Quaint

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Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary:
attractive in an unusual or old-fashioned way
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MB:

Usage examples-

• Quaint village/building/portrait
• Quaint church
• Quaint wooden signs.

Flash pharase: Quaint quarters of Varanasi

Varanasi is a famous Hindu holy city situated on the banks of the river Ganges (Ganga) in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is one of the oldest continually inhabited city in the world, dating back thousands of years.
The culture of Varanasi is deeply associated with the river Ganga and its religious importance; the city has been a cultural and religious center in northern India for thousands of yeaas

Ganga ghats in Varanasi

Indomitable

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Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary:
not willing to accept defeat, even in a difficult situation; very brave and determined
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MB:
Usage Exmaples:

• Indomitable spirit/will/courage

Indomitable instict of women for beauty

Laconic

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Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary:
using only a few words to say sth
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MB:
This word's history is interesting enough to peg this word into your memory.

Laconia was a region of ancient Greece.
Once upon a time there was a state with name Sparta whose territory included Laconia. Sparta was a city in Sparta state.
Sparta was, above all, a military state, and emphasis on military fitness began virtually at birth. Training in music and literature occupied a subordinate position. The tireless emphasis on physical training gave Spartans the reputation for being "laconic", economical with words, a word derived from the name of their homeland of Laconia.

In current Greece there is province named Lakonia/Laconia. In the following map Sparti the is modern city which was called Sparta in ancient Greece.



The flash phrase is laconic laconians

Recondite

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Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary:
not known about or understood by many people
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MB:
obscure, esoteric
Usage examples:

• Recondite subjects/experience.
  
• Most parents are tickled when their kids come home with recondite skills.

Recondite reasoning

Audacious

extremely bold or daring
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MB:
Usage Examples

• Audacious leader/move/adventures.

Audacious Woman





Flash Phrase: Audacious art

Erudite

learned or scholarly
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MB:
Usage Exmaples:

• Erudite novel/lecture/style/person.
  
• Jerry Belson, an Emmy-winning comedy writer for "The Tracey Ullman Show" was so bright and so witty with not a very erudite background.

What will you call a bug who is reading a book? An Erudite bug.
Flash phrase: Erudite Einstein

Legerdemain

French roots --
leger = light, de = of, main = hand
=> Lightness of hand

Legerdemain has following two exact synonyms:
Sleight(dexterity or deceptiveness) of hand
O
prestidigitation (Quick fingers)

All these three mean 'A show of skill or deceitful cleverness'




Many English words have French origin. Learn little french

Execrable

very bad

MB:
Usage examples:

• Execrable villain
• Execrable remake of a film
  
• Condemned prisoners await execution in execrable detention conditions.

Tip to remember this word:

The freak/demon elephant. I call him execrable (very bad) elephant.

Image Source: elfwood.lysator.liu.se

Modicum

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Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary:
a fairly small amount, especially of sth good or pleasant
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MB:
Usage Examples -

• modicum of peace/joy/truth/time/luck/common sense.
• Everything else, so long as you maintain a modicum of decorum, is permissible
• The newspapers have the opportunity of distributing some modicum of it.

Tip to remember the word: Modicum of mercy



A Mughal army's soldier receiving water from Bhai Kanhaiya. A modicum of mercy, in the
form of water was everything for wounded soldiers.

Bhai Kanhaiya was a sikh. During the clashes between Guru Gobind Singh ji' Sikhs and Mughal armies (1704-5 AD) he used to carry water in a Mashak (A pouch made of goat's skin to carry water) and serve water to wounded soldiers on the battlefield. He used to do this service with love and affection without any discrimination of religion.

Read about Bhai Kanhaiya

Mawkish

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Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary:
expressing or sharing emotion in a way that is exaggerated or embarrassing
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Dictionary.com: Mawkish
characterized by sickly sentimentality
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MB:
Usage Examples

• mawkish sentimentality/heart/film.
• Director jerks too hard on the heartstrings in mawkish drama of contagious kindness
  

A very mawkish painting of a dog. It show owner's sentimental attachment towards the dog.

Whenever you come across this word think of Mickey mouse in mawkish mood-
and try to think of why is he getting sentimental.

Diffident

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Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary:
not having much confidence in yourself; not wanting to talk about yourself; shy
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MB:
Diffident child

Diffident Smile

Tip to remember this word:

Diffident(shy) donkey

Insidious

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Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary:
spreading gradually or without being noticed, but causing serious harm
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MB:
Range of cuban missiles.
Cuban Missile Crisis - The insidious Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba.

Usage examples:

• The insidious disease plays a dirty trick on newborns, who seem healthy at first.
• Our insidious plot will go unnoticed.
  

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Inscrutable

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The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Inscrutable
Difficult to fathom or understand; impenetrable
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Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary:
if a person or their expression is inscrutable, it is hard to know what they are thinking or feeling, because they do not show any emotion
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MB:

Mona Lisa's Inscrutable Smile
The painting was analysed by a University of Amsterdam computer using "emotion recognition" software.
It concluded that the subject was 83% happy, 9% disgusted, 6% fearful and 2% angry, New Scientist magazine was told. BBC News Article: Mona Lisa 'happy', computer finds

The usage of this word -

• Inscrutable Americans.
• FUTURE IS INSCRUTABLE.
  

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Google News: Inscrutable

Malfeasance

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Dictionary.com:
–noun
the performance by a public official of an act that is legally unjustified, harmful, or contrary to law; wrongdoing (used esp. of an act in violation of a public trust).
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My Comments:
The following site reports incidents of misconduct or wrongdoing by companies/officials
malfeasance.net

The best way to put this word in memory is to see malfeasance news.
Here are the latest malfeasance news strories: Google News: Malfeasance

Whenever you come across this word think of ENRON
Enron, Trust, and Malfeasance
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Other related words: (Ref: Dictionary.com)
Misfeasance - Improper and unlawful execution of an act that in itself is lawful and proper.
Nonfeasance - the omission of some act that ought to have been performed

Cynicism Stoicism Hedonism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynicism

Malediction

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL
Here is the name of the French version of the movie:
PIRATES DES CARAIBES - LA MALEDICTION DU BLACK PEARL

Prolix

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Dictionary.com: Prolix
-adjective:
1. Extending to a great length; unnecessarily long; wordy.
2. Tending to speak or write at excessive length.
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MB:
The following blog has the right name.
http://pr0lix.blogspot.com/

Pulchritude

beauty
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Dictionary.com word of the day: pulchritude
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MB:

Pulchritude Personified!

Few beatiful pictures defining pulchritude:

Gastronome or gastronomist

A connoisseur of good food and drink.
A gourmet.

Plenary

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Dictioanry.com word of the day: Plenary
-adjective
1. Full in all respects; complete; absolute; as, plenary authority.
2. Fully attended by all qualified members.
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MB:

Plenary session,

Plenary audience

Recalcitrant

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Dictionary.com:
–adjective

1.	resisting authority or control; not obedient or compliant; refractory.

2.	hard to deal with, manage, or operate.

–noun

3.	a recalcitrant person.

Word of the Day Monday April 8, 2002
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MB:
The recalcitrant cow

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Tutelary

guardian; protecting
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Disctioary.com:tutelary
It was the word of the day on Oct 5 on 2006
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Wikipedia:tutelary
A spirit is a god, usually a minor god, who serves as the guardian or watcher over a particular site, person, or nation. Belief in tutelary gods or spirits often reflects a tradition of animism.
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MB:
Usage examples:

• Tutelary deities/shrine/spirit/godesses.
  

Tutelary God
Image source: corbis.com.









Tip to remember the word:
In the centrum of Nara, the Kofukuji Temple was tutelary temple of the Fujiwara family.


Nanendo Hall

Nanendo was originally one among many of the buildings at Kofukuji, the tutelary temple of the Fujiwara clan.
Nara is a Japanese city which was once capital of Japan.
Fujiwara family played a dominant role in Japan's politicts for more than 300 years. The Fujiwara dominated the government of Japan 794-1160

Read more about Fujiwara familly.

Braggadocio

empty boasting
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Answers.com:braggadocio

1. A braggart.
2. 1. Empty or pretentious bragging.
   2. A swaggering, cocky manner

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MB:
Does this word have any relation to Braggadocio fonts
(none of the letters have hole in them).














Image Courtesy: www.identifont.com

Almanac

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Dictionary.com:Almanac
an annual publication containing a calendar for the coming year, the times of such events and phenomena as anniversaries, sunrises and sunsets, phases of the moon, tides, etc., and other statistical information and related topics.
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MB:


There is one online almanac here:
http://www.almanac.com/