gratuitous

A few months ago I came across this adjective in the international news pages of my local paper. It was used in the context of needless and wanton violence perpetrated by a state on its citizens.

In work contexts it can be applied to behaviours, actions and attitudes that are unjustified and unwarranted. 

If you are going to use gratuitous in this context, be able to back up your statements and observations with evidence.

perspicacity

In professional contexts this noun refers to the qualities of a person who has insight, acumen and discernment.

effete

As an adjective, this word can be applied to a person’s character or a person’s or object’s state of being.

In the context of character, effete means cowardly, weak-willed, wimpish or ineffectual.

In the context of a state of being, it means worn-out, spent or wasted. It can also refer to a sterile, barren, unproductive state.

nepotism

A favourite of some journalists, nepotism means just that – the favouritism shown to members of their family (or their friends) by people in positions of power and influence.

Historically, the use of the word can be traced to 17 Century Italian and the former papal practice of bestowing special favours to nephews and other relatives.

It arises from the Italian nepotismo derived from nepote meaning nephew.

transform

This verb means to change or be changed radically in form or function, as an object or process.

 The same verb can apply to people whose thoughts, deeds and emotions have been radically changed by themselves or others.

Use the word wisely, as it holds within it the concept of depth and breadth in change and the changes being made.

constraint

This noun refers to a mechanism, physical or emotional, that prevents a person from taking action due to threatened violence or damage to themselves or their property.

The word can be applied to the situation of being restricted, the person doing the restriction or the person being affected by the restriction.

Plan your sentence with care in order to position the word accurately and demonstrate its meaning in the sentence.

bombast, the noun and bombastic, the adjective

In a most particular sense, bombast (the noun) and the resulting adjective, bombastic, refer to pompous and grandiloquent use of language.

Its meaning has expanded to include people being pretentious, flamboyant or boastful in social contexts.

The history of word has little to do with its current use. The now obsolete meaning refers to material used for padding, from the Medieval ‘bombax’ – cotton. 

In this context, look at bombacaceous – a family of tropical trees eg kapok (from which ancient tribes sourced a type of cotton – West Africa, South East Asia and Indonesia) and baobab with very thick stems that have water-storage capacity.

The adjective bombastic arises from the same source…. Just love the picture – a person as full of words as the baobab tree is full to bursting with water!