’t changed too much, and refers to the manipulationof boundaries to favor a certain group.5ears ago, savv$ !oliticians had gerr$mandered the cit$ center to ensure their re-election.

    =ector (v.)If you remember reading &omer’s Iliad , you may remember &ector, a muscular, dauntingforce 0some of you may more vividly recall

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    $rrhic (adj.)*ing Dyrrhus had the unfortunate luck of going up against the =omans. 4ome would saythat he was actually lucky in that he actually defeated the =omans in the 5attle of'sculum. $rrhic was perhaps more ambivalent, uipping, :?ne more such victory willundo me.;

    4o an$ win that comes at so great a cost that it is not even worth it is a pyrrhic victory.uixotic has taken the broader meaning of someone who iswildly idealistic. It is one thing to want to help end world hungerG it is another to thinkyou can do so on your own. he latter would be deemed >uixotic.

    &or ever$ thousand startu!s with >uixotic !lans to be the next big thing in e-commerce,onl$ a handful ever become !rofitable. 3L4uggestions for this e5ook /eave us a comment here6 http677magoosh.com7gre7$1$7gre-vocabulary-ebook http677gre.magoosh.com7

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    6audlin (adj.)#ary #agdalene was the most important female disciple of %esus. 'fter %esus had beencrucified, she wept at his tomb.@rom this outward outpouring of emotion, we today have the word maudlin. 2hereas#ary’s weeping was noble, maudlin has taken on a negative connotation. ' person who is

    maudlin cries in public for no good reason, and is oftentimes times used to describe onewho’s tried to finish a (eroboam alone, and now must share with the stranger sitting nextto them all of his deepest feelings.

     Just as those who were alive during the C01s are mortified that the$ once cavorted aboutin bell-bottoms, man$ who lived during the D01s are now aghast at the maudlin !o! songsthe$ used to enjo$reall$, just what exactl$ is a total ecli!se of the heart;

    anglossian (adj.)Interestingly, there is another eponym for literature that has a very similar meaning6anglossian. >erived from >r. Dangloss from Moltaire’s Aandide, Danglossian carries anegative connotation, implying blind optimism.2es!ite the fact that his countr$ had been marred b$ a !rotracted civil war, 4ictorremained ever anglossian, claiming that his homeland was living through a

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    Buisling (n.)2e’ve all heard of the 9a!is. 4ome of you may have even heard of the Michy government,which was a puppet regime set up by the 9a!is in @rance during 22II. @ew of us,however, know that +ermany also tried to turn 9orway into a puppet regime. In order for+ermany to take over 9orway, it needed an inside man, a 9orwegian who would sell his

    country out for the 9a!is.his man was Miktor Kuisling. @or arrant perfidy, he has been awarded the eponymuisling, which means traitor.=istor$ looks unfavorabl$ u!on >uislings# indeed the$ are accorded about the same

     fondness as erohe who watched his cit$ burn down while !la$ing the violin.

    ?$+antine (adj.)?kay, I cheated a little on this one. 5y!ant was not a medieval philosopher 0nor anindustrious ant. he word b$+antine is not derived from a person’s name, but from5y!antium, an ancient city that was part of the 5y!antine