AP Lang vocab 2

literati

literary or scholarly people, intellectuals

modus operandi

procedure, method of operation- used often when discussing criminals

Kafkaesque

marked by a senseless, disorienting, often menacing complexity: Kafkaesque bureaucracies. characteristic of, or resembling the literary work of Franz Kafka: the Kafkaesque terror of the endless interrogations.

Last hurrah

any final attempt, competition, performance, success, or the like: his last hurrah as a college football star. From a novel by Edwin O'Connor by the same name about a politician.

parenthetical expression

a word or phrase that is not really part of the main idea of the sentence, or that interrupts the main sentence. Ex: The tortoise, as far as we know, has been on earth for thousands of years.

parody

a literary, musical, or dramatic work in which the style of an author or work is closely imitated for comic effect or in ridicule (think Saturday Night Live.)

semper fidelis

always faithful (motto of the US Marine Corps)

persona non grata

a person who is not welcome or favored. Ex: After my angry words with the manager, I am persona non grata at Walmart.

Pandora’s box

if someone or something opens Pandora's box, they do something that causes a lot of problems to appear that did not exist or were not known before.

lilliputian

adj. : trivial or very small - noun: trivial or very small person or thing. From Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, people from Lilliput were 6 inches tall

periodic sentence

A long and frequently involved sentence, marked by suspended syntax, in which the sense is not completed until the final word--usually with an emphatic climax. Ex:"And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing."(The King James Bible, I Corinthians 13)

anthropomorphism

attributing human characteristics ( or characteristics assumed to belong only to humans) to an animal or object.

carpe diem

seize the day

idiot savant

a person affected with a mental disability who exhibits exceptional skill or brilliance in some limited field (as mathematics or music) —called also savant

Scylla and Charybdis

Being between Scylla and Charybdis is an idiom deriving from Greek mythology, which has been associated with the proverbial advice "to choose the lesser of two evils"

machiavellian

the end justifies the means , refers to anyone who is merciless, clever, and unethical to obtain his goals. From Niccolo Machiavelli who wrote The Prince about how to be a leader.

hyperbole

extreme exaggeration

pun

A play on words, either on different senses of the same word or on the similar sense or sound of different words.(also called paronomasia)

Apparatchik

an official of a political party, usually derogatory, a lackey or low-level bureaucrat Example: “ He’s no more than an apparatchik with no real power.”

hoi polloi

the masses, the common people

Moby Dick

a monstrous thing someone obsessively pursues. from Herman Melville's novel, Moby Dick, in which Captain Ahab relentlessly hunts a whale named Moby Dick

Munchkin

a small person or ineffectual or unimportant person - from The Wizard of Oz

imagery

the collection of images within a literary work. Used to evoke atmosphere, mood, tension.

jargon

the language, especially the vocabulary, peculiar to a particular trade, profession, or group.

Alpha and omega

the beginning and the end

roman a clef

a novel in which real people or events appear with invented names.

noble savage

a term that refers to an uncivilized person who is really more worthy and sensible than some of his "civilized" counterparts.- from Jean Jacques Rousseau's writings. - (is there a character from Brave New World that alludes to this?)

Oedipus complex

a child's unusual attachment to the parent of the opposite sex while being rivals with the parent of the same sex (Freud coined this term)- from myth of Oedipus in which he killed his father and married his mother

apostrophe

when a speaker or writer breaks off and directs speech to an imaginary person or abstract quality or idea Ex: " Death, be not proud."(John Donne poem) “O Captain, My Captain” by Walt Whitman

Euphemism

an inoffensive or indirect expression that is substituted for one that is considered offensive or too harsh

gravitas

seriousness, dignity, or importance

zeitgeist

the general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual, and/or political climate within a nation or even specific groups

Orwellian

bleak and oppressive political climate,connotes an attitude and a policy of control by propaganda, surveillance, misinformation, denial of truth, and manipulation of the past - from George Orwell's 1984

Peter principle

the idea that people usually rise to the level of their incompetence. Ex: You do well. You are promoted, but eventually you are promoted to a job you cannot do. from a book The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong by Laurence Peter.

juxtaposition

the placement of two things, often contrasting (usually abstract concepts, though it can refer to physical objects) next to each other.

idiom

is an expression, word, or phrase that has an understood figurative meaning that is different from its literal meaning.There are estimated to at least 25,000 idiomatic expressions in the English language.

carte blanche

Unrestricted power to act at one's own discretion (blank check)

coup de grace

he blow that kills (usually mercifully)

Rabelaisian

of, relating to, or resembling the work of Rabelais - bawdy humor and sharp satire.

platonic

refers to a chaste and strong type of love that is non-sexual. From the writings of Plato.

understatement

a comment that makes a situation seem less important or serious than it is for effect. ( An elephant walks into the room and so someone says, "We have a tiny visitor today.")

litotes

an understatement where the speaker or writer uses a negative of a word ironically, to mean the opposite. Ex: She's not unfriendly.

creme de la creme

the best of the best, superlative

esprit de corps

the pride and honor shared by the members of a group.

Pygmalion

a situation where a mentor takes on a student, remakes the person, and then falls in love with his creation. Comes from: Greek mythology, Pygmalion was the creator of a sculpture which came to life and he fell in love with it - also name of a play by George Bernard Shaw

promethean

describes someone who is independent,defies authority, creative and unique, defying the norm - from Prometheus - a champion of mankind who stole fire from Zeus for man

conundrum

a. riddle, the answer to which involves a pun or play on words, as What is black and white and read all over? A newspaper. b.anything that puzzles.

chiasmus

a verbal pattern (a type of antithesis) in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first with the parts reversed. ex: "You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget."(Cormac McCarthy, The Road, 2006)

faux pas

a violation of accepted social norms

femme fatale

A woman of great seductive charm who leads men into compromising or dangerous situations.

quixotic

extravagantly chivalrous or romantic; impractical, impulsive and often rashly unpredictable. From Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes - whose main character had these traits

phoenix

a person or thing that has become renewed or restored after suffering calamity or apparent annihilation. In Ancient Greek folklore, a phoenix is a long-lived bird that cyclically regenerates or is otherwise born again. Associated with the sun, a phoenix obtains new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor.

denotation

The direct or dictionary meaning of a word

connotation

is a commonly understood subjective cultural and/or emotional association that some word or phrase carries -two words may have the same dictionary definition but different connotations: Examples

joie de vivre

Hearty or carefree enjoyment of life.

noblesse oblige

with wealth and or power comes responsibility to others

shot heard round the world

events that have international significance. from poem by Emerson about the Revolutionary War

Rube Goldberg

describes complex gadgets that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. From the cartoonist who drew these.

sarcasm

a sharp, bitter, or cutting expression or remark

satire

a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn. b. trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly.