Speechy Speech
bombast
This noun refers to padded, pretentious speech (and now extended to use in writing). It’s no coincidence that the word is related to an old French word meaning “cotton padding.”
apogee
This noun has complex scientific aspects but is also used by the common person to mean, simply, “highest point.” (The “gee” at the end of the word comes from “Gaia,” a term for the earth.)
smarmy
This adjective describes a person who smears phony charm all over the person he or she hopes to flatter.
wheedle
This verb describes a process of flattery or guile to achieve a desired end. Sycophants are good at wheedling.
liminal
Neither high nor low, neither in nor out—liminal describes something in between, on the edge. It comes from the Latin word meaning “threshold.”
pontificate
This verb, meaning to speak in an over- authoritative manner, might suit many who are bombastic (#1). Only a pontiff (a pope) deserves to talk in such a manner without giving offense.
acme, apex
Here are two more nouns starting with “a” that are synonyms for apogee, highest point.
servile
This adjective describes the behavior of someone willing to act like someone’s slave in hopes of getting a payoff later.
fawn
This innocent word for a baby deer has an accidental double in a verb referring to the display of affection designed as a tradeoff for favor.
consummate
Note the pronunciation; we’re talking about the adjective form, not the verb (KAHN sum ate). The adjective describes the highest, most complete or perfect form of some quality, whether positive or negative.
stentorian
This is a fancy adjective meaning “extremely loud speech.” It is an eponym (see chapter 75), deriving from Stentor, a Greek herald in Homer’s Iliad whose voice was said to be as loud as the voices of fifty men combined.
zenith
From the three “A” words meaning “highest point” to a “Z” word of the same meaning. This noun originally had an astronomical sense of the highest point of a celestial body and comes from Arabic, the language of many great early astronomers.
obsequious
Among the many words to describe falsely humble behavior, this adjective offers the most syllables. Its root word is the Latin verb “to follow,” and the obsequious follow with a vengeance.
toady
This noun is no accidental twin of the amphibian creature the toad. A toady is an obvious flatterer, the term for which comes from the graphic noun “toadeater,” occasional heard today.
quintessence
This noun refers to something that is not at any extreme except the extreme of being purely or perfectly itself. The origin of the word had the literal meaning of having been purified five (“quint-“) times.
panegyric
Originally a speech of praise, this noun now extends to the written form as well. Its Greek root words, pan (all) and agora (gathering place, marketplace), allow us to see the origin—a man addressing an assembled crowd, perhaps at a funeral, where praise comes most easily—and help us remember the meaning.
nadir
This noun, meaning “lowest point” stands alone against the quartet of words for its opposite. Like “zenith” (#3), it comes into English from the Arabic word for “opposite”; it originally had an exclusively astronomical meaning.
blandishment
This noun is used for flattering language subtly designed to coax the hearer into complying with the hopes of the speaker. Not surprisingly, it comes from the Latin word meaning “to flatter.”
henchman
Originally bearing a neutral sense of a trusted follower, this noun has increasingly come to have a negative sense like that of minion (#5), suggesting sycophancy.
pinnacle
Yet another word for “highest point” as well as a common term for a mountain peak.
eulogy
This noun can be seen as a rough synonym for pane-gyric (#4), except that modern usage of eulogy is generally restricted to a speech made at a funeral. Perhaps this fact is true because “eulogy”—which literally means “good words”—sounds so much like “elegy,” a poem lamenting a death.
bathos
This singular noun, coming from the Greek word for “deep,” refers to a literary effect that is overly commonplace or grossly sentimental. Less talented authors unintentionally fall into it, but parodists or satirists may seek it out for effect. (It neatly rhymes with “pathos,” the Greek word for feeling.)
fulsome
This adjective, meaning “offensively insincere”, had a happier past of meaning simply “abundant.” If you use it in that latter way today, you’ll be seriously misunderstood and seen as absolutely oleaginous (slimily flat-tering).
abject
This adjective describes either a low condition or status or describes something most contemptible or most wretched. Appropriately, it comes from the Latin meaning “thrown aside.”
sermonize
While this verb could mean simply “to give a sermon,” it’s more frequently used, with a negative sense, for a speech or bit of writing that is inappropriately like a sermon. In short, it assumes an air of moral superiority over the person listening or reading.