Back in 1967 when I was preparing to take the SAT exam, I found the word “jejune” in the list of possible words I might encounter when I took the test. Jejune was not a word I was familiar with. I hadn’t seen it in the books I read or the people I talked to. Jejune means dull, uninteresting, and juvenile. And, surprise surprise, jejune showed up on the SAT exam when I took it!
I took three years of Latin so I’m pretty good at Latin expressions. But the French and the German words and phrases baffle me.
Ross and Kathryn Petras think smart people should know these 100 words. How many of them do you know? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- ACKNOWLEGEMENTS — vii
- INTRODUCTION — 1
- ad hominem — 5
- anethema — 6
- antediluvian — 8
- appurtenance — 11
- ascetic — 12
- atavistic — 14
- bespoke — 15
- bate noire –17
- betimes — 18
- bildrunsroman — 20
- cacophony — 21
- capricious — 23
- casuistry — 25
- catch-22 — 26
- churlish — 28
- crepuscular — 29
- de facto / de jure — 31
- denouement — 33
- didactic — 34
- disingenuous — 36
- doppelgänger — 37
- egregious — 39
- empirical — 40
- ennui — 42
- epistemology — 43
- ersatz — 45
- evanescent — 46
- exegesis — 48
- existential — 49
- extenuating — 51
- fascist / fascism — 53
- feckless — 54
- fungible — 56
- gnostic — 57
- hagiography — 59
- hermeneutic — 61
- heuristic — 62
- hubris — 64
- iconoclast — 66
- implicit — 67
- inchoate — 69
- insouciant — 70
- internecine — 72
- inveterate — 73
- je ne sais quoi — 75
- jejune — 76
- laconic — 78
- legerdemain — 79
- limpid — 81
- louche — 82
- mea culpa — 84
- metaphor / simile — 85
- mot juste — 87
- neologism — 88
- nihilism — 90
- ontology — 91
- opprobrium — 93
- panegyric — 94
- pedant — 96
- perfunctory — 97
- peripatetic — 99
- polemic — 100
- postmodern — 102
- prima facie — 104
- protean — 105
- putative — 107
- QED — 108
- quantum — 110
- quid pro quo — 112
- quintessential — 113
- quixotic — 115
- quotidian — 117
- realpolitik –118
- recondite — 120
- risible — 121
- sangfroid — 123
- sanguine — 124
- saturnine — 126
- Schroedinger’s cat — 127
- sclerotic — 129
- semiotics — 131
- sententious — 133
- shibboleth — 134
- sine qua non — 136
- solecism / solipsism — 137
- storm und drang — 139
- sub rosa — 140
- sui generis — 142
- sumptuary — 143
- sword of Damocles — 145
- sycophant — 146
- syllogism — 148
- syntax — 150
- teleological — 151
- trope — 153
- ubiquitous — 155
- wabi sabi — 156
- weltschmerz — 158
- zeitgeist — 159
- NOTES — 161
- ABOUT THE AUTHORS — 183
