English Vocabulary By Neerja Raheja | Free PDF Download – Set 8

plenipotentiary

Adjective                                                                                                                                                Meaning:Invested with full power; having full power to take independent action; (Noun- a person, especially a diplomat, invested with full power of independent action on behalf of their government, typically in a foreign country); diplomat, representative

Usage:She had plenipotentiary powers to take whatever measures she felt were apt and necessary

Origin:Plenipotentiary gets its power from its Latin roots: plenus meaning full and potens meaning powerful. When government leaders dispatch their ambassador plenipotentiary, minister plenipotentiary, or envoy plenipotentiary, they are not just sending an agent to deal with foreign affairs but one having full power to act on the behalf of his or her country and government. The word extraordinary is also found in titles of government representatives-sometimes in combination with plenipotentiary (as in “Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary”)-to denote an agent assigned to a particular (or extraordinary) diplomatic mission. Both the adjective and the noun plenipotentiary (meaning “a person invested with full power to transact business”) appeared in the mid-17th century.

sophistry

Noun

Meaning:The use of clever but false arguments, especially with the intention of deceiving; subtly deceptive reasoning or argumentation; reasoning that seems plausible but in reality is untrue, a fallacy; a specious (false/ fallacious/ unsound/ deceptive) reasoning

Usage:Her argumentation is pure sophistry You tried to deceive him with smug sophistry Sophistry is an art mastered by almost all politicians

Origin:The original Sophists were ancient Greek teachers of rhetoric and philosophy prominent in the 5th century B.C. In their heyday, these philosophers were considered adroit in their reasoning, but later philosophers (particularly Plato) described them as sham philosophers, out for money and willing to say anything to win an argument. Thus sophist (which comes from Greek sophistēs,meaning “wise man” or “expert”) earned a negative connotation as “a captious or fallacious reasoner.” Sophistry is reasoning that seems plausible on a superficial level but is actually unsound, or reasoning that is used to deceive.

nimiety

Noun

Meaning:The state of being more than is necessary or desirable; excess; overabundance

Usage:We now seem to be living in a country that is wrestling between scarcity and nimiety

Schiller was criticized by Coleridge for his nimiety of blank verse

Life is not cruel due to the nimiety of problems but not having God almighty to turn to

Origin:Mid 16th century; from Latin nimietas, from nimis ‘too much’; word denoting excess

transmogrify

Verb

Meaning:To change or alter greatly and often with grotesque or humorous effect; transform in a magical or surprising manner

Usage:Imperial Russia transmogrified into the Soviet Union Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother could transmogrify a pumpkin into a fancy carriage The Spanish cucaracha made no sense to the speakers of English language, so they transmogrified it into cockroach                           

Origin:The prefix trans- means “across” or “beyond” and appears in many words that evoke change, such as “transform” and “transpire,” but we don’t know the exact origins of “transmogrify.” The 17th-century dramatist, novelist, and poet Aphra Behn, who is regarded as England’s first female professional writer, was among the first English authors to use the word. In her 1671 comic play The Amorous Prince, Behn wrote, “I wou’d Love would transmogriphy me to a maid now.” A century later, Scottish poet Robert Burns plied the word again in verse, aptly capturing the grotesque and sometimes humorous effect of transmogrification: “Social life and Glee sit down, . . . Till, quite transmugrify’d, they’re grown Debauchery and Drinking.” 

Similar words:Change, modify, alter, metamorphose, transfigure, transmute, mutate

shenanigan

Meaning:Secret or dishonest activity or manoeuvring; a devious trick used especially for an underhand purpose; actions or behaviours that are dishonest, immoral or stupid; devious trick; mischievous activity; tricky or questionable practices (political and youthful shenanigan)

Usage:The con artists’ shenanigans eventually resulted in him being behind the bars The teacher didn’t appreciate my son’s shenanigan of disrupting the class and therefore suspended him from school

Daily English Vocabulary | Free PDF

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