New words...(to me anyway)

[weedguru_animal]

posit \POZ-it\, transitive verb:
1. To assume as real or conceded.
2. To propose as an explanation; to suggest.
3. To dispose or set firmly or fixedly.

It is not necessary to posit mysterious forces to explain
coincidences.
-- Bruce Martin, "Coincidences: Remarkable or Random?,"
[1]Skeptical Inquirer, September/October 1998

Among other things, the researchers posit that the behavior
of the muscles during laughter probably explains why
phrases like "weak with laughter" pops up in many different
languages.
-- "How Muscles Can Go Weak With Laughter," [2]New York
Times, September 14, 1999

Some scientists subscribe to this "catastrophic" view of
evolutionary history and posit such events as meteoritic
collisions with earth, viral epidemics, and explosive
evolutionary changes as responsible for species extinctions
in the past.
-- Noel T. Boaz Ph.D., [3]Eco Homo
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Posit is from Latin positus, past participle of ponere, "to
put, to place, to set."

[weedguru_animal]

munificent \myoo-NIF-i-suhnt\, adjective:
Very liberal in giving or bestowing; very generous; lavish.

Another munificent friend has given me the most splendid
reclining chair conceivable.
-- George Eliot, Letters

The fleeting movement of air inside the black tunnel before
and after the passage of a train made it a source of
refreshment more munificent than a roaring window air
conditioner.
-- Norma Field, [1]From My Grandmother's Bedside: Sketches
of Postwar Tokyo

John Sr.'s paycheck, while hardly munificent, was steady,
and frugality did the rest.
-- Sylvia Nasar, [2]A Beautiful Mind
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Munificent is from Latin munificus, "generous, bountiful,"
from munus, "gift." The quality of being munificent is
munificence.

[weedguru_animal]

cogent \KOH-juhnt\, adjective:
Having the power to compel conviction; appealing to the mind
or to reason; convincing.

One woman, Adrian Pomerantz, was so intelligent that the
professors always lit up when Adrian spoke; her eloquent,
cogent analyses forced them not to be lazy, not to repeat
themselves.
-- Meg Wolitzer, [1]Surrender, Dorothy

I suggested to the student that she take her refusal as the
theme of her term paper and ponder it as carefully as
possible. A few weeks later she submitted one of the most
cogent, intelligent papers I have read.
-- Denis Donoghue, [2]The Practice of Reading
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Cogent derives from Latin cogere, "to drive together, to
force," from co-, "with, together" + agere, "to drive."

[weedguru_animal]

scion \SY-uhn\, noun:
1. A detached shoot or twig of a plant used for grafting.
2. Hence, a descendant; an heir.

Convinced he was the scion of Louis Alexandre Lebris de
Kerouac, a noble Breton, he was off to do genealogical
research in the Paris libraries and then to locate his
ancestor's hometown in Brittany.
-- Ellis Amburn, [1]Subterranean Kerouac

Sassoon, scion of a famously wealthy Jewish banking family,
had never needed to earn his living.
-- Philip Hoare, [2]Oscar Wilde's Last Stand

Gates is the scion of an old, affluent Seattle family; Jobs
is the adopted son of a machinist in Northern California.
-- "Steve Jobs, Hesitant Co-Founder, Makes New Commitment
to Apple," [3]New York Times, August 7, 1997
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Scion derives from Old French cion, of Germanic origin.

[weedguru_animal]

dilettante \DIL-uh-tont; dil-uh-TONT; dil-uh-TON-tee; -TANT;
-TAN-tee\, noun:
1. An amateur or dabbler; especially, one who follows an art
or a branch of knowledge sporadically, superficially, or for
amusement only.
2. An admirer or lover of the fine arts.

adjective:
1. Of or characteristic of a dilettante; amateurish.

As he had put it, it was a matter of principle, not money:
Mistler family trusts, over which he exercised
discretionary powers, had not been established to support
dilettantes or would-be litterateurs waiting for
inspiration.
-- Louis Begley, [1]Mistler's Exit

His writings, which began as a schoolboy's jottings for the
amusement of classmates, continued into adulthood, although
he describes his youthful work as the musings of a
dilettante.
-- David Gonzalez, "Eye on the Universe: A Poet Views It
All From the Bronx," [2]New York Times, December 25, 1991

At first his colleagues tended to dismiss this witty young
dilettante poet as a scientific lightweight, even if he was
an agreeable addition to their dinner table.
-- "Dr Alex Comfort," [3]Times (London), March 28, 2000

She was, in the parlance of the time, a 'sermon taster',
going to any church where the preaching was supposed to be
good; for a dilettante churchgoer Brighton was then an
exciting place to be.
-- Matthew Sturgis, [4]Aubrey Beardsley: A Biography
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Dilettante comes from the present participle of Italian
delittare, "to delight," from Latin delectare, "to delight,"
frequentative of delicere, "to allure," from de- + lacere, "to
entice."

[weedguru_animal]

toothsome \TOOTH-suhm\, adjective:
1. Pleasing to the taste; delicious; as, "a toothsome pie."
2. Agreeable; attractive; as, "a toothsome offer."
3. Sexually attractive.

Fleming was impressed not only by its taste but by its
astonishing durability: Caudle's apple, after ten months in
storage, was still toothsome and fragrant.
-- David Guterson, "The Kingdom of Apples," [1]Harper's
Magazine, October 1999

Their topic, naturally: business niches that offer
toothsome opportunities and comparatively limited
competition.
-- Dick Youngblood, "Business niches can be opportunities,"
[2]Minneapolis Star Tribune, March 2, 2003

The myth, which Kournikova herself often takes great
measures to perpetuate, is that she is an imposter on the
WTA Tour, a toothsome starlet who simply uses the tennis
court as a catwalk.
-- Jon Wertheim, "Any day now for Anna," [3]Sports
Illustrated, April 14, 2000
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Toothsome is derived from tooth + -some.

[weedguru_animal]

crapulous \KRAP-yuh-lus\, adjective:
1. Suffering the effects of, or derived from, or suggestive of
gross intemperance, especially in drinking; as, a crapulous
stomach.
2. Marked by gross intemperance, especially in drinking; as, a
crapulous old [1]reprobate.

These were the dregs of their celebratory party: the
half-filled glasses, the cold beans and herring, the shouts
and smells of the crapulous strangers hemming them in on
every side, the dead rinsed-out April night and the rain
drooling down the windows.
-- T. Coraghessan Boyle, [2]Riven Rock

The crapulous life which her future successor led.
-- Lord Brougham, Historical Sketches of Statesmen in the
Time of George III

The new money was spent in so much riotous living, and from
end to end there settled on the country a mood of fretful,
crapulous irritation.
-- Stephen McKenna, Sonia
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Crapulous is from Late Latin crapulosus, from Latin crapula,
from Greek kraipale, drunkenness and its consequences, nausea,
sickness, and headache.

[weedguru_animal]

pleonasm \PLEE-uh-naz-uhm\, noun:

1. The use of more words than are necessary to express an idea; as, "I saw it with my own eyes."
2. An instance or example of pleonasm.
3. A superfluous word or _expression.


Dougan uses many words where few would do, as if pleonasm were a way of wringing every possibility out of the material he has, and stretching sentences a form of spreading the word.
-- Paula Cocozza, "Book review: How Dynamo Kiev beat the Luftwaffe", Independent, March 2, 2001

Such a phrase from President Nixon's era, much favored by politicians, is "at this moment in time." Presumably these five words mean "now." That pleonasm probably does little harm except, perhaps, to the reputation of the speaker.
-- Eoin McKiernan, "Last Word: Special Relationships", Irish America, August 31, 1994

Pleonasm is from Greek pleonasmos, from pleon, "greater, more."

[weedguru_animal]

cerebration \ser-uh-BRAY-shuhn\, noun:
The act or product of thinking; the use of the power of reason; mental activity; thought.


Generally, to the 2 1/2-year-old apple of her parents' eye, who bravely negotiates her ABC's, the recitation must seem, if anything other than pure nonsense, more like a physical task -- like rafting a river or running a steeplechase -- than cerebration.
-- Daniel Menaker, "Lletters for Yyoungsters", New York Times, November 9, 1986

Celebration of cerebration is not what the public wants. Indeed, the opposite is probably true. We are suspicious of excessive smartness.
-- David R. Slavitt, "You Can Go Holmes Again", New York Times, October 17, 1993

Cerebration is ultimately derived from Latin cerebrum, "brain." The related verb cerebrate means "to use the power of reason; to think."

[weedguru_animal]

incontrovertible \in-kon-truh-VUR-tuh-buhl\, adjective:
Too clear or certain to admit of dispute; indisputable; unquestionable.


It is in the nature of philosophical questions that they do not have final, incontrovertible answers, or, more exactly, that every answer raises new questions.
-- George Soros, Open Society: Reforming Global Capitalism

And although the evidence was substantial, it was not incontrovertible.
-- Al Strachan, "Phantom Goal, part 2", Toronto Sun, May 23, 1999

Despite speculation based on ancient tales and ancient art, no incontrovertible evidence has been discovered of polio's existence before the nineteenth century, at least not in its epidemic form.
-- Sherwin B. Nuland, "A Summer Plague: Polio and Its Survivors", New Republic, October 16, 1995

Incontrovertible is in-, "not" + controvertible, which is derived from Latin controversia, "a dispute," from controvertere, "to turn against, to turn in the opposite direction, to dispute" from contro-, "against" + vertere, "to turn." It is related to controversy.

cognoscente \kon-yuh-SHEN-tee; kog-nuh-; -SEN-\, noun;
plural cognoscenti \-tee\:
A person with special knowledge of a subject; a connoisseur.


However, I thought it well to acquaint myself with the latest scientific thinking, so as not to write a tale that would embarrass me among the cognoscenti.
-- Ronald Wright, A Scientific Romance

In the early 1600s, however, beliefs that decried curiosity and restricted information about the "secrets" of nature to a handful of cognoscenti were under attack.
-- Tom Shachtman, Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold

Greenspan, to his credit, tells the truth about what he does, but until now, he has done it in a way that only the cognoscenti can understand.
-- Paul Krugman, "Labor Pains", New York Times Magazine, May 23, 1999

Cognoscente derives from the Obsolete Italian, from Latin cognoscens, cognoscent-, present participle of cognoscere, "to know."

[weedguru_animal]

venal \VEE-nuhl\, adjective:

1. Capable of being bought or obtained for money or other valuable consideration; held for sale; salable; purchasable.
2. Capable of being corrupted.
3. Marked by or associated with bribery and corrupt dealings.


Not everything was so venal in this operation, however. Sometimes votes were bought outright, but this was frowned on if the sums were too high.

timorous \TIM-uhr-uhs\, adjective:

1. Full of apprehensiveness; timid; fearful.
2. Indicating, or caused by, fear.


Girls, allegedly so timorous and lacking in confidence, now outnumber boys in student government, in honor societies, on school newspapers, and even in debating clubs.

aficionado \uh-fish-ee-uh-NAH-doh\, noun:
An enthusiastic admirer; a fan.


An aficionado of Chinese food, Diffie was also known for carrying around a pair of elegant chopsticks, much the way a serious billiard player totes his favorite cue.
-- Steven Levy, Crypto


emblazon \em-BLAY-zuhn\, transitive verb:
To deck in glaring colors; to set off conspicuously; to display pompously; to decorate.


Three times we stopped at one of the tiny wooden snack shacks that dot Tobago's roadside, all emblazoned with Coke signs, before we found one that had any in stock: It had one bottle.

apotheosis \uh-pah-thee-OH-sis; ap-uh-THEE-uh-sis\, noun;
plural apotheoses \-seez\:

1. Elevation to divine rank or stature; deification.
2. An exalted or glorified example; a model of excellence or perfection of a kind.


Following martyrdom at the Alamo and apotheosis in song, tall tale, and celluloid myth, this bumpkin from west Tennessee [Davy Crockett] became better known and more revered than all but a handful of American presidents.

paucity \PAW-suh-tee\, noun:

1. Fewness; smallness of number; scarcity.
2. Smallness of quantity; insufficiency.


The relative paucity of documents from this period may help to explain why no mention of David was found for such a long time.

arbiter \AR-buh-tuhr\, noun:

1. A person appointed or chosen to judge or decide a dispute.
2. Any person who has the power of judging and determining.


There was no shortage of such socially knowing, good-natured, and adaptable folk among the charter members of the Institute, especially in its department of literature, where a sizable number were not really literary practitioners but instead high-quality magazine editors, professors, and other well-settled arbiters of taste.


gravid \GRAV-id\, adjective:
Being with child; heavy with young or eggs; pregnant.


For the moment the Cap'n Toby lies at rest outside the harbor, and the twelve-inch mackerels that Brian and I are cutting up for lobster bait are ripe, their bellies gravid with either blood-red roe or milt the color of sailors' bones.

ephemeron \ih-FEM-uh-ron\, noun;
plural ephemera \ih-FEM-uh-ruh\:

1. Something short-lived or of no lasting significance.
2. ephemera: Items, especially printed matter (as posters, broadsides, pamphlets, etc.), intended to be of use or importance for only a short time but preserved by collectors.


And collections of correspondence will always reveal "a remarkable mind, grappling with everything from the ephemera of day-to-day life to the mysteries of the universe."