“The cops wanted a new collective-bargaining agreement, and they were angry at Mayor David Dinkins for proposing a civilian review board and for refusing to issue patrolmen 9mm guns.” (page 31)
gesticulating (making gestures with hands and arms while speaking) diatribe (a bitter verbal attack) “It is not clear Giuliani knew exactly what he was getting himself into—he later denied that he did—but video shows him wildly gesticulating and shouting a profanity-laced diatribe against Dinkins.” (page 31)
penchant (a strong liking) “He has an authoritarian streak, as well as a penchant for secrecy and dependence on loyalists, that may remind voters of the current chief executive.” (page 31)
title: “Words And Terms” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-28” author: “Rosa Adams”
divergent (moving in different directions) “This difference might help explain the two leaders’ divergent fates.” (page 27)
docile (easily handled or managed) “Even the ones that stayed did not prove as docile as he might have expected.” (page 28)
pernicious (highly corrupting or destructive) “He turned the country’s strategic orientation away from the Taliban, revived the economy with real reforms, empowered women and spoke out against the pernicious influence of Islamic extremism.” (page 28)
feudal (based on a political system of customs and alliances) “While these parties are feudal and often corrupt, they do represent the interests of many Pakistanis and have grassroots organizations that can mobilize people with considerable skill.” (page 28)
title: “Words And Terms” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-27” author: “John Cox”
enunciating (pronouncing) “I longed to speak like they did, enunciating the words correctly as they rolled off their tongues.” (page 26)
telenovelas (soap operas televised in or from many Latin American countries) “I started watching Spanish telenovelas and listening to Spanish morning shows on the radio just to improve my vocabulary.” (page 26)
eloquent (marked by fluent expression) “A co-worker from Peru had the most eloquent way of speaking in a language that I recognized as Spanish yet could not fully comprehend.” (page 26)
title: “Words And Terms” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-17” author: “William Bergstrom”
“Edwards, perhaps not wanting to appear impolitic, didn’t touch the subject. But Elizabeth was in a more expansive mood, and spoke for her husband.” (page 30)
relentless (ceaseless, never slackening) “A relentless trial lawyer who got rich by outworking and outpreparing the competition, he spent the last three years applying those skills to plot his comeback.” (page 30)
rivaling (equal or better competition) siphoning (to convey or draw money or resources from something) “Barack Obama spoiled that by rivaling Edwards in charisma and optimism, siphoning away money and attention.” (page 30)
title: “Words And Terms” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-20” author: “Russell Bunch”
tussle (fight or struggle in a confused way at close quarters) “They do tussle over details: he would consider increasing the income cap on Social Security taxes; she won’t say what she’d do.” (page 40)
elusive (be difficult to detect or grasp by the mind) “In any election argument among Democrats, the elusive question of “electability” is sure to come up."(page 40)
rousing (capable of arousing enthusiasm or excitement) “At last month’s Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner in Des Moines, the Democratic contenders delivered rousing speeches to an arena packed with party loyalists.” (page 40)
title: “Words And Terms” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-28” author: “Michael Peters”
caste (social position or class in which membership is determined at birth) “They belong to a warrior caste that has been fighting America’s conflicts for more than two centuries.” (page 24)
bridles (restrains) impugns (verbally attacks) “McCain, who clearly cannot stand Romney (and vice versa), bridles at anyone or anything that impugns his honor, most sacred of military virtues .” (page 27)
impetuous (characterized by lack of thought or deliberation; hotheaded) vindictive (showing a desire to seek revenge) martinet (someone who demands exact conformity to rules) “In rare weak moments, he can seem prickly, impetuous, vindictive—the sort of military martinet whose finger is supposed to be kept far from the button.” (page 27)
title: “Words And Terms” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-25” author: “James Beckham”
diatribe (a forceful verbal attack) And a lot of currency it is: over the past decade, Coulter’s earned a huge amount of money from an unbroken streak of six best sellers, each an angry diatribe against liberals, most featuring her slim blond figure on the cover.
contrary (resistant to guidance or discipline) discourse (extended verbal expression in speech or writing) But Coulter has a subspecialty all her own: uttering remarks so off the charts, so contrary to every norm of civil discourse, that they attract national news coverage. A few months ago she declared on TV that Jews need “to be perfected,” and suggested that America would be better off if it were all Christian.
presumptive (having a reasonable basis for belief or acceptance) Last week Coulter attacked her own party’s presumptive nominee.
immoderation (quality of being excessive) The biggest headline-grabber was Coulter, who, true to form, seemed to set a new low for immoderation.
title: “Words And Terms” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-19” author: “Kristi Cobb”
“While the United States and major European countries now recognize Kosovo, Russia and others are balking, worried about their own restive regions.” (page 10)
de facto (Latin phrase meaning “in fact”) partition (separation by creation of a boundary that divides)
" ‘It is a de facto partition already.’” (page 10)
title: “Words And Terms” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-22” author: “Joshua Gregory”
garnered (acquired) “Yet when the popular Silicon Valley blog TechCrunch posted recently that Facebook was about to end the limit, the item garnered a lot of attention, and even some excitement.” (page 15)
evoked (raised) “But the episode evoked a lot of questions about the nature of “friendship” when it comes to sites like Facebook and MySpace.” (page 15)
explicit (fully expressed) “While Facebook doesn’t want to dictate rules of friending behavior to its users, the company is explicit in stating that the purpose of maintaining a list is not to see whose friend belt has the most notches.” (page 15)
meager (scant, thin) “But some of those who have reached that number insist that it’s too meager.” (page 15)
implications (possible significance) “But such online linking does have deep social implications, and as one’s friend list grows, so do some problems.” (page 15)
inevitably (impossible to avoid) “Inevitably, human noise finds its way into a collection of friends, because people tend to cave in and agree to friendship when asked by someone they barely know, or in some cases don’t know at all.” (page 15)
distinctions (divisions) “And making those distinctions is easier said than done.” (page 15)
title: “Words And Terms” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-03” author: “Sara Carter”
rent (torn apart) “It worked against Hillary Clinton, whose own campaign has been rent by squabbling aides and turf battles.” (page 22)
Norma Rae (character from a 1979 film of the same name who becomes involved in labor union activities at the textile factory where she works) “While Clinton veered between playing Queen Elizabeth I and Norma Rae, Obama and his team chugged along with a superior 50-state campaign strategy, racking up the delegates.” (page 22)
haughty (showing arrogant superiority to others) “It is a sure bet that the GOP will try to paint Obama as ’the other’—as a haughty black intellectual who has Muslim roots (Obama is a Christian) and hangs around with America-haters.” (page 22)
concede (surrender to) “Refusing to concede defeat last week, she cited an Associated Press poll ’that found how Senator Obama’s support among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening again.’” (page 22)
scruples (ethical or moral principles) “The Republicans ‘won’t suffer from such scruples,’ this adviser says.” (page 22)
recriminations (countercharges) “For Obama, the challenge will be to respond quickly and surely—but without overreacting or inviting an endless cycle of recriminations.” (page 22)
title: “Words And Terms” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-15” author: “Frank Lanier”
viable (capable of working successfully) Like many Democrats, he has been waiting a lifetime for a viable female presidential candidate or a viable black one.
glib (articulate but insincere) To say it is late in the game for a major politician to have found one’s voice is too glib.
caricatures (a representation of a person that is exaggerated for comic effect) Clinton’s primary victory is a new chance for voters to get to know her beyond the caricatures, positive and negative, that have for so long defined her.
condescending (behave in a patronizing manner) Sitting a few feet away, fresh from his big win in Iowa, Obama made a crack that, if intended as a joke, failed badly: “You’re likable enough, Hillary”—a moment many women found condescending and off-putting.
title: “Words And Terms” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-24” author: “Dwayne Kraemer”
arugula (a Mediterranean herb, part of the mustard family) “On the campaign trail, at dinner with reporters, they sometimes order the arugula salad, poking fun at some comments Obama made last summer in Iowa (‘Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they are charging for arugula?’)” (page 30)
toff (an elegantly dressed man, often with affected manners) “Following Hillary Clinton’s lead, the McCain team sees an opportunity to paint Obama as an out-of-touch elitist, a Harvard toff who nibbles daintily at designer salads while the working man, worried about layoffs at the plant, belts another shot.” (page 30)
meritocratic (selection based on achievement or intellectual criteria) ziggurat (a tower with a series of tiers or terraces that decrease in size as they go up) “He was, despite a modest upbringing, elected editor of the Harvard Law Review, a position at the very tip of the meritocratic ziggurat.” (page 31)
title: “Words And Terms” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-02” author: “Beth San”
vagaries (erratic or unexpected changes) wreak havoc (cause destruction) “Vagaries of the marketplace can wreck havoc on our minds as well.” (page 17)
eminent domain (the right of a government to acquire private property for public use) “There are also the pressures of development, the out-of-control costs of land and the increasing use of eminent domain, which takes farmers’ land out from under them.” (page 17)
incredulousness (state of skepticism or disbelief) “In some circles, announcing that your husband—or, worse yet, you—are a farmer is often met with looks of incredulousness.” (page 17)
lucrative (profitable or well-paid) “I’ve had a number of people ask why I choose to farm rather than do something more lucrative and be able to have a few vacations a year.” (page 17)
title: “Words And Terms” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-09” author: “Tracy Lang”
latchkey kids (a school-age child who is home without adult supervision for part of the day (especially after school until a parent returns home from work) “We were the “Divorce Generation,” latchkey kids raised with after-school specials about broken families…” (page 48)
unilateral (involving only one part or side) “…Gov. Ronald Reagan signed California’s “no fault” divorce law, allowing couples to unilaterally end a marriage by simply declaring “irreconcilable differences.” (page 48)
profound (showing intellectual penetration or emotional depths; from the depths of your being) “But while it may be a common occurrence, divorce remains a profound experience for those who’ve lived through it.” (page 48)
decry (express strong disapproval of) “Sociologists decry a growing “marriage gap” in which the well educated and better paid are staying married, while the poor are still getting divorced.” (page 49)
title: “Words And Terms” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-10” author: “Lucy Suarez”
disparities (inequalities) “Having spent the last two months … bonking each other over the heads with our gender differences, race differences, income and education disparities, Clinton and Obama supporters may not have learned all that much about their candidates.” (page 34)
internecine (characterized by conflict) “In Ohio particularly, Clinton took two out of every three white women, and that split may have had less to do with internecine debates between soccer moms and tae kwon do moms than with working-class moms fretting about health insurance for the twins.” (page 34)
scrutiny (examination) “But just as relationships tend to transition from the early fizz when all you can see is yourself reflected in your partner’s eyes, so too is this contest changing into a more sober scrutiny of the guy across the table.” (page 34)
title: “Words And Terms” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-05” author: “Julie Perdue”
Ayn Rand (writer and political conservative) “Along with his brilliant co-conspirators at National Review, he conducted a series of cheerful purges: banishing John Birchers who cried conspiracy, followers of Ayn Rand who believed that altruism is a crime and anti-Semites who had warped and discredited the right for decades.” (page 35)
libertarianism (a political philosophy grounded in the belief that people should be free to do as they wish) “He balanced a wide streak of libertarianism with a vigorous Catholic traditionalism—endorsing both marijuana legalization and the Latin mass.” (page 35)
epee (from the French, a fencing or dueling sword) “We also learned that language, in the proper hands, could be employed with the precision and effect of an epee.” (page 35)
rube (unsophisticated person not interested in culture) “And this was another achievement: he made it possible to be a conservative without being a rube.” (page 35)
title: “Words And Terms” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-14” author: “Dominic Davis”
decry (express strong disapproval of) far-left (radical or extremely liberal) “It’s no wonder many conservative Christians decry the practice as tampering with the miracle of life, while far-left feminists liken gestational carriers to prostitutes who degrade themselves by renting out their bodies.”
viable (capable of being done with means at hand and circumstances as they are) “But even as surrogacy is becoming less of a “Jerry Springer” spectacle and more of a viable family option for those who can afford it, the culture still stereotypes surrogates as either hicks or opportunists who ethics could use some fine tuning.”
detractors (someone who criticizes something or someone, often unfairly) gestational (the process, state, or period of gestating) “I mean, have [these detractors] ever met a gestational carrier?”
mecca (a place which attracts many people of a particular group or with a particular interest) “Although some couples are now turning to India for cheaper fertility solutions- yes, even surrogacy is being outsourced at a tenth of the price- the trend has yet to diminish America’s draw as a baby mecca.”
