Power Words 17

1. Power Words 17 From The Things They Carried

2. imperative • Adj. absolutely necessary or required; unavoidable • N. a command; an unavoidable obligation or requirement “It seemed to me that when a nation goes to war it must have reasonable confidence in the justice and imperative of its cause”

3. tedious • adj.- long and tiresome; boring “Back in college I had taken a modest stand against the war. Nothing radical…just ringing a few doorbells, composing a few tedious, uninspired editorials”

4. eviscerate (ih-viss-uh-rate) • V.- to deprive of essential parts “The hogs were decapitated, split down the length of the belly, pried open, eviscerated, and strung up” The censors had eviscerated the book to make it inoffensive.

5. censure (sen-sure) • strong expression of disapproval; criticism “I feared losing the respect of my parents. I feared the law. I feared ridicule and censure.”

6. Acquiescence • N. – acceptance without protest “I detested their blind, thoughtless, automatic acquiescence to it all”

7. platitude • a flat, dull or trite remark “I detested…their love-it-or-leave-it platitudes, how they were sending me off to fight a war they didn’t understand and didn’t want to understand.”

8. reticent (ret-ih-sent) • Adj. – disposed to be silent; reserved “To an extent, I suppose, his reticence was typical of that part of Minnesota, where privacy still held value”

9. rectitude • N. rightness of principle or conduct; moral virtue “If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waster, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie.”

10. impassive • Adj. – without emotion; not interested or concerned “His eyes were flat and impassive.”

11. implacable • Adj. - Not able to be appeased; relentless “Any battle or bombing raid or artillery barrage has…a powerful, implacable beauty”