Vocabulary Study: Writer's Words List

saucy

She is saucy and heedless at first, headstrong when she shouldn't be, but smart, and able to learn.
“Elizabeth” (1998-11-20) By Roger Ebert. Source Movie review on Elizabeth (film).

sleuth

Suspicion fell quickly on a possible culprit in the Philippines, in part because the virus' eight pages of computer code contained a tantalizing word: Barok. A search of virus registries quickly revealed that it was the name of a so-called Trojan horse, a stealthy software program that filches passwords, written by a Filipino hacker last year. Still, the transparency of this clue suggested that the word might have been inserted as a deliberate smoke screen to fool the computer sleuths.
“Attack Of The Love Bug” (2000-05-05) By Lev Grossman. Time Mag. Source On ILOVEYOU (computer virus).

malefic

In A.D. 3034, the universe is ruled by Drej, translucent, electric-blue beings of pure energy and malefic power.
“Star-toon Time” (2000-06-19) By Richard Corliss. Time Mag. Source On sci-fi animation Titan A.E. (2000)

vicariously

If there's such a thing as being fired vicariously, it happened to me last Wednesday.
“Writing By Numbers” (2000-06-19) James Poniewozik. Time Mag. Source

fume

it is apparent that you not only have a poor diction, but also wanting of erudition. The sea of your will and ignorance, seethes and fumes like a boiling pot of piss.
Xah Lee in comp.lang.lisp, 2000-04-26

forte

What? Eloquent philosophical diatribe is your forte? I hardly see you open your mouth against the wind, but more likely the wind blew it open at times.
Xah Lee
forte = The strong point; that in which one excels.

prolix

... And, when you are accosted by a jaunty man of prolix gripes and dire agendas, not only lisp ain't his Scheme, but the only one.
Xah Lee on comp.lang.lisp, 2000-06-25

scoot

scoot is what scooters do — scooting around; scouting is what boy scout do — scouting around.

logorrhea

I thought I said that: I concluded that Dylan was a waste of time. What kept me interested in it for a while was the Lisp-like syntax. I didn't find the semantics and the “feature set” sufficiently attractive on their own, and knowing how fixed-grammer languages evolve (rampant keyworditis and logorrhea), didn't appear to be something worth investing in at the time.
Erik Naggum on comp.lang.lisp; 2000-07-01
See also: logorrhea

notarize

as in notarized document, used in legal docs.
See also: Notary public.

treacly

At one point, Patsy leans over in tears onto John's shoulder, and he mumbles something treacly—and acted?—about JonBenet being “with us” in spirit. But Walters says the Ramseys believed the cameras had stopped.
“"Find the Killer"” (2000-03-12) By John Cloud/New York. Time Mag. Source About the famous death of JonBenét Ramsey.
treacle = overly sweet. Treacle is a type of sugar syrup, aka molasses.

travesty

dada n. 1. A European artistic and literary movement (1916-1923) that flouted conventional aesthetic and cultural values by producing works marked by nonsense, travesty, and incongruity.
See dada.

vagary

“... posting prodigious off-topic vagaries on this newsgroup.”
Xah Lee

usher

in theater, the seaters are ushers. These ushers ushers you to your seat.

refractory

“Some half dozen persons have written technically on combinatory logic, and most of these, including ourselves, have published something erroneous. Since some of our fellow sinners are among the most careful and competent logicians on the contemporary scene, we regard this as evidence that the subject is refractory. Thus fullness of exposition is necessary for accuracy; and excessive condensation would be false economy here, even more than it is ordinarily.”
Haskell B Curry and Robert Feys in the Preface to Combinatory Logic, 1956-05-31

putrescence

For Edgar Allan Poe, dying did not necessarily leave a person speechless. Take “The Case of M. Valdemar.” The title character, his body decomposing into “a nearly liquid mass of loathsome — of detestable putrescence,” still manages enough tongue to beg the narrator, a mesmerist, to stop messing with him. “‘For God's sake! — quick! — quick! — put me to sleep — or, quick! — waken me! — quick! — I say to you that I am dead!’”
“The tell-tale cipher: Could a mysterious cryptograph be a final message from Edgar Allan Poe?” (2000-03-08) By Jeffery Kurz. Source
mesmerist = a person who induces hypnosis. Hypnotizer.
putrescence = the state of offensive decay.

obsequious

“... the fawning, greased, obsequious leer ...”
dialogue from film A Clockwork Orange (film).
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1995
© 1995-2005 by Xah Lee.