diatribe \DAHY-uh-trahyb\, noun:
a bitter verbal attack or speech
It wasn't an argument, it was a diatribe. I've never seen anything like it. It's an insult to you (the jury).
-- J. Tony Serra
by 1581, from Latin diatriba "learned discussion," from Greek diatribe "discourse, study," literally "a wearing away (of time)," from dia- "away" + tribein "to wear, rub."
florid \FLOR-id\, adjective:
1. Flushed with red; of a lively reddish color.
2. Excessively ornate; flowery; as, "a florid style; florid eloquence."
The Reverend Mr Kidney is a short round bowlegged man with black muttonchop whiskers and a florid face, like a pomegranate, into which he has poured a great quantity of brandy and lesser amounts of whisky and claret.
-- Tom Gilling, The Sooterkin
Even though avant-garde attacks on the Victorian bourgeoisie were florid in rhetoric, deficient in evidence, and malicious in intent, it does not follow that they had no objective grounds.
-- Peter Gay, Pleasure Wars: The Bourgeois Experience
Many were florid and overweight, too bulkily dressed and perspiring freely.
-- Robert Stone, Damascus Gate
The journalist Frank Crane would later glorify the . . . factory in florid prose as "a sermon in steel and glass," a "Temple of Work" in which machinery rather than an organ provided the music and the choir "was the glad laughter of happy workers."
-- RolandMarchand, Creating the Corporate Soul
Florid comes from Latin floridus, "flowery," from flos, flor-, "flower."
elucidate \ih-LOO-si-dayt\, transitive verb:
To make clear or manifest; to render more intelligible; to illustrate; as, an example will elucidate the subject.
He thought that film's promise and purpose was to elucidate the real, to reveal the patterns already before us, and he believed that unity of space and time were paramount.
-- Nancy Reisman, House Fires
Beginning our journey into the past, we will now examine plant and animal clues in amber to elucidate the mysteries of the forest that was the home of our bee.
-- George Poinar Jr. and Roberta Poinar, The Amber Forest :A Reconstruction of a Vanished World
The plan is to sail south to between 52 and 54 degrees south latitude and search for land; if no land is discovered, to run east to the longitude of the eastern extremity of New Guinea, then north to elucidate questions raised by Dutch and Spanish voyages.
-- Alan Gurney, Below the Convergence
Elucidate comes from Late Latin elucidare, to clear up, from ex-, e-, out of + lucidus, bright, from lux, luc- light. Hence to elucidate is to bring the inner light out of an obscure subject. One who elucidates is an elucidator; that which tends to elucidate is elucidative; the act of elucidating, or that which elucidates, is an elucidation.
libation \ly-BAY-shun\, noun:
1. The act of pouring a liquid (usually wine) either on the ground or on a victim in sacrifice to some deity; also, the wine or liquid thus poured out.
2. A beverage, especially an alcoholic beverage.
3. An act or instance of drinking.
Hearing that the train had lost one of its engines and that the remainder of the trip would be very slow, I headed for the bar car for a libation and a snack or two to soothe my growing hunger pangs.
-- Lawrence Van Gelder, "Tales of Flying Cars and Trees", New York Times, May 28, 2000
Giving careful packing instructions to his Sherpas who would befreighting the spirits to his Base Camp, Todd more than half-anticipated some nights when the libation might serve to take off the edge.
-- Anatoli Boukreev and G. Weston DeWalt, The Climb
Libation is from Latin libatio, from libare, "to take a little from anything, to taste, to pour out as an offering."
cormorant \KOR-mur-unt; -muh-rant\, noun:
1. Any species of Phalacrocorax, a genus of sea birds having a sac under the beak; the shag. Cormorants devour fish voraciously, and have become the emblem of gluttony. They are generally black, and hence are called sea ravens, and coalgeese.
2. A gluttonous, greedy, or rapacious person.
Coleridge was precocious and from the first displayed a voracious appetite for books. He later characterised himself as "a library cormorant."
-- Kathleen Jones, A Passionate Sisterhood
Anthony regarded Northwick as a 'cormorant who was eating us up'.
-- Richard Mullen, "Trollope and the Pious Slippers of Cheltenham", Contemporary Review, February 2001
Cormorant comes from Old French cormareng, "raven of the sea," from corb, "raven" (from Latin corvus) + marenc, "of the sea" (from Latin marinus, from mare, "sea").
scintilla \sin-TIL-uh\, noun:
A tiny or scarcely detectable amount; the slightest particle; a trace; a spark.
In victory, they must hold on to at least a scintilla of humility, lest they get too cocky -- and ripe for a takedown.
-- Bill Breen, "We are literally trying to stop time", Fast Company, May 2000
I bear her not one scintilla of ill will, he said.
-- Sarah Lyall, "That Harriman Book", New York Times, May 4, 1994
There was never a scintilla of doubt, or a hint of equivocation, in Michael about his commitment to the party.
-- "Ferris's decency and sense of fun recalled", Irish Times, March 23, 2000
Scintilla is from Latin scintilla, "a spark, a glimmer, a faint trace." Also from scintilla is the verb scintillate, "to sparkle."
esoteric \es-uh-TER-ik\, adjective:
1. understood by or meant for only the select few who have special knowledge or interest; recondite
2. belonging to the select few
3. private; secret; confidential
4. (of a philosophical doctrine or the like) intended to be revealed only to the initiates of a group
Even in rehearsals, I didn't realize it would be as popular as it proved. After I read it, I said: 'It's brilliant, but it's quite esoteric.' We scheduled 70 or 80 performances.
-- Nicholas Hytner
c. 1645-55, Greek esōterikos, from esōterō, comparative of esō, within
