Word Workout: Building a Muscular Vocabulary in 10 Easy Steps by Charles Harrington Elster

Author:Charles Harrington Elster [Elster, Charles Harrington]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Vocabulary, GRE
ISBN: 9781250020895
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2014-12-01T16:00:00+00:00

LEVEL 6

Word 1: INELUCTABLE (IN-i-LUHK-tuh-bul)

Not to be evaded or resisted; unavoidable; inescapable; inevitable.

Ineluctable comes from the Latin inēluctābilis, from which one cannot struggle free, combining the privative prefix in-, not, with the verb ēluctāre, to struggle out of, surmount. By derivation ineluctable means not to be struggled free from, unable to be surmounted, or, as Henry Cockeram defined it in his English Dictionarie of 1623, one of the earliest works of English lexicography, “not to bee ouercome by any paines.” This is still the essential meaning of the word today.

History is replete (well-stocked, richly supplied) with stories of ineluctable social, political, and economic forces altering and sometimes destroying the lives of individuals. Someone’s fate or destiny is often described as ineluctable, unavoidable or inevitable. And in classical Greek drama, the downfall of the main character is the ineluctable consequence of tragic flaws—including hubris (word 40 of Level 1), excessive pride.

Word 2: MORIBUND (MOR-uh-bund)

Dying, close to death, at death’s door.

An unusual synonym of moribund is the Latin phrase in extremis (in-ek-STREE-mis), at the point of death.

Moribund comes from the Latin moribundus, dying, at the point of death, which comes in turn from the verb morī, to die, the source also, by a circuitous (sur-KYOO-i-tus, indirect, roundabout) path, of the word murder. This Latin morī, to die, appears also in the expression memento morī (muh-MEN-toh MOR-eye or MOR-ee), which was borrowed directly from Latin and means “remember that you must die”; the phrase is often used of an object, such as a skull, that serves as a reminder of one’s mortality.

Moribund may be used in a literal sense to mean dying, as a moribund houseplant or a moribund relative. But in modern usage moribund is also often used in an extended, nonliteral sense to mean in a state of terminal decline, approaching extinction. A dying empire, an obsolescent custom, a failing love affair, and a company going out of business—all are moribund, close to death or on the verge of expiring.

Word 3: BELLWETHER (BEL-weth-ur)

A leader, one who takes the initiative; also, a leading indicator of a trend.

A wether (pronounced like weather) is a castrated male sheep, and in its original sense a bellwether was a wether with a bell hung on its neck whose function was to lead the flock of sheep. Hence, bellwether came to also mean a leader. At first this sense was disparaging, as the bellwether of a mutiny, meaning not just a leader but a ringleader, one who leads others in improper or illegal activity. But in modern usage bellwether no longer has this negative connotation, and the word is used chiefly in two ways. It may denote “a person or thing that assumes the leadership or forefront” (Random House), as Blackstone is a bellwether investor in the industry. Or it may denote a leading indicator of a trend, as Ohio is considered the bellwether state in U.S. presidential elections.

Word 4: PERMUTATION (PUR-myoo-TAY-shin)

A thorough or fundamental change, or the result of such a change.

Synonyms of permutation include alteration, transformation, transmutation, transfiguration, and metamorphosis.

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