ADHOCRACY

n. a system of flexible and informal organization and management in place of rigid

bureaucracy
The need for informational flexibility undermines old organisational
structures: adhocracy takes over as leaders seek to bypass hierarchies.
APODICTIC
adj. of a proposition; necessarily true or logically certain
It has also been pointed out that the laws in the Old Testament may be classified as
either apodictic in form ("thou shalt" or "thou shalt not") or "casuistic" ("when a
man, he shall").
ASPERITY
n. the quality of being hard to endure, uninviting or formidable
I dread the asperity of northern winters.
BEATITUDE
n. a state of supreme happiness or blessedness
His face had taken on the expression of imbecile beatitude the religious sometimes
adopt.
CAPRICIOUS
adj. changeable; determined by chance or impulse or whim rather than by necessity
or reason
The capricious bride-to-be has a different church in mind for her wedding every few
days.
CAPTIOUS
adj. tending to find and call attention to faults
A captious attitude often causes difficulties in a relationship.
CHOLERIC
adj. easily moved to anger
Men of the choleric type take to kicking and smashing.
CORNUCOPIA
n. goat's horn filled with grain and flowers and fruit symbolizing prosperity; the
property of being extremely abundant
This is a time of abundance when bird, beast and insect gather to share
the cornucopia.
DENOUEMENT

n. the unraveling of a plot or story; the outcome of a complex sequence of events

I waited by the eighteenth green with thousands of spectators to see
the denouement.
DILATORY
adj. slow to act; intended to cause delay
The White House scolds Congress for being dilatory in finding cash for Panama and
Nicaragua.
EKISTICS
n. the study of human settlements
In ekistics, the terms polis, metropolis, and megalopolis denote settlement
populations of 75 thousand, 4 million, and 150 million, respectively.
To anybody familiar with the rudiments of ekistics the horrendous traffic jams were
foreseeable.
EXTEMPORE
adj. & adv. with little or no preparation or forethought
This is usually performed extempore, following the whims of the singer, musician
and/or dancer.
FECUNDITY
n. fertility or productiveness
His work has been translated into over twenty languages and is a prime example of
the brilliance and fecundity brought to the English novel by writers who have
landed on these shores.
LUMPEN
adj. relating to a dispossessed social class; a member of the crude and uneducated
lowest class of society; mentally sluggish; misshapen and ponderous
Both families had been transformed from what might be called alumpen peasantry
into what Marx did call the lumpen proletariat.
The nose was large and lumpen; the hair was stringy and unkempt.
MENDACIOUS
adj. dishonest; given to lying
The loss of confidence which set in after Stalingrad was not least a consequence of
the totally misleading and outrightly mendaciousGerman propaganda which had
preceded the catastrophe.
MEPHISTOPHELIAN

adj. characteristic of a devil; wicked

His Mephistophelian eyes unsettled his teachers.
NUGATORY
adj. having little or no value or importance
Social custom made this proviso almost nugatory.
OPSIMATH
n. person who begins to learn or study only late in life.
It was strange, yet refreshing, to see the opsimath working diligently in his study
group with piers 50 years his junior.
ORNERY
adj. bad-tempered, irritable, or very difficult and contrary.
Few took any notice of his complaints for he was well known around the village as
the ornery old military man.
OTIOSE
adj. superfluous or redundant (of a word or phrase); indolent; futile or functionless
The linking commentary is often otiose and always plonking.
Therefore, although there is a substantial overlap between section 1 and section 15,
section 15 is not otiose.
PECCADILLO
n. a petty misdeed, sin, offense, or foible
Equally if one lived in a society where everybody was constantly protesting against
the smallest governmental peccadillo life would become intolerable.
PELLUCID
adj. transparent or clear (physically and metaphorically)
At the end of the garden, the waters of the stream that had risenpellucid at their
source lay curdled.
Galbraith, as always, writes in pellucid prose.
PERCIPIENT
adj. discerning and quick in perceiving
The ever percipient @jendziura is always worth a read.
PHYLOGENY

n. the history or evolutionary development of something (especially a species)

The evolution of fins may also be traced across this phylogeny.
PROLIXITY
n. boring, drawn out verbosity
Di Leonardo's personal secretary had issued a statement shortly after midday, a
masterpiece of prolixity that took about five minutes to say that Ruggiero Miletti
had been found dead and that another statement would be issued in due course.
RUBRIC
n. an established rule, tradition, or custom
There are of course significant political differences between the USA and Italy, even
though both come under the rubric of industrial capitalism.
SARDONIC
adj. humorously mocking, scornful, or cynical
Separate rooms don't mean a thing, he retorted with a glimmer of
asardonic smile.
...a sardonic dismissal of the philologists of our time for their joy at capturing
worms and their indifference to the true problems, the urgent problems of life.
SCHADENFREUDE
n. delight taken in another's misfortune
This led to divorce from his wife, who could perhaps be permitted
some Schadenfreude at the fact that Van Den Hauwe's relationship had, perforce,
become platonic.
SEDENTARY
adj. spending much time sitting and taking little exercise
He was forced by illness to lead a sedentary life.
SYBARITE
n. a person devoted to luxuries and sensual pleasures
He liked the good things of life but he was no sybarite.
TELEOLOGY
n. explanation of phenomena in terms of a design or end purpose rather than in
terms of their causes
The teleology of evolution as a goal-seeking activity persists in indefensible form a
hundred years later in the writing of biologists.
TIMOROUS

adj. having a timid or fearful disposition

He had been a quiet, timorous boy until he discovered the excitement of chasing
women.
TRUCULENT
adj. scathingly harsh; ferocious
He still took care to be rude and truculent at school to keep up appearances, but
the old venom had faded.
UNCTUOUS
adj. fatty, oily, or greasy; excessively flattering, suave, or ingratiating
It's wonderful richer and more unctuous in stuffings or to flavour sauces
where you would normally use lemon or lime.
He seemed anxious to please, but not in an unctuous way.
UNGUENT
n. an ointment used to soothe, heal, or lubricate
A delightful unguent jar from Mostagedda carved from ivory in the form of a
hippopotamus argues that the animal attracted favourable attention.
VENIAL
adj. forgivable or pardonable
Half of the thousands of imprisoned debtors had been reduced to their state
by venial errors or innocent misfortune.
VERDANT
adj. green and lush with grass or other rich vegetation
Pompeii lay in verdant, wine-growing country and so gave special prominence to
Venus, goddess of fecundity, Hercules and Bacchus.
VITRINE
n. a glass cabinet for displaying and protecting delicate items or specimens
The preserved corpse was subsequently recased in the nineteenth century in a glassfronted mahogany vitrine