Tag Archives: glossary

Metropolis

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Metropolis (noun): the chief or capital city of a country, state, or region.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/metropolis

“Over a lifetime, that adds up to a lot of neighborhoods, the motley construction material of your jerry-built metropolis.”

I encountered this word while reading an artifle that we are discussing in class, “City Limits” by Colson Whitehead. This isnt my first time hearning of the word metropolis but I never fully understood its denotation. With the help of context clues I got the idea that metropolis was just another word for large city. I wasn’t wrong but I wasnt entirely correct. An example of a metropolis would be Manhattan.

Motley

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Motley (adjective): made up of many different people or things

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/motley

“Over a lifetime , that adds up to a lot of neighborhoods, the motley construction material of your jerry-built metropolis”

I encountered this word while reading an article we are discussing class “City Limits” by Colson Whitehead. This is my first time hearing of this word and it wasn’t easy decipher it by the use of context clues , so I went straight to the internet to find the denotation. It means made up of many different people or things. I finally understood what he meant ” the motley construction material of your jerry-built metropolis”. He basically means that the readers version of New York City is built with different materials of poor quality. An example of the word motley in a sentence would be, ” The motley protesters outside city hall included people of all races and economic classes.”

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Drab

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Drab (adjective): a dull, lifeless, or faded appearance or quality

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/drab

“The city also puts a lot of effort into making your hometown look really drab and tiny…”

I encountered the word “drab” while reading an article that we are discussing in class, “City Limits” by Colson Whitehead. Although it is my first time hearing of this word I already gained an idea of what it meant first time reading the line. Drab reminds me of the word drag which int this context mean a tedious experience or a bore. I figured they have a certain similarity since the sentence after I found the word “drab” had the word drag in it.” …just in case you were wondering why it’s such a drag to go back sometimes.” Drab is an adjective word so you can use it to describe or modify other words with a similar meaning. For example, “The drab and boring party suddenly came to life when the drugs appeared”.

Image result for dying flower

Impediment

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Impediment (noun): a hindrance or obstruction in doing something.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/impediment

“It saw you steeling yourself for the job interview, slowly walking home after the late date, tripping over nonexistent impediments on the sidewalk”

I encountered the word “impediment” while reading an article that we are currently reading in class, “City Limits” by Colson Whitehead. The word is a noun so its used to identify a person, place, or thing. While trying to gain an understanding from context clues I thought to myself ” tripping over nonexistent impediments…” , it must be something that blocks a person from doing something. It was obvious the author was using figurative language to exaggerate his thoughts. You can use the word “impediment” to describe something that is making it more difficult for you to do something. For example, “My broken wrist is the impediment preventing me from finishing my new novel.”

Image result for impediment

 

Plaques

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Plaques(noun): a thin, flat plate or tablet of metal, porcelain, etc., intended for ornament, as on a wall, or set in a piece of furniture.

“On its face, the whole project is Stalinist: Just as the Soviet dictator purged historical photographs to remove his defeated rivals from the record, this aims to take down (or annotate with politically correct plaques) monuments raised in the past on the grounds that, wow, some New Yorkers no longer see things the same way.” “De Blasio’s begging for trouble with this ‘monument review’ commission”

When I encounter the word Plaques, I have no idea what it mean. I never heard of it and context clues wasn’t helping me at all. After I read the definition, it gave me a picture of an award, an award that can be hang on the wall or set in a piece of furniture as the definition said. I thought it’s just a piece of round metal that we receive for our achievements but it’s way different than I thought until I found a picture online. I’ve figured that a plaques is what we use for “hall of fame” award in grades school. I’ve seen it multiply time but never knew that it has their own name; plaques.

Aesthetic

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Aesthetic (adjective) appreciative of, responsive to, or zealous about the beautiful.

The content in which the word is written is, “In addition to the details about you yourself that you choose to include, be sure to also identify what you are passionate about, your personal philosophy or aesthetic sensibility that guides you, and the goals…”

(Project 1 handout paragraph 2).

In a more basic definition the word aesthetic means a set of principles that a person live by and is proud of. These principals are what gives a person encouragement to keep on striving. The word was first used in the year of 1797 and is currently being used 221 years later.

 

 

Commissions

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Commissions (noun) a task or matter entrusted to one as an agent for another.

 

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/commissions

The content in which the word is being used is, “… allowing them to work together and tackle big commissions that draw on all of their talents.” Article “Why Collaborate” page 2 of 2.

The definition in other words state that the word commissions is a big job or a given task. Lupton is explaining to us that sometimes we need teamwork to tackle big projects. Therefore, divide the work equally with others and based on individuals strength to get the work done at a quicker rate.

Ethics

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Ethics (noun): moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/ethics

“These monuments must not represent hate in any form, so we must consider removing any that no longer represent beliefs, values, and ethics of the majority of our community members.”

I stumbled across this word while reading “Drafting a thesis statement”. I heard of the word “ethical” before but I never truly understood the denotation. In the context of the reading It had words such as “beliefs”, “values”, and “community”. I knew it had to do with peoples morals and general behavior and how it effects one another in a community. There’s a difference between “Ethics” and ” Ethic”, not only due to the fact that ethics is the plural version but “ethic”  means a set of moral principles, especially ones relating to or affirming a specified group, field or form of conduct. The word ethic originates from Greece.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Antiquities

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Antiquities: (plural noun) an object, building, or work of art from the past.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/antiquity

“In Obama’s last few months of presidency he used the antiquities act to protect as much land as possible.”

I encountered this word while reading one of my colleagues post; ” Obama’s Recklessness and De Blasio’s attempt at a clean up.” At first I broke the word down into two, “antique” and “ities”. I knew based of my core knowledge that an antique is an object from the past that can be worth a lot of money. Antiquities is just the plural version of antiquity. There is  another definition for the word antiquity which  is,  the ancient past, especially the time before the middle ages. In this context the correct definition would be the plural version. I know now the difference  between antiquity and antiquities, both are similar but have different meanings.

 

 

Empower

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Empower(verb):to give power or authority to; authorize, especially by legal or official means. 

“Sociology can empower people to effectively address the problems affecting them by helping them develop a ‘sociology imagination.’ Page 10 “Sociology lecture notes”

I encounter the word while I was reading my sociology notes. I heard of the word before but I’ve never really search up the meaning of it, all I know is that the word “power” is in it. I took a guess and thought the word means gaining the power because the following sentence gave me a hint of it. ‘Affecting them by helping them develop…’ the word helping and developing both representing something positive. When I search up the word, it means giving powers, when the sentences were put together, it means “sociology can give powers to people to effectively address the problems…’