VOCABULARY FOR AUGUST 19

IRONY: expression of something which is contrary to the intended meaning; the words say one thing but mean another.
*Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
PARADOX: an assertion seemingly opposed to common sense, but that may yet have some truth in it.
*What a pity that youth must be wasted on the young. George Bernard Shaw
CLICHE: A trite expression--often a figure of speech whose effectiveness has been worn out through overuse and excessive familiarity.
[Fr. "a stereotype plate"]
-"Live and learn."
-"What goes around comes around."
EUPHEMISM: Substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively explicit.
[Gk. "use of good words"]
-"Fertilizer" for "manure"
-"Ground beef" for "ground flesh of a dead cow"
DICTION: etymology: speaking; style (from dicere, to say)definition: "The use of words in oral or written discourse" (Holman and Harmon); choice of words.
SYNTAX: etymology: to arrange together (syn + tassein --which is also the root of "tactics
definition: the order or arrangement of words in a sentence.
METAPHOR: implied comparison achieved through a figurative use of words; the word is used not in its literal sense, but in one analogous to it.
*Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage. Shakespeare, Macbeth
SIMILE: an explicit comparison between two things using 'like' or 'as'.
*My love is as a fever, longing still
For that which longer nurseth the disease, Shakespeare, Sonnet CXLVII
*Reason is to faith as the eye to the telescope. D. Hume [?]
ARCHAIC: ancient, old-fashioned
Her ARCHAIC computer could not handle the latest software.
ENGENDER: to produce, cause, or bring about
Laura's fear of dogs was ENGENDERED at age six, when she was bitten by one.