GRE Word of the Day @gre@wxw.moe

To be covetous of something is to want it and to be a little jealous of anyone who has it. The advertising industry’s goal is to make you covetous of the things that other people have — that way, you'll buy them.

If you feel the desire to own an object, specifically something that your friend owns, you are covetous of it. You might be covetous of her new high-speed digital camera. There is a commandment in Christianity about not feeling covetous toward your neighbor’s spouse: this could apply to a situation when you might find yourself attracted to your friend’s girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, or wife. Best to smother those feelings, if you want to keep that friendship.

Usage Examples:

“At one point, the housemaid Maggie observes that white children “would be the same dreary, covetous creatures they were destined to be, a blight their humorless god encouraged.”” - STM

“They didn’t deny themselves the pleasures of good old-fashioned capital, but they were equally covetous of social and intellectual capital.” - GUD

“Pesci plays Russell with a subtle menace conveyed through a blank look or a slyly covetous gaze.” - NYT

“I think you are a little jealous, or at least covetous, of the kind of close relationship you can’t provide unless you move in next door to your parents.” - SLT

More: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/covetous

If you're reading this on a treadmill or while taking a walk, you may know about the peripatetic, or walking, philosopher Aristotle, who taught while strolling with his students. Or, maybe you just like being a peripatetic, a walking wanderer.

Peri- is the Greek word for "around," and peripatetic is an adjective that describes someone who likes to walk or travel around. Peripatetic is also a noun for a person who travels from one place to another or moves around a lot. If you walk in a circle, you are peripatetic, or walking, but you aren’t a peripatetic, or wanderer, unless you actually go somewhere.

Usage Examples:

“He is a peripatetic child of Europe, Africa and the Caribbean.” - NYT

“Marked by wide-ranging business ventures, grand gestures and righteous causes, his peripatetic life was driven by the joy in whims.” - LAT

“Mr. Coles, who graduated from Old Dominion University in 2014 after a peripatetic upbringing in a military family, benefited from the clubs’ structure and mentorship.” - NYT

“Messud communicates that inner life and the outer trappings of her peripatetic childhood with marvelous particularity, capturing in palpable, resonant detail various family homes and intricate familial interactions.” - WPO

More: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/peripatetic

Something that is dangerous or very risky can be described with the adjective perilous. If you are driving in a blizzard, you may kick yourself for making such a perilous journey.

The adjective perilous comes from the Latin word periculum, meaning dangerous. Words from the same root include peril, a noun meaning a dangerous situation, and imperil, a verb meaning to put in danger. The last thing you want to do as a parent is to imperil your children. Unfortunately, childhood is filled with peril — from climbing on the monkey bars to eating paste, dirt, or bugs. If you think you can prevent all perilous situations, you haven't been a parent very long!

Usage Examples:

“Viruses are constantly mutating, and new versions – called variants – often emerge, almost all of which are no more perilous than their prior iterations.” - WTM

“By kicking, the Packers needed to walk a similarly perilous path to victory, but with the variable of overtime removed.” - WPO

“Across the Arab world, countries are facing the same perilous dynamic: Their populations are rapidly expanding, but their leadership is stifling economic growth.” - WPO

“In its current state at Disneyland, a white traveler is at top while native safari guides are in a more perilous position.” - LAT

More: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/perilous

Arrogance is overbearing pride or haughtiness. If your friends are constantly complaining about your arrogance, you might want to lose the haughty attitude and try to be more humble.

Arrogance comes from the Latin arrogans which means overbearing. If you show arrogance, your pride is overbearing and offensive to others. Arrogance can also be attributed to corporations who fail to take consumer opinion into account and to nations that seem to do whatever they want with no regard for other countries.

Usage Examples:

“A judge said arrogance and greed drove Englander to lie to the FBI about cash payments and a debauched night in Las Vegas.” - LAT

“Our reviewer, Daisy Goodwin, called the novel “a mordant observation of the palimpsest of arrogance and resentment” surrounding Britain’s dealings with its neighbor.” - NYT

““I think we are all waking up to the arrogance of our assumptions that there won’t be these kinds of world-changing moments in our lifetimes,” he said.” - NYT

“"So the problem is when you get this kind of incompetence mixed together with arrogance, when people believe that they're right when they are demonstrably wrong."” - SLN

More: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/arrogance

Don't have two nickels to rub together? You're penurious — a lovely long way of saying you're flat broke.

Penurious also means a general dislike of spending money. If someone accuses you of being cheap, tell them you prefer to be thought of as penurious. It sounds so much classier. It's related to a similar word, penury, which means "a state of extreme poverty."

Usage Examples:

“The penurious nicotine levels proved frustrating and costly for South Korean vapers.” - NYT

“New York City being New York City, and the Mets being the Mets, it was inevitable that a master of the universe would finally push the penurious Wilpon family into the mists of history.” - NYT

“Like Mr. Eisenberg’s previous plays, “Happy Talk” is centered on an imbalanced relationship between a shortsighted, affluent American and a relatively penurious foreigner.” - NYT

“As three penurious gold prospectors, and Lloyd a conservative party activist, the 1910 climbers cherished their departed Republican, William McKinley.” - GUD

More: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/penurious

A detractor is someone who puts you down. When you're proposing ideas at work, your detractor is the person who finds fault with everything you say.

Use the noun detractor for someone who is always critical. You might describe your brother as a detractor of the government if he complains incessantly about taxes, voting, the President, and all the members of Congress. If a person takes a dislike to you in particular, he is your own personal detractor. The origin of detractor goes back to the Latin word detrahere, "take down, pull down, or disparage."

Usage Examples:

“The fight between Malley’s supporters and detractors is a proxy battle for the upcoming war over Iran policy.” - WPO

“While their supporters may want to see rapid change and their detractors are against any change, somewhere in the middle is the sweet spot where our nation’s “better angels” gather to move us forward.” - WTM

“He struck neither his fans in the department nor his detractors as being part of the Trumpist faction of the party, according to interviews.” - NYT

“President Donald Trump’s presence on the ballot led to sky-high turnout last year among his supporters and detractors alike; it’s unclear how Democrats will do without him on the ballot.” - WTM

More: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/detractor

Repose is a formal or literary term used to mean the act of resting, or the state of being at rest. Repose is also a state of mind: freedom from worry.

As a verb, repose means to rest or relax, or to rest on something for support: "There she was, reposing on the front porch." The verb is from Middle English, from Old French reposer, from Late Latin repausāre, "to cause to rest," from the Latin prefix re-, "again," plus pausāre, "to rest."

Usage Examples:

“Visitation is scheduled for Friday in the rotunda of the Maryland State House, where the body of Thomas V. Mike Miller is lying in repose.” - STM

“The body of Thomas V. Mike Miller arrived Thursday evening and will lie in repose under Maryland’s Capitol rotunda.” - WTM

“Comparing decades-old biological observations with engineering models, the researchers found that by hurling sand grains, the antlions constantly maintain the pit’s “angle of repose”—the steepest possible angle before the sandy slope starts to slide.” - SCM

“For many Black Americans, the holiday is a time for bonding, joy and repose.” - NYT

More: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/repose

A counterfeit is a fake or a forgery. If you painted an uncanny copy of the "Mona Lisa" and tried to pass it off as the original, you'd have a counterfeit on your hands.

An exact imitation of anything — a work of art, a ten dollar bill — is a counterfeit, and the act of creating the fake copy is the verb to counterfeit. You can also describe the forgery using the adjective form of counterfeit: a counterfeit Rolex watch. In Old French, the word contre, "counter or against", together with the word faire, "to make," joined together to mean "to make in imitation," which led to our counterfeit.

Usage Examples:

“Prosecutors on Friday charged four Bulgarians with being part of an organized crime group making and distributing fake Bulgarian documents and counterfeit U.S. dollar and euro banknotes.” - WTM

“According to a later memo from the Department of Justice: “Robberies and counterfeiting were discussed as ways to finance the movement. Bombings and assassinations were discussed as a means of achieving the desired ends.”” - STM

“At the time, he said he was focused on redesigning bills to address counterfeiting issues, not making changes to their imagery.” - BBC

“Designing and releasing new currency is a lengthy process that includes considerations for counterfeit protection and ensuring compliance with note-processing machines at locations such as banks and grocery stores.” - WPO

More: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/counterfeit

Use fervor to describe an intensity of emotion or expression. Fans of the Los Angeles Dodgers show so much fervor that they "bleed Dodger blue."

This noun comes to us from Latin fervere, meaning "to boil, glow." In the English word fervor, the suffix –or means "a condition or property of something." There is another –or suffix that means "a person or thing that does the thing expressed by the verb." A corresponding adjective is fervent; synonyms of the noun and adjective are ardor and ardent.

Usage Examples:

“On a yellow wall in an airy gallery, signs from recent BLM protests invite not just fervor but reflection.” - WPO

“It’s a fine line between religious fervor and madness; perhaps there’s no line at all.” - LAT

““There’s an ideological fervor that is driving a lot of them,” Brennan said.” - WPO

“Ms. Powell said in a statement that she co-founded the group with Mike Lindell, the CEO of the My Pillow bedding company recently beleaguered as a result of his own fervor for former President Trump.” - WTM

More: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/fervor

A palpitation is when your heart beats quickly and irregularly. It's also any kind of shaky, quivery motion.

You know how your heart goes a mile a minute when you're excited? Then you've felt palpitations: that's when your heart beats fast and out of rhythm. Palpitations can be nothing serious or they could be signs of heart trouble. Also, a palpitation is any type of shaky motion, such as quivering or trembling. People with Parkinson's disorder have a lot of palpitations, and we all have palpitations — such as shaky hands — when we're nervous.

Usage Examples:

“So the game ratified Smith’s Heisman Trophy, and it upheld the Alabama offense as a starship that hovered over all its games, and it furthered a season in which Alabama fans felt barely a palpitation.” - WPO

“Even when Casseia finally went to the doctor, her physician focused on her heart palpitations, ordering a full blood panel almost as an afterthought.” - WPO

“Jets and is giving Cleveland fans heart palpitations every time he takes the field.” - STM

“People who do notice symptoms, such as heart palpitations or chest pain, should talk to their doctor.” - WPO

More: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/palpitation