2010-05-17

deliberate, feign, confabulate, relativistic

deliberate: v. To think carefully and often slowly, as about a choice to be made.
Some decisions are the result of logical deliberation.

feign: a. To give a false appearance of: feign sleep. b. To represent falsely; pretend to: feign
authorship of a novel. See synonyms at pretend.
We feign accuracy in mapping our feeling onto numbers or dollars.

confabulate:
1. To talk casually; chat.
2. Psychology. To replace fact with fantasy unconsciously in memory.
The ability to confabulate -- to tell stories smoothing over the rough edges of experience -- is part of being human.

relativistic: Of or relating to relativism.
One is the relativistic nature of money.

2010-05-15

deviant, venereal, ersatz, monstrous, gullible, hardy

deviant:
Differing from a norm or from the accepted standards of a society.

venereal:
a. Transmitted by sexual intercourse. b. Of or relating to a sexually transmitted disease.
perhaps I have an incurable venereal disease.

ersatz:
Being an imitation or a substitute, usually an inferior one; artificial: ersatz coffee made mostly of chicory.
Durham was on the sixteenth floor, but the building was hemmed in on all sides by ugly late-twenties office towers, blue and pink ersatz-marble monstrosities; no expensive harbor views here.

monstrous:
Shockingly hideous or frightful.

gullible:
Easily deceived or duped.
For someone who was ripping off gullible millionaires -- or even someone who merely sold them insurance -- Durham didn't seem to have much to show for it.

hardy:
Being in robust and sturdy good health.
It's not intrinsically hardier; it's just better protected by the ocean.

2010-05-14

cranial, oyster

cranium(n), cranial(adj): the skull
an oyster of a man: 無口な人

2010-05-13

tenacious, unrepentant

tenacious: Holding or tending to hold persistently to something, such as a point of view.
Those hunches are amazingly tenacious.

unrepentant: Having or exhibiting no remorse.
When the matter was explained at length, many subjects remained unconvinced, uncertain, or unrepentant.

2010-05-11

morbid, excrement, poignant, egregious, exert

morbid:
a. Of, relating to, or caused by disease; pathological or diseased. b. Psychologically unhealthy or unwholesome: "He suffered much from a morbid acuteness of the senses" (Edgar Allan Poe).
2. Characterized by preoccupation with unwholesome thoughts or feelings: read the account of the murder with a morbid interest.
3. Gruesome; grisly.

excrement:
Waste material, especially fecal matter, that is expelled from the body after digestion.

poignant:
a. Physically painful: "Keen, poignant agonies seemed to shoot from his neck downward" (Ambrose Bierce). b. Keenly distressing to the mind or feelings: poignant anxiety. c. Profoundly moving; touching: a poignant memory. See synonyms at moving.

egregious:
Conspicuously bad or offensive. See synonyms at flagrant.

conspicuous:
1. Easy to notice; obvious.
2. Attracting attention, as by being unusual or remarkable; noticeable. See synonyms at noticeable.

exert:
To put to use or effect; put forth: exerted all my strength to move the box.

2010-05-08

craven, despicable, deplore, impasse

craven: Characterized by abject fear; cowardly.
abject:
1. Brought low in condition or status. See synonyms at mean2.
2. Being of the most contemptible kind: abject cowardice.
3. Being of the most miserable kind; wretched: abject poverty.
despicable: Deserving of contempt or scorn; vile.
deplore:
1. To feel or express strong disapproval of; condemn: "Somehow we had to master events, not simply deplore them" (Henry A. Kissinger).
2. To express sorrow or grief over.
3. To regret; bemoan.
impasse:
1. A road or passage having no exit; a cul-de-sac.
2. A situation that is so difficult that no progress can be made; a deadlock or a stalemate: reached an impasse in the negotiations.

I find Hatoyama's behavior craven and despicable, but I deplore even more the U.S. government's arrogance in forcing the Japanese to this deeply humiliating impasse.