Words and something else

Words definitions: vocabulary. com

Pictures: DC Comics

Tender

If you're tender, it means you're fragile, sensitive, easily bruised or gentle. Young, easily cut beef and a sentimental heart can both be called tender.

The many meanings attributed to tender developed over time. In the early 13th century, the word meant soft or easily injured. About a hundred years later, its meaning expanded to include kind and loving. Skip forward another century, and tender could also imply a lack of maturity.

Thwart

A villain's worst nightmare is the superhero who always seems to thwart his efforts, preventing him from carrying out his plans to take over the world.

Thwart is a word you'll hear in a lot of action movies, and usually it's the hero who is trying to thwart the evil plan of some super-villain. Yet even mere mortals can be thwarted in their efforts; the word simply means to prevent someone from carrying out his or her plans. An aggressive driver can thwart your attempt to snag a parking space at a crowded mall by pulling into the space before you. An aggressive shopper at that same mall can thwart your efforts to buy the last Dancing Snoopy doll by grabbing it off the shelf first.

Toady

You can call the kid who is always really nice to the teacher in hopes of getting a good grade a brown-noser or, if you want to sound clever, a toady.

The word toady has a gross, yet engaging history. Back when medicine was more trickery than science, traveling medicine men would come to a town. Their assistant would eat a toad (you read that right) that was assumed poisonous so that the medicine man could "heal" him. Who would want that job, right? So toad-eater, later shortened to toady, came to mean a person who would do anything to please his boss.

Aloof

That emotionally cold and detached fellow who keeps to himself, smoking clove cigarettes and reading French philosophy, would best be described as aloof.

In Middle English, aloof was originally a nautical term; the loof (now spelled luff) is the windward side of a ship. Smart sailors wanting to avoid a hazard on the leeward side would give the order, "A loof!" From this command we get the idea of steering clear of something (or someone). In modern usage the word has taken on a negative connotation: an aloof person is certainly not one most of us want to associate with.

Astute

Someone who is astute is clever and has good judgment. The kid running around with a bucket stuck on his head? Not so astute.

Astute (from Latin) is a formal and flattering adjective for someone with a good head on their shoulders. It differs from its synonym shrewd in placing less emphasis on hardheadedness than on sensitivity: we talk about a shrewd bargainer but an astute interpretation. Other synonyms are perceptive (emphasizing insight) and discerning (emphasizing an ability to distinguish).

decline

Her breath smelled so bad he had to decline her invitation for a kiss. Ever since then, their love affair has been on the decline.

Watch those parts of speech! The verb to decline means to refuse to accept, but the noun decline means a downward slope, the opposite of an "incline." At the gym, the treadmill usually has an "incline" button to control how steep a slope you're climbing. Sadly, there's no button for "decline," which would be so much easier. Nationally, wages are on the decline, but, surprisingly, spending seems to be holding steady. These are not the only words that contain the element cline, which means "to bend." The prefix is what tells you which way the bend is going. Decline implies a going, or turning, down.

dissimulate

Your wife gave you socks for Christmas and you smiled happily and kissed her? You, my friend, know how to dissimulate — that is, cover up your true feelings. Unless you happen to really, really like socks.

Sometimes confused with dissimilar, meaning "not alike", or "different," or a form of simulate, meaning "to pretend to do or feel something." Being able to dissimulate is a useful trick, not just if your wife gives you socks. After all, the whole political process depends on it. As Louis XI once said, "He who knows not how to dissimulate, can not reign." Wikipedia would probably agree with that.

render

Render is a synonym of make––technically it means "cause to become." An illness might render you unable to walk, or a shocking site might render you speechless.

Another basic meaning of the verb render is to give, present, or perform something: to render assistance. And a specialized sense is to formally declare a verdict in a court case. Render is from Middle English, from Old French rendre "to give back, deliver," an alteration of Latin reddere "to restore," from the prefix red-, re- "back" plus dare "to give."

mortify

To mortify someone is to cause them extreme embarrassment. Your mother may not have been trying to mortify you when she showed up at your senior prom with a bunch of unicorn balloons, but she did.

The root of the verb mortify is from the Latin word mors, which means “death.” To mortify something used to mean to destroy its life, but now mortify is mostly used when you feel so ashamed or embarrassed you “want to die.” To punish yourself through deprivation from food or another desire, you can mortify that compulsion, but it’s probably best to just mortify your parents by showing up at their work place with a new mohawk.

overlook

To overlook something is to fail to see it. When planning a party, it's best to write out a to-do list so that you don't overlook any details.

The verb overlook literally means to look over the top of. The word has come to refer to the act of neglecting something, usually because your focus is aimed elsewhere. You might overlook the cost of car insurance if you’re busy calculating the cost of buying the car and paying for gas and parking. As a noun, an overlook is a space high above ground. You might overlook your curfew if you're busy enjoying an overlook with your date.

appraise / apprise

To appraise is to estimate the value of something, but remove the second "a," and you have apprise, which means "to tell." If you hire someone to appraise your house, you might have to apprise your family of the fact that you now owe the bank more than your house is worth.

Appraise sounds like "a praise," which is what you hope for when someone appraises you or your three-story colonial.? The crystal ball is cloudy, but appraise probably comes from Middle French (apreis-) and Late Latin (appretiare), meaning to estimate the value or quality of something, such as a house, an employee's performance, or your grandmother's owl pin. Here are some appraises from the world:

The cancelations reflected mortgage applications that were refused or because appraised home values were coming in below the sales price, the group said. (Business Week)

Treasure Hunters Roadshow is visiting El Paso this week appraising all kinds of collectibles. (Treasure Hunters Roadshow)

You can see an etching of the event: King Kalakaua in white tie and tails, appraising a long banquet table. (Washington Post)

Apprise comes from the French apprendre, to learn or inform via the Latin apprendere, to learn. These days apprise means to inform or tell. These examples will apprise you of how to use it:

When asked whether transit officials were apprised of complaints made via 311, the city's help line, Mr. Prendergast struggled to answer. (New York Times)

He took responsibility for not keeping Mr. Bloomberg sufficiently apprised of the cleanup effort. (New York Times)

To keep it straight, if your boss appraises you, you hope for praise! If you apprise someone of a situation, you might also have to advise her on what to do. Apprise — sounds like "a prize" — has another meaning, too, which is to gain in value.

Remark

"If you see something, say something" might translate into, "If you remark something, make a remark." Remark means to notice, and it also means to comment, as in, "Keep your obnoxious remarks to yourself."

While walking in the woods, you might remark the contrast between the quiet of the woods and the noises of the city. You might make a remark about how loud it is in the city. "It's loud here too," your walking companion might remark. "Listen to all the birds and squirrels."

Dictate

When you dictate something, you are giving orders — acting a bit like a dictator.

Dictate can also be used in a broader sense. Weather often dictates how many layers of clothes you wear, and the school rules dictate how you behave in and out of class. In a very different meaning, dictate means to say something out loud to a person or into a machine so it can be recorded. Up until fairly recently, bosses dictated letters and reports to secretaries who wrote them down.

oppressive

Think of something crushing you, and you will understand what oppressive is. It can be something that crushes your spirit, like a bad relationship, or something that crushes you with its tyranny, like the oppressive rule of a dictator.

Oppressive comes in many flavors; laws can be oppressive, governments can be oppressive, even relationships can be oppressive. The adjective oppressive is heavy stuff; it can feel like you can't breathe, like something is choking you: "His oppressive behavior made me feel like I was being smothered." If something is just too intense, and not in a good way, that also can feel oppressive.