New favorite words...and old ones I never really thought about...

antediluvian: literally, before the flood. as in ancient.
caprice: impulse. it's funny because capers were considered to be aphrodisiacs.
craven: cowardly. And quoth the craven nevermore.
diffident: modest. I'm not cool, I'm just diffident.
disparaging: belittling. I knew this word, but never thought about it much. It's cool because "dis-" means "not" or "making not", and the root comes from the same as the Italian "paragone", meaning "comparison". Therefore, to disparage something or someone is to act as if or to declare it as not equal or comparable to its peer. It's a pretty intense word, actually.
dissemble: to conceal one's real motive. It has the same root as the Italian "sembrare", meaning "to seem". Thus, the word means "to make seem as not".
equivocal: ambiguous. From the same root as "quiver".
extant: still existing. "ex-" meaning "out" and "-ant" makes it a noun. Thus, it means "the thing that is out".
peccadillo: small sin or fault. from "peccato", or "sin", which comes from "cadere", or "to fall".
tirade: an angry speech. from the same as "tirare", meaning "to tear".
volatile: explosive, fickle. from the same as "volare", meaning "to fly".


Esoteric words are not that intimidating when you see how people made them up. Then it's kind of funny.


I'm studying for the GRE.