| Term | Definition |
|---|
| abortive | failing to accomplish an intended aim or purpose; only partially or imperfect;y developed (miscarried, fuitless, premature) [successful, realized, consummated] |
| bruit | to spread news, reports, or unsubstanitiated rumors (noise abroad, broadcast, blazon) [cover up, conceal, hush up] |
| contumelious | insolent or rude in speech or behavior; insultingly abusive; humiliating (vituperative, scurrilous, excorating) [laudatory, commendatory, deferential] |
| dictum | a short saying; an authoritative statement (maxim, precept, aphorism, axiom) |
| ensconce | to settle comfortably and firmly in position; to put or hide in a safe place (nestle, lodge, entrench) [unseat, displace, oust] |
| iconoclastic | attacking or seeking to overthrow popular or traditional beliefs, ideas, or institutions (image-breaking, irreverent, heretical) [orthodox, conservative, revernt] |
| In media Res | in or into the middle of a plot; into the middle of things |
| internecine | mutally destructive; characterized by great slaughter and bloodshed (muderous, savage, ruinous) [peaceful, harmonious, constructive] |
| maladroit | lacking skill or dexterity; lacking tact, perception, or judgment (inept, awkward, clumsy, gauche) [skillful, dexterous, deft, tactful] |
| maudlin | excessively or effusively sentimental (msuhy, mawkish) |
| modulate | to change or vary the intensity or pitch; to temper or soften; to regulate, adjust (adapt, moderate) |
| portentous | foreshadowing an event to come; causing wonder or awe, self-consciously weight, pompous (foreboding, ominous, pretentious) [auspicious, propitiousm encouraging] |
| prescience | knowledge or events or actions before they happen; foresight (foreknowledge) [hindsight] |
| quid pro quo | something given in exchange or return for something else (swap, trade) |
| salubrious | conducive to health or well-being; wholesome (beneficial, healthy, invigorating) [harmful, unhealthy, deleterious, noxious] |
| saturnalian | characterized by riotous or unrestrained reverly or licentiousness (dissipated, debauched, orgiastic) [sedate, prim, decorous, seemly] |
| touchstone | a means of testing worth or genuieness (criterion, yardstck, benchmark) |
| traumatic | so shocking to the meotions as to cause lasting and substantial psychological damage (jolting) [soothing, comforting, agreeable, pleasant] |
| vitiate | to weaken, debase, or coorupt; to impair the quality or value of (degrade, undermine) [purify, fortify, strengthen, enhance] |
| waggish | fond of making jokes, characteristic of a joker; playfully humorous or droll (whimsical, jocular) [serious, grave, grim, dour, humorless] |
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