Synopses & Reviews
Have you ever tried to decoct(1) what you read in the newspapers? Do you wish to Procrusteanize(2) your office mates? Do acidulous(3) comments make you blush? Do you wish to adumbrate(4) your desires to a meticulist(5)? If so -- and if you have searched for the proper way to express these feelings in your language, then this handy pocket word guide is all you need to do so. William R Buckley, Jr., has long been famed for his addiction to and marvelous skill with words of all kinds. Now he has put together a collection of his own personal favorites -- words he uses with probity(6) and largesse(7). With just this volume you, too, will be able to sprinkle your own sentences with the best of good English. Amusingly illustrated in black-and-white by master cartoonist Arnold Roth, The Lexicon will prove to be, not arcana(8) for the dilettante(9), but fecundity(10) for the well-rounded reader.(1)To figure out by deduction
(2)To produce conformity by ruthless means
(3)Biting, caustic, harsh
(4)To outline broadly, omitting details
(5)A precise measurer
(6)Uncompromising adherence to the highest principles and ideals
(7)Liberality in giving
(8)Secret or mysterious knowledge
(9)A person who cultivates knowledge as a pastime without pursuing it
(10)Fruitfulness
Synopsis
This boon to logophiles, culled from Buckley: The Right Word, presents the authors most erudite, outré, and interesting words - from prehensile and sciolist to rubric and histrionic - complete with definitions, examples, and usage notes. Introduction by Jesse Sheidlower; illustrations by Arnold Roth.
About the Author
William F. Buckley Jr. is the founder of National Review and was the host of what was television's longest-running program, Firing Line. He was recently awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The author of thirteen other novels, including Spytime and Nuremberg: The Reckoning, he lives in Connecticut.