Learn English Everyday

agoraphobia

2007-08-20T12:28:00.000-07:00

AGORAPHOBIA (noun)

Meaning : an irrational fear of open or public spaces

Origin:
Approximately 1873; coined by German psychiatrist Carl Westphal as German, 'Agoraphobie'; formed from Greek, 'agora': marketplace, which is related to the root 'ger-': to gather + 'phobia': fear.

2007-05-09T20:26:00.000-07:00

assuage - To make (something burdensome or painful) less intense or severe.

Synonyms: appease, alleviate, relieve, palliate, pacify

Usage: Food, however, became scarce, and I often spent the whole day searching in vain for a few acorns to assuage the pangs of hunger.

2007-05-09T05:22:00.000-07:00

yoke - sway or burden

Usage: India has thrown off the British yoke

2007-05-08T22:52:00.000-07:00

palpitating - Having a slight and rapid trembling motion.

Synonyms: palpitant

Usage: What a horror they outpour On the bosom of the palpitating air

2007-05-08T21:42:00.000-07:00

sere - Withered; dry.

Synonyms: dried-up, shrivelled, sear, withered

Usage: The desert was edged with sere vegetation.

2007-05-08T21:41:00.000-07:00

mawkish - Excessively and objectionably sentimental.

Synonyms: bathetic, hokey, maudlin, schmaltzy, sentimental, mushy, drippy

Usage: his behavior was highly emotional

2007-05-08T21:40:00.000-07:00

lissome - Easily bent; supple.

Synonyms: lithe, supple, slender

Usage: There was a grace, which no austerity could diminish, about every movement of her lissome, slender form.

2007-05-08T21:38:00.000-07:00

pinguid - Fat; oily.

Synonyms: oily

Usage: His car was splattered with some sort of pinguid substance, and washing it only seemed to spread the mess.

2007-05-08T21:36:00.000-07:00

somnolent - Drowsy; sleepy.

Synonyms: slumbery, slumbrous, slumberous

Usage: the sound had a somnolent effect

2007-05-08T21:27:00.000-07:00

munificent - Very liberal in giving; generous.

Synonyms: lavish, overgenerous, prodigal, too-generous, unsparing, unstinted, untinting

Usage: Munificent as life was to me, I added to that munificence.

2007-05-08T21:14:00.000-07:00

clairvoyant - Having the supposed power to see objects or events that cannot be perceived by the senses.

Synonyms: precognitive

Usage: An advertisement marked "fortune-teller" listed the abilities of a supposedly clairvoyant woman.

2007-05-07T22:26:00.000-07:00

wizened - Lean and wrinkled by shrinkage as from age or illness.

Synonyms: shrunken, withered, wizen, shriveled, shrivelled

Usage: There was nothing left to eat except a few wizened apples that had been left on the shelf too long.

2007-05-07T22:03:00.000-07:00

coeval - Originating or existing during the same period; lasting through the same era.

Synonyms: coetaneous, contemporaneous

Usage: The range was composed of grand, solid, abrupt masses of granite, which appeared as if they had been coeval with the beginning of the world.