Chapter 8 Bonus Word List
DEPRECATE (DEP ruh kayt) v to express disapproval of
- To deprecate a colleague’s work is to risk making yourself unwelcome in your colleague’s
office. - “This stinks!” is a deprecating remark.
- The critic’s deprecating comments about my new novel put me in a bad mood for an
entire month. - To be self-deprecating is to belittle one’s own efforts, sometimes in the hope that
someone else will say, “No, you’re wonderful!”
NIHILISM (NYE uh liz um) n the belief that there are no values or morals in the universe
- A nihilist does not believe in any objective standards of right or wrong.
OPAQUE (oh PAYK) adj impossible to see through; impossible to understand
- The windows in the movie star’s house were made not of glass but of some opaque
material intended to keep his fans from spying on him. - We tried to figure out what Horace was thinking, but his expression was opaque: It
revealed nothing. - Jerry’s mind, assuming he had one, was opaque.
- The statement was opaque; no one could make anything of it.
The noun form of opaque is opacity (oh PAS uh tee).
PROPRIETY (pruh PRYE uh tee) n properness; good manners
- The old lady viewed the little girl’s failure to curtsy as a flagrant breach of propriety. She
did not approve of or countenance such improprieties. - Propriety prevented the young man from trashing the town in celebration of his
unexpected acceptance by the college of his choice.
Propriety derives from proper, not property, and should not be confused with proprietary.