Vocabulary List #20: 2/17/98
| aegis | a shield or breast plate associated with majesty; protection |
| annihilate | to reduce to nothing; to destroy |
| appurtenance | an incidental right attached to a principle property right |
| aspersion | a defaming, slanderous remark; innuendo |
| avaricious | greedy for riches; grasping miserly |
| badinage | playful repartee; banter |
| curmudgeon | a crusty, ill-tempered and usually old man |
| dexterous | skillful and competent with the hands; adroit |
| effigy | a portrait, image, or likeness of a person often in contempt |
| emaciated | physically wasted away or worn thin |
| emolument | gain from employment or position; payment |
| exigency | urgency; situation called for immediate action |
| exuberance | the quality or state of being abundant; overflowing; luxuriant |
| gnome | an ageless, often deformed dwarf of folklore |
| honorarium | a payment on which no fee is set or legally attainable |
| imperceptible | extremely slight; granule; subtle |
| inept | lacking in fitness or aptitude; unsuitable |
| knavery | roguish mischief |
| multitudinous | consisting of innumerable elements; populous |
| necromancy | foretelling the future by communicating with the dead |
| obsolescent | going out of use; becoming obsolete |
| propinquity | nearness of blood, kinship; nearness in time or place |
| pusillanimous | lacking courage; cowardly |
| recalcitrant | obstinately defiant of authority; resistant |
| slake | to lessen; reduce; to become less active |
| superannuated | to be old; incapacitated for duty by age |
| tawny | of a warm, sandy, or tan color |
| testy | easily annoyed; irritable |
| transcendent | beyond the limits of ordinary experience; beyond material existence |
| vehement | intensely emotional; forcibly expressed; bitterly antagonistic |