Barron's 1100 Words You Need to Know » Week 30 - Day 2

Word List
  • condescend [kon´ di send´]
    stoop, lower oneself
    → “The reviewer treated this important book in the most condescending and dismissing manner.” Letter to New York Times Book Review, 7/25/99
  • candor [kan´ dər]
    frankness, honesty
    → “He was struck by the candor and self-reliance of the women in these islands.” “Pacific Paradise,” New York Times, 8/9/99
  • mortify [môr´ tə fī]
    embarrass, humiliate
    → “The comparisons between her sister’s beauty and her own no longer would mortify her.” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
  • jocose [jō kōs´]
    humorous, merry
    → “He caught the sound of jocose talk and ringing laughter from behind the hedges.” George Eliot, Adam Bede
  • malign [mə līn´]
    abuse, slander
    → “His chosen weapon is the verbal hand grenade by which he can outrage and malign.” Kenneth Tynan, “On Don Rickles,” New Yorker, 2/20/78

Mark Twain’s boat was so slow no other steamer would condescend to race with it. With the utmost candor, Twain comments that his boat moved at such a pathetic* pace, they used to forget in what year it was they left port. Nothing would mortify Twain more than the fact that ferryboats, waiting to cross the river, would lose valuable trips because their passengers grew senile* and died waiting for his boat, the John J. Roe, to pass. Mark Twain wrote in a jocose manner about the races his steamer had with islands and rafts. With quiet humor he continued to malign the riverboat, but his book is replete* with love for this sort of life.

Sample Sentences Use the new words in these sentences.

  1. He had such disdain* for us, he would not __________ to speak before our group.
  2. It is most common to __________ the wealthy for their avarice.*
  3. It is difficult to be __________ in the presence of so many doleful* people.
  4. When we cannot speak with __________, we utilize euphemisms.*
  5. Good sportsmanship requires that one not __________ a defeated adversary.*

Definitions Match the new words with their definitions.

  1. a. humorous, merry
  2. b. abuse, slander
  3. c. stoop, lower oneself
  4. d. frankness, honesty
  5. e. embarrass, humiliate
  1. condescend __________
  2. candor __________
  3. mortify __________
  4. jocose __________
  5. malign __________

Answer Key
from pillar to post—from one place to another
The company was so large and spread out, he was sent from pillar to post before he found the proper official.

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