Posted by kazvorpal on August 11, 2010
Obsequious
Fawning, submissively eager to please and agree
Examples:
Those men are most apt to be obsequious and conciliating abroad, who are under the discipline of shrews at home.
— Washington Irving, Rip van Winkle
She what was honour knew,
And with obsequious majesty approv’d
My pleaded reason. To the nuptial bower
I led her blushing like the morn; all heaven
And happy constellations on that hour
— John Milton, Paradise Lost
Prison taught him the false smile, the rubbed hand of hypocrisy, the fawning, greased obsequious leer.
— Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange
But it is hard to know them from friends, they are so obsequious, and full of protestations; for as a wolf resembles a dog, so doth a flatterer a friend.
— Sir Walter Raleigh, writing about flatterers, in The Voyage of the Destiny.
Etymology:
Latin: Ob = after and sequi = follow. Think “follower”, with sequi as “sequence”
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Posted in history, rhetoric | Tagged: a clockwork orange, anthony burgess, big words, fawning, flatterers, high vocabulary, lackey, lexicon, milton, obsequious, paradise lost, rip van winkle, sesquipedalia verba, sesquipedalian, sir walter raleigh, submissive, vocabulary, voyage of the destiny, washington irving, word of the day, wotd | 1 Comment »
Posted by kazvorpal on July 12, 2010
Hypophora
n. What is hypophora? It is the rhetorical technique of asking a question, then immediately answering it.
This is not to be confused with a “rhetorical question”, which is asked for the sake of convincing the audience, but might not be answered at all. Note that, in fact, people mis-use “rhetorical question” to mean any time a did not need an answer, even when it was not for rhetorical purposes. “Ouch! Why did I do that?” is not a rhetorical question.
Aside from our clever demonstration of the word above, it’s difficult to find famous quotations actually including the word hypophora, but we found some examples of quotations demonstrating the technique:
ARTHUR: Well, I am king!
DENNIS: Oh king, eh, very nice. And how d’you get that, eh? By exploiting the workers!
What makes a king out of a slave? Courage!
What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage!
— Cowardly Lion, The Wizard of Oz, 1939
Is He the God of the Jews only?
Is He not also of the Gentiles?
Yes, of the Gentiles also
— Romans 3.29
Etymology: Hypo is Greek for “without”, phoros; Greek for “to bear or have”, related to anthypophora; to give an opposing argument, and immediately refute it
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Posted in rhetoric | Tagged: anarcho-syndicalism, bible quotes, cowardly lion, dennis, english, gentiles, holy grail, hypophora, jews, Knowledge, language, lexicon, lingo, monty python, monty python and the holy grail, new testament, oz, paul, paul of tarsis, peasants, pythons, rhetoric, rhetorical question, romans, sesquipedalia, sesquipedalia verba, sesquipedalian, sesquipedalianism, vocabulary, vocabulary words, wizard of oz, word of the day, words | Leave a Comment »
Posted by kazvorpal on October 6, 2009
That's why I've cremated this new program called "Booked on Phonics". I'll teach you how to testiculate my way. To computate how it works, I will intersects with a perverted deviant by using one of my own penal implants.
Sesquipedalian
n. A person who uses long words, or a long word, itself.
usage
A pseudointellectual often tries to be sesquipedalian, but is not sufficiently pedantic to know how the words should actually be used. (As with the famous Damon Wayans sketch, at right)
etymology
Roman poet Horace coined the term while mocking words “a foot and a half long”; sesqui – “half again”, pedi – “foot”. The full phrase was actually sesquipedalia verba.
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Posted in rhetoric | Tagged: high vocabulary, horace, lexicon, polysyllabic, pseudointellectual, sesquipedalia verba, sesquipedalian, vocabulary, words | Leave a Comment »
High-Vocabulary Word of the Day 