a Thank you for reading the Vaughan’s Vocabulary column each week. I enjoy writing it and I appreciate each reader. The column expands our vocabularies.
I plan to develop a broadcast version of Vaughan’s Vocabulary for “Don Rodney Radio’s Rhythm and Blues Show” which airs several times during the week on Louisville’s WLSM, The Refuge 107.1 FM. For showtimes, please email THEREFUGE107@gmail.com. “DRR’s R&B Show” is not only entertaining but educational in featuring Mississippi Delta Blues singers and giving facts about them. Long before VV was published in newspapers, it was a radio program when I enjoyed a two-year stint as a zany morning personality. From radio it went to Mississippi State’s The Reflector.
See how you do with this week’s word quiz. Please let me know how well you did.
.1. Which one is a synonym for lengthy?
A. sententious
B. extended
C. parsimonious
D. obstreperous
E. ubiquitous
I teach not to begin a presentation by looking down and to strive for lengthy intervals of unbroken eye contact with the audience. No. 1 is B.
.2. dowager (DOW-uh-jur)
A. an ingenue
B. a pointed instrument
C. a widow holding property or a title from her deceased husband
D. a short-barreled pocket pistol
Aside from C, a dowager is a dignified, elegant, elderly lady.
.3. trousseau (true-SO)
A. the attire collected by a groom for his marriage
B. the clothes and linen collected by a bride for her marriage
C. a box in which items are stored
D. de rigueur
.4. rue (ROO)
A. a darker shade of blue
B. a darker shade of red
C. regret, sorrow
D. pride
B is the answer for trousseau and C is the answer for rue.
.5. balmy (BAH-me)
A. mild and refreshing; soft, soothing
B. cold, frigid
C. pungent
D. valorous
.6. lassitude (LAS-suh-tood)
A. moral integrity
B. a condition of weariness or debility
C. being free from restrictions
D. the angular distance north or south from the equator of a point on the earth’s surface
Thanks to Dictionary.com for the definition of balmy, which is A. The weather has been far from balmy. pAside from A, balmy means aromatic, fragrant (the qualities of balm). One who is crazy, foolish, or eccentric could be described as balmy. Remember, the “l” in balmy is silent.
No. 6 is B. What I have for D is a definition of latitude.
