Lesson 4 Aesthetic to Volatile

AESTHETIC Noun or adjective relating or pertaining to art or beauty The aesthetics of the room wer e appealing to me. (n) My aesthetic tastes don’t appeal to my husband. (adj)

ALOOF adj- apart; indifferent Cats can be quite aloof when they want to be.

ARCHAIC adj - antiquated, old; out of date and out of use Every year it seems a computer becomes archaic, as a new one is created to take its place.

ASSUAGE v- to ease, to mitigate, to make less painful or burdensome, to calm Everyone needs someone to assuage their ‘boo-boos.’

BELIE Verb - To contradict or give a false impression of Hitler’s baby pictured belied the fact that he would grow to be a heartless cold-blooded psychopath.

CONTENTIOUS adj- quarrelsome, stirring controversy Politicians can be quite contentious during election campaigns.

DAUNT to intimidate, to dismay

DISCORD Lack of agreement, tension, and strife

DISSEMINATION The act of spreading widely

DOGMATIC adj- strongly opinionated in an unwarranted manner The dogmatic teacher turned off his students because of his negative opinions.

DUPLICITY (noun)double-dealing, hypocrisy (adj) duplicitous The Enron bosses who took money from their employees’ pension plans to buy luxuries were guilty of duplicity.

EGOCENTRIC adj--self-centered, selfish Some might argue that the economic downturn is in part a result of our egocentric lifestyles---buying luxury items that we can’t afford on credit just to satisfy our every desire.

EUPHEMISM Noun-substitution of an inoffensive term for an offensive one Garbage collector sanitation engineer Stewardessflight attendant

GLUTTONOUS adj- greedy for food and drink N- gluttony or glutton In Monty Python’s movie The Meaning of Life, a gluttonous food critic makes a disgusting mess of himself.

MUNDANE adj- ordinary, boring, commonplace, banal The characters from the hit show The Office make the mundane routines of an office seem hysterically funny.

OMINOUS Threatening, foreboding, mysterious One glance at the ominous sky convinced us to take cover.

PETULANCE unreasonable touchiness or irritability My mom can be particularly petulant in traffic.

POMPOUS Exaggerated show of dignity or self- importance; pretentious; arrogant He is so pompous, I can’t stand to be around him.

SLOTHFUL adj-Lazy, indolent This is the slothful way to exercise with your Wii.

TRIVIA Insignificant matters; seemingly meaningless matter

VERBOSE wordy, talkative; loquacious

VIRULENT extremely poisonous; hateful

VOLATILE adj--quickly changeable, easily vaporized