1. 1/13 Vocab 3.1: Notes on Usage

2. Satiate (v.) Usually used with a direct object: Popeye’s chicken will satiate my appetite for comfort food.

3. Contretemps (n.) Looks plural but has a singular meaning: A polite person will not laugh at another person’s contretemps, no matter how embarrassing it may be.

4. Apocrypha (n.) Looks singular but has a plural meaning. Works better as an adjective: Much of the lore about how the “Mona Lisa” got that mysterious smile is apocryphal; Leonardo da Vinci never revealed what happened between him and his model.

5. Indict/Indictment (v./n.) As a verb, used with the preposition “for.” The man was indicted for G.T.A.

6. Importune (v.) Not to be confused with “inopportune,” which means “inconvenient for the time.” The man indicted for G.T.A. importuned the court for bail at an inopportune moment; a giraffe had entered the court and distracted the judge.

7. Ethos (n.) Often (but not always) used after an adjective: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight captures the chivalric ethos by which medieval knights lived.