AP Seminer Vocab Unit 2

Accost

To APPROACH and speak to first; to confront in a challenging or AGGRESSIVE way

Approach, buttonhole

Animadversion

A comment indicating strong CRITICISM or disapproval

Rebuke, reproof

Avid

DESIROUS of something to the point of greed; intensely EAGER

Keen, enthusiastic, grasping

Brackish

Having a SALTY taste and unpleasant to drink

Saline

Celerity

SWIFTNESS, rapidity of motion or action

Promptness, speed

Devious

Straying or wandering from a straight or direct course; done or acting in a shifty or UNDERHANDED way

Roundabout, indirect, tricky, sly, artful

Gambit

In chess, an opening move that involves risk or sacrifice of a minor piece in order to gain a later advantage; any opening move of this type

Ploy, ruse, maneuver

Halcyon

A legendary bird identified with the kingfisher / of or relating to the halcyon, peaceful, happy, golden, prosperous, affluent

Tranquil, placid, palmy

Histrionic

Pertaining to actors and their techniques; theatrical, artificial, melodramatic

Affected, stagy

Incendiary

Deliberately setting or causing fires; designed to start fires; tending to stir up strife or rebellion / one who deliberately sets fires, arsonist; one who causes strife

Inflammatory, provocative, firebrand

Maelstrom

A whirlpool of great size and violence; a situation resembling a whirlpool in violence and destruction

Chaos, turbulence, tumult

Myopic

Nearsighted; LACKING a broad, realistic view of a situation; lacking foresight or discernment

Shortsighted

Overt

Open, NOT hidden, expressed or revealed in a way that is easily recognized

Clear, obvious, manifest, patent

Pejorative

Tending to make worse; expressing disapproval or disparagement, derogatory, deprecatory, belittling

NONE (change later)

Propriety

The state of being proper, appropriateness; standards of what is proper or socially acceptable

Fitness, correctness

Sacrilege

Improper or disrespectful treatment of something held sacred

Desecration, profanation, defilement

Summarily

Without delay or formality; briefly; concisely

Promptly, peremptorily

Suppliant

Asking humbly and earnestly / one who makes a request humbly and earnestly; a petitioner, suitor

NONE (change later)

Talisman

An object that serves as a charm or is believed to confer magical powers, an amulet, fetish

NONE (change later)

Undulate

To move in waves or with a wavelike motion; to have a wavelike appearance or form

Fluctuating, rise and fall