Creative Vocab
Desultory
desultory (adj.): aimless and unmethodical
“He had no settled plan of life, nor looked forward at all, but merely lived from day to day. Yet he read a great deal in a desultory manner, without any scheme of study, as chance threw books in his way, and inclination directed him through them.”
Sounds like: days-old story
I heard about Cady and Aaron hooking up from Gretchen last week. Karen came to tell me yesterday, and she took one hour to tell me the days-old story in her usual desultory style with lots of distracting ums and likes. I think I wouldn’t have understood the story if I hadn’t heard it from Gretchen first.
Disinter
disinter (v.): to exhume a body, or unearth an object
The mummies of Guanajuato were interred in Mexico in 1833, then disinterred between 1865 and 1958. I just googled them, and they look pretty scary.
Sounds like: dis + in + terr
In + terr = in earth = to bury
Dis + inter = Dis + bury = to dig out
Beleaguered
beleaguered (adj.): harassed, troubled
There is no shortage of restaurants, both top-notch and wannabe, that are immovable when it comes to recipes.
On his blog, restaurant consultant Clark Wolf wrote of how the San Francisco restaurant Poodle Dog, after a multimillion-dollar facelift, went “down quickly in flames, metaphorically and financially, which was in some large part attributed to the chef’s absolute refusal to put or allow salt and pepper anywhere in or near the dining room.”
“He promised, through well-trained staff and slightly beleaguered PR folks, that he’d achieved perfect seasoning in the kitchen,” Wolf wrote. “Many of us tipped our hats to his brilliance and proceeded to eat elsewhere.”
Sounds like: Billy girl
In his glory days, Billy Bob Thornton was a typical beleaguered actor whose fangirls threw themselves at him every chance they got. But not so much ever since he went on Canadian TV and described Canadians as “mashed potato without the gravy”. He’s probably beleaguered by regret over his words.
Vagrant
vagrant (n.): 
a homeless person, a derelict
Mugatu: Let me show you Derelicte. It is a fashion, a way of life inspired by the very homeless, the vagrants, the crack whores that make this wonderful city so unique.
Sounds like: vague rant
I live near a park where vagrants like to spend the night, so I go to sleep listening to vague rants against capitalism and the government.
Derelict
derelict (n.) 
: a homeless bum, a hobo
“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On! has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
― Calvin Coolidge
Sounds like: dare elect
We dared to elect a derelict onto the homeless shelter’s executive board, and he pleasantly surprised us with his passion and drive.
Sundry
sundry (adj.) [SUN-dree]:
- manifold; diverse and miscellaneous
- used in the idiom “all and sundry”, which means “each and everything”
- “Seen in the light of evolution, biology is, perhaps, intellectually the most satisfying and inspiring science. Without that light it becomes a pile of sundry facts — some of them interesting or curious but making no meaningful picture as a whole.”
― Theodosius Dobzhansky- “I am very astonished that the scientific picture of the real world around me is very deficient. It gives a lot of factual information, puts all our experience in a magnificently consistent order, but it is ghastly silent about all and sundry that is really near to our heart, that really matters to us. It cannot tell us a word about red and blue, bitter and sweet, physical pain and physical delight; it knows nothing of beautiful and ugly, good or bad, God and eternity.
Science sometimes pretends to answer questions in these domains, but the answers are very often so silly that we are not inclined to take them seriously.”
― Erwin Schrödinger
Looks like: sun dry
My eccentric aunt got me a basket of sundry sun-dried fruits and vegetables for Christmas.
Vagary
vagary (n.) [VAGUE-arry]: An unexpected and inexplicable change in a situation or in someone’s behavior. Eg. - the vagaries of the weather, the vagaries of my emotional state, the vagaries of the economy
“Every adult life could be said to be defined by two great love stories. The first - the story of our quest for sexual love - is well known and well charted, its vagaries form the staple of music and literature, it is socially accepted and celebrated. The second - the story of our quest for love from the world - is a more secret and shameful tale. If mentioned, it tends to be in caustic, mocking terms, as something of interest chiefly to envious or deficient souls, or else the drive for status is interpreted in an economic sense alone. And yet this second love story is no less intense than the first, it is no less complicated, important or universal, and its setbacks are no less painful. There is heartbreak here too.”
― Alain de Botton, Status Anxiety
Sounds like: veg curry
Raj only ever cooks vegetarian curries, but the vagaries of what’s available and affordable at the farmers market mean it always tastes different.
Suppliant
suppliant (n.) [SUPP-lee-yant] : someone who supplicates; someone who begs for something humbly from a God or powerful person
Cleopatra: You come before me as a suppliant.
Antony: If you choose to regard me as such.
Cleopatra: You will therefore assume the position of a suppliant before this throne. You will kneel.
Antony: I will *what*?
Cleopatra: On-your-knees!
Antony: You dare ask the Proconsul of the Roman Empire?
Cleopatra: I *asked* it of Julius Caesar. I *demand* it of you!- Cleopatra, 1963
Think of: supply want
“Please God, supply me with what I want,” the suppliant asks each day.
Dereliction
dereliction (n.) 
:
- the act of abandoning something (usually your responsibilities - “dereliction of duty”)
- the condition of being abandoned or neglected
- Phineas Nigellus: Oh, no, Dumbledore, I am too tired tonight.
Corpulent red-nosed wizard: Insubordination, Sir! Dereliction of duty!
Armando Dippet: We are honour-bound to give service to the present Headmaster of Hogwarts!
Gimlet-eyed witch: Shall I persuade him, Dumbledore? [raising an unusually thick wand]
Phineas: Oh very well. [eyeing the wand with mild apprehension]
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix- My room was in a state of utter dereliction while I trudged through finals week.
Sounds like: the relic shun
When Frodo got his hands on the relic, it made him shun everything in his life that mattered. His dereliction of common sense and courtesy left his friendship with Sam in a dangerous state of dereliction.
Corpulent
corpulent (adj.) 
: very fat
Jarod: One more question.
Foreman: Shoot.
Jarod: Valentine’s Day. Specifically cupid.
Foreman: Yeah.
Jarod: A corpulent infant, who happens to be an archer, goes around shooting arrows into people and suddenly they’re in love?
Foreman: That’s about it.
Jarod: And to show that they love, people buy each other chocolate and other sweets? Do they want to be fat, like the infant?
Sounds like: corpse you lent
“That corpse you lent me was too corpulent to lift onto the bed!” said the mad scientist angrily. “I’m used to working with 100-pound women.”
Source: The Mad Scientist: A History
