Ceil Cleveland - 1500 Words in 15 Minutes a Day

Copyright 2005 by Ceil Cleveland. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a data base or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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For Jerry, whose words kept me going

Words are too awful an instrument
for good and evil to be trifled with;
they hold above all other external powers
a dominion over thoughts.
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

Reaching for a word? Find it here. Get smart with 28 new words a week.

Do you often suffer from lethologica(1)? Do you have that desired word right on the tip of your tongue, and yet it escapes you? Do not fulminate(2), develop alopecia(3), or defenestrate(4) your desk and chair! This book can deliver anabiosis(5) without emergency room treatment. An hour and three-quarters a week of brain exercises will get you in shape.

Through the introduction of new wordsusing heuristic(6) methods, paranomasia(7), and mnemonic(8) devices, well make you a lexical(9) genius in no time. You will be able to talk to anyone about any subject without embarrassment.

Equivocate(10) no more! Use precise language to sound smarter, work smarter, get smarter.

This book offers 28 new words (at least) in each of 52 chapters. Here you will see words defined and used in context, and will learn a bit about their backgrounds.

Early chapters () are arranged thematically in areas of the liberal arts and related subjects, which will give you the verbal tools and concepts in a historical context to read, view, listen to, write about, and discuss works in these areas with confidence.

In the early chapters of in chapters like Cool Words, Hot Words, or Not Words, for example) you will learn when and when not to use certain words. In the same part, in Trick Words and Slick Words, you will find how to use words that often confuse and trip up readers, writers, and speakers.

And in the later chapters of ), you will find some words whose definitions will surprise you and make you smile. English words are often wacky and fun: Wedbedrip, anyone? Quakebuttock?

These useful words will stretch you and increase your vocabulary. You will refine your knowledge of language and become confident in your use of words in a clear, precise, sophisticated manner. Learn and enjoy. Take it from an expert: English is a precise languageand sometimes goofy!

At the end of most chapters, you will find further information about words, clichs, and idioms, and some derivations and startling details about our language.

Do the exercises included here and enjoy the paronomasia. Here are the meanings of the ten words we offered you as a starter at the beginning of this introduction.

1. The inability to recall the right word

2. Explode with sudden violence

3. Lose hair and become bald

4. Toss out through a window

5. Bring to life again after a state of suspended animation

6. Learning through discovery

7. Word play, puns, and games

8. Aids to memory

9. One who knows vocabulary and language

10. To hedge or be deliberately ambiguous

Ceil Cleveland, New York, 2004

1. The most popular work of Albrecht Drer was a(n)__________________of a pair of hands, palms held together in prayer.

2. Art lovers visit the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam to see Rembrandt Van Rijns The Night Watch, in which the artist uses___________________to light the figures that appear to emerge out of shadows with a dramatic effect.