《Verbal Advantage Level 6》.doc

VERBAL ADVANTAGE SUCCESS EDITION ADVANCED Level VI By Charles Harrington Elster Verbal Advantage Level Six With Pronunciations, Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Information Listed in Order of Presentation, by Level and Number. The abbreviation N.B. stands for the Latin nota bene and means note well, take good note of. The introduction to this level explores how vocabulary is acquired, average vocabulary growth at different ages and stages of life, and the difference between your active and passive vocabularies. 1. LEGERDEMAIN (LEJ-ur-duh-MAYN) Sleight of hand; a cleverly executed trick or deception. Synonyms: magic, prestidigitation, thaumaturgy. Etymology and usage: Legerdemain comes from a Middle French phrase light of hand. Today the word may refer specifically to adroitness with the hands, as in performing magic tricks; to any display of clever skill and adroitness; or a cleverly executed trick or deception. Spelling tip: There is no e at the end of legerdemain. 2. PUERILE (PYOOR-ul or PYOO-ur-ul) Childish, immature; hence, foolish, silly. Etymology: Latin puerilis, youthful, from puer, a child. Synonyms: (childish or immature) infantile, juvenile; (foolish or silly) inane; frivolous, asinine, fatuous, sophomoric, callow (Level 4, Word 30). Corresponding nouns: puerilism, a psychiatric term for the abnormal appearance of childish behavior in an adult; puerility, childishness, immaturity, or in civil law, the status of a child between infancy and puberty. 3. COMPLICITY (kuhm-PLIS-i-tee) Conspiracy, partnership in wrongdoing, criminal participation, direct association in guilt, the state of being an accomplice. N.B. This discussion distinguishes the words conspiracy, confederacy, collusion, and complicity, all of which refer to partnership or participation in disreputable or illegal activities. It also explores a usage problem concerning the words connivance, feigning ignorance of wrong doing, and connive, to feign ignorance of wrong doing. Etymology and relat