Unit 4A Vocabulary Words
Affiliated(uh-fill-ee-ate-id) (adjective): associated, connected
If two things are affiliated they are closely associated with one another. When you join a cause, you become affiliated with it and what it represents. You learned to choose your battles more carefully after becoming affiliated with the "Save the Pigeons" campaign.
Coming from the verb "affiliate," the adjective affiliated shares its history, starting with the Latin stem affiliare, meaning "to adopt." As such, we "adopt" the ideals and goals of groups with which we join and become affiliated. You could be affiliated with a particular church or temple. As a celebrity, you are affiliated with a number of charities. There is also a legal meaning, whereby a mother can affiliate a child, or declare its paternity.
Ascertain(asser-tain) (verb): to find out
Ascertain is a verb that means to find out something. You might have to go to the bank to ascertain if there is any money in your account.
This is a formal word that often applies to discovering the facts or truth about something through examination or experimentation. Information that is ascertained is certain beyond a doubt. If you want a less formal synonym, use discover.
Attainment(uh-tain-mint) (noun): an accomplishment; the act of achieving or attaining
The effort put into something and the pay-off when the work is over is called attainment. Attainment of your goal of learning to make the perfect omelet requires breaking a lot of eggs.
An attainment isn't just handed to you — you have to earn it through skill and hard work. In fact, in slang, attainment is used interchangeably with skill. You might say that the inventiveness and originality of a particular rapper is his attainment, just as his fame, fortune, and respect in the hip-hop community is also his attainment.
Bequeath [bi-kweeth (“bi” as in “bit”)] (verb): to give or pass on as an inheritance, especially after death
To bequeath is to leave your possessions to another person after you die. A man might love his classic cars but would be happy to bequeath them to his grandsons when he writes out his last will and testament.
Bequeath often is used about making plans to give away property and possessions after a person's death: "It was strange to leave a house to a one-year-old baby, but he planned what he would bequeath in his will while he was young, and the baby would be 23 when he finally did die." Sometimes bequeath is used for things handed down without death, as when living parents and grandparents pass, or bequeath, a legacy of stories or family traits and talents as an inheritance.
Cogent(ko-gent) (adjective): forceful, convincing; relevant, to the point
When you make a cogent argument, it means your argument is clear and persuasive. In these days of 24-hour entertainment news and sound-bite sized explanations of complex government policy, it’s hard to find a cogent argument amidst all the emotional outbursts.
Cogent comes from a Latin word meaning to drive together, so cogent thinking is well-organized: it hangs together. If you try to convince your mayor to build a new park by saying that playgrounds are good, seeing the sky is nice, and raccoons are cool…well that’s not a cogent argument; it’s just random. But you could cogently argue that parks contribute to civic happiness by providing space for exercise, community, and encounters with nature.
Converge(cun-verge) (verb): to move toward one point, approach nearer together
Use the verb converge to describe something that comes together at a common point: “Thousands of Elvis fans plan to converge on the small Arkansas town where unconfirmed sightings of the deceased superstar eating at a local barbeque restaurant had been widely reported.”
Two roads, a roomful of politicians, or a group of rabid fans — when things come together from different points they converge. Converge traces back to the Latin word vergere, meaning “to bend or to turn." The prefix con- means "with," a good way to remember that things that converge come together. Don't confuse it with diverge, which means the opposite: "move away," because the prefix “dis-” means “apart.”
Disperse(dis-purse) (verb): to scatter, spread far and wide
To make a crowd at a party disperse, you could take away the food, turn off the music and ask for volunteers to clean up. Disperse is to spread out people or things, making them move in different directions.
Imagine yourself standing on a basketball court holding a cup packed tight with marbles. If you turn it over, the marbles will disperse across the floor, moving away from you in all directions. Another word for this is scatter. Don't confuse this word with disburse, which means to distribute money. Remember that false friends disperse when you cease to disburse.
Esteem(iss-teem) (noun): respect and admiration
Esteem is all about respect and admiration. If you have high self-esteem, it means you like yourself. When you say, "My esteemed colleagues," you are saying you have nothing but the highest respect for them.
Esteem derives from the same Latin word that gives us estimate, and back in the day, esteem, like estimate meant "to assess, or judge the value of something." That sense lingers today. When you say you hold someone in high esteem, it means you give them a high value. Unless you're a politician, in which case, when you say, "I hold my opponent in high esteem," you are most likely to follow that statement with a big "But...."
Expunge(ix-punge) (verb): to erase, obliterate, destroy
To expunge is to cross out or eliminate. After Nicholas proved he had been in school on the day in question, the absence was expunged from his record.
Expunge is often something you do to a document. When government censors block out text in documents before making them public, they are expunging the text. You can also use the word in a more metaphorical sense. The principal tried to expunge all traces of bullying from the school by implementing a kindness initiative and treating all complaints as serious.
Finite(fine-eye-t) (adjective): having limits; lasting for a limited time
Calling something finite means it has an end or finishing point. "Don't worry, it's a bad dentist appointment but you have to remember that it's finite; you won't be doing it forever."
Most people are far more familiar with the word finite when they see it inside the word infinite, or without end. Finite can be used for conceptual things like time, "We have to get out of here, we only have a finite amount of time," and for more tangible things like beans or dirt, "We have to be careful with the cooking, we only have a finite amount of fuel." You might want to think of things being finito — a word that looks a lot like finite — to remember that it means, with an end.