Nonsense
stipulate
(STIP u late) If you stipulate, you make an express demand as
part of an agreement; you specify exactly what’s required.
exorbitant
(ex ORB ih tant) From the Latin for “out of orbit,” this adjective
expresses the concept of something that exceeds all fair bounds. It’s most
commonly used to describe prices or numerical quantities.
eke
(EEK) As a verb, “eke” carries two senses: the older one expresses the
idea of” adding to” or “increasing” while the one more in use today carries
the sense of “managing but with difficulty.” (Extra trivia for wordlovers: our
word “nickname” was originally ”an eke-name,” an “additional” name. The
“n” of “an” moved over and became part of the next word. “Umpire” went
the other way: it was originally “a numpere.”)
scant
(rhymes with pant) Whether used as an adjective or as a verb, the
word carries the idea of “barely sufficient” or “in short supply.” The related
adjective form, “scanty” echoes that sense.
conundrum
(cuh NUN drum) A conundrum is a challenging puzzle, a
dilemma, a riddle. Even the origin of the word is unknown.
striation
(stry A shun) Some call this a fancy word for a “stripe,” and that
may serve as a memory device. But it might also refer to a ridge, a groove,
or a furrow. Usually you’ll see it in the plural, referring to parallel groupings
of the thing.
recrimination
(re crim in AY shun) This noun refers to the fact of countering
one accusation with another.
stint
(rhymes with hint) The verb “stint” expresses the concept of “restricting”
or “limiting.” (The stingy measuring cup of #3 is at work here as well.)
The noun describes a length of time spent on a particular task, presumably
with the sense of “not considering lengthening the appointed time.” The word
originates in older English meaning “to blunt” or “to stop.”
nominal
(NOM in uhl) From the Latin word for “name,” this adjective suggests
something exists in name only; in other words, it’s minimal, token.
belie
(be LIE) This verb refers to misrepresentation, to self-contradiction.
Although it’s based on the word “lie,” it isn’t used to convey a sense of
deliberate deception.
surfeit
(SUR fit) As a verb or as a noun, this word expresses the idea of
“over-muchness.”
plethora
(PLETH uh ra) From the Greek for “to be full,” this noun is a good
synonym for “excess.” Creeping into the language is a tendency to use the
word simply to mean “a lot,” but you’ll do well to keep it in the category
of superabundance.
paucity
(PAW suh tee) From the Latin word for “few,” this noun expresses
just that in English.
meager
(ME ger) This adjective can refer to something that is scanty (#6)
in either quantity or quality. The word derives from the Latin for “thin.”
supernumerary
(SOO per NOO mer er ee) Literally, this noun refers to a
person who is in excess of a required number, but it is most often used as
an elegant word for an “extra” in a movie or dramatic work. Opera slang
sometimes calls such a person a “spear-carrier.”
extant
(EK stant or ek STANT) This word offers a one-word way to say “still
in existence.”
sate
(rhymes with ate) and satiate (SAY she ate) How appropriate to have
not one but two verbs to express the idea of being fully or excessively
satisfied!
exiguous
(ex IG u us) This adjective describes something that is just barely
enough for the purpose. It comes from the Latin for “measured out,”
suggesting a measuring cup that was never overflowing.
pittance
(PIT unce) This noun refers to a tiny amount, whether, as
frequently, of money or of some more abstract entity. Tellingly, the origin
of the word is in the Latin pietas (think “piety”), suggesting that amounts
people give to charity may be minimal.
aggrandize
(uh GRAND ize) This verb can mean “to make greater,” but
today it’s almost always used to refer to someone’s making himself seem
greater by exaggerating or by belittling others.
susurrus
(soo SUR us) An unusual word, and an interesting one, whose
sound hints at its meaning. It refers to a soft rustling noise, a whisper, a
murmur. It comes into English directly from the Latin, but a more anglicized
form is susurration.
myriad
(MEER e ud) Perhaps not too much, this noun expresses the
concept of an indefinite but huge quantity. It comes from the Greek for
“ten thousand,” but is never used in that literal way in English.
dearth
(rhymes with earth) The meaning of this noun is simple. There’s not
enough of something or maybe there’s simply none of it. The origin is in
the Middle English word for “costly,” kept also in the British use of
“dear”—“I’d like to buy mince pies, but they’re so dear lately.”
titular
(TICH u lar) Like #7, this adjective carries the sense of “in name or
title only,” not possessing any real substance. It can also be used in the
simpler sense of “referring to the title.”
lagniappe
(LAN yop) This noun first referred to a small gift a storeowner
might give a customer but is coming increasingly to be used as “an
unexpected extra gift or benefit.” With roots in New World Spanish and
Quechua, it was originally used in the Creole dialect of Louisiana.