0:01

Hello everyone, this is episode 124

0:03

of the VictorPrepVocab podcast, and I just want to

0:09

start today with something slightly different, and

0:12

that is a little shoutout

0:15

to one of our listeners, and

0:17

that is Mohamed S. from Iran,

0:19

and I just wanted to say thanks

0:22

for the super nice email you sent,

0:25

and it really made me smile this morning when

0:27

I got it, so thank you, and

0:29

to all of the listeners, Mohamed

0:32

is an English teacher in Iran,

0:34

so

0:35

that's cool, and

0:37

actually you might be surprised to

0:39

know that Iran is actually fourth

0:42

on the VictorPrep listeners count

0:45

out of all the various countries, it goes

0:47

US, China, India, then Iran,

0:50

so obviously there's quite

0:52

a lot of people in Iran, well at least

0:54

a few dozen, who are interested

0:57

in learning and improving their

0:59

English, so that's cool, and

1:02

to get us started today, I have a short quote

1:04

from one of my old favourites, and

1:07

that is the German poet and writer,

1:09

Rainer

1:09

Rilke,

1:11

and this is from the book, Letters

1:14

to a Young Poet, and

1:16

I really recommend this book, it's only really,

1:20

really short, it's ten letters,

1:22

and these letters are

1:24

letters that Rilke wrote when he was relatively

1:27

young, and he was writing them to

1:29

a young man who was around 18 or 19,

1:33

who was uncertain about their life,

1:35

they weren't sure if they should go into the army

1:38

and become an officer, or if they

1:40

should become a writer or a poet,

1:42

and so they started writing to Rainer Rilke,

1:44

who at this time was becoming a more well known

1:47

poet, and just asking

1:49

for their help and advice,

1:51

and Rilke wrote back these letters,

1:54

which are just,

1:56

for want of a better word, beautiful,

1:58

really poetic, really beautiful. really full of elegantly

2:01

put advice, and they're so

2:03

quotable. And yes, I mean,

2:06

they're one of my favourite pieces of writing,

2:08

period. And I often

2:10

come back to them and reread them and try and get

2:13

insight from them. So

2:15

yeah, so this is a quote from Letter 7, from letters to

2:18

a young poet. It

2:21

is also good to love, because

2:25

love is difficult. For

2:27

one human being to love another

2:30

human being, that is

2:32

perhaps the most difficult task

2:34

that has been entrusted to us, the

2:37

ultimate task, the final

2:39

test and proof, the

2:41

work for which all other work is

2:44

merely preparation. And

2:49

I don't think I'm going to add any comment to that, because

2:51

how can you? It's such a powerful quote.

2:54

I think it's just one that we just have

2:56

to all sit on and meditate on and

2:59

think about and work

3:01

out how best you can apply that sort of thought

3:03

to your own life. Okay,

3:08

moving on from that,

3:11

let's review the words from yesterday. So that

3:13

was episode 123. So

3:17

yes, we had immutable, disabuse,

3:21

inculcate and pejorative. So

3:24

immutable, that means unchanging

3:27

over time, or just in general,

3:30

unable to be changed, fixed

3:32

or set. Disabuse,

3:36

to disabuse someone is to persuade

3:38

someone that a certain idea

3:40

or belief is wrong or mistaken.

3:44

Inculcate, inculcate

3:47

to instill some idea

3:50

or belief or attitude by

3:53

persistent instruction. And

3:56

finally, we had pejorative.

3:59

that means expressing

4:02

disapproval or contempt to

4:05

be disparaging or derogatory.

4:08

Okay then,

4:10

now on to the new words and our

4:13

first new word is August.

4:16

August. And we're

4:19

not we're not talking about the month here.

4:22

This is August the adjective

4:24

and spelled the same way

4:26

as August the month that's A-U-G-U-S-T

4:30

and to be August means

4:33

to be respected and

4:35

impressive. And I will add

4:37

here that August is a strong

4:40

word and by that I

4:42

mean it means this is respective

4:44

and impressive. But you

4:47

wouldn't just use it to describe any

4:49

person who's just a little bit

4:51

respected. This word

4:54

implies almost a sense of reverence

4:58

or grandeur. So

5:00

if you were using it to describe someone, usually

5:03

there would be someone of high rank or

5:06

stature like a king

5:08

or a queen or a president.

5:11

But it is important to note that it isn't just

5:14

their rank as a king or a queen

5:16

that's making them August. If

5:18

they're not a respected king, they're

5:21

not going to be August. So

5:23

it's really implying some

5:25

combination of strong

5:28

positive qualities. August

5:30

can be used to describe other things that are

5:33

not people, but it's

5:35

always something that invokes this sense of

5:37

grandeur and reverence. So

5:40

imagine an amazing cathedral

5:42

or temple that's just wonderful

5:46

when you stand near it and you're looking at it

5:48

with awe. You could say it's

5:50

an August cathedral or an August

5:53

temple. Or when I

5:55

saw the painting Starry Night by

5:57

Van Gogh, I think I was in New York. That

6:00

painting had an August presence

6:02

to me. It just dominated

6:05

me when I saw it and

6:07

I just got the shivers when

6:09

I saw it. Some

6:12

synonyms of August are distinguished,

6:16

respected, eminent,

6:19

venerable, and hallowed. And

6:23

our second word today is florid,

6:27

spelled F-L-O-R-I-D,

6:30

and it's an adjective and there are two

6:32

meanings. The

6:34

first is fairly simple and

6:37

it means when describing a person

6:40

having a red or a flushed complexion,

6:44

i.e. red cheeks or

6:46

rosy cheeks. So

6:49

yes, pretty simple first meaning,

6:52

just having a red or flushed complexion

6:55

or face. Now the

6:57

second meaning is a bit more interesting, I

6:59

think, and that means excessively

7:02

intricate or elaborate and

7:05

often used when describing art,

7:08

for example architecture. So

7:11

a piece of music or a painting

7:13

could also be described as being florid

7:17

and it would mean that the music

7:19

is extremely intricate with

7:22

many embellishments or

7:24

perhaps a lot of complexity with

7:27

many additional notes. But

7:30

note, it doesn't necessarily mean bad.

7:33

It could be described as being overly

7:36

florid, but just florid

7:39

itself doesn't necessarily mean

7:41

good or bad, it depends on

7:43

the context. Speakers

7:46

of this meaning of florid are

7:48

ornate, fancy, embellished,

7:52

baroque,

7:53

and rococo. And

7:57

our third word today is prevaricate.

8:00

pre-varicate, it's a verb

8:03

and it's spelled P-R-E-V-A-R-I-C-A-T-E.

8:11

And to pre-varicate means

8:13

to speak or act in

8:15

an evasive way. So

8:18

if you're a politician and you

8:20

get asked a tricky question and

8:23

it often seems when I watch

8:25

politics that politicians

8:28

are always trying to avoid answering questions,

8:31

so you could say they're almost always pre-varicating

8:34

because they get asked a hard question and

8:37

they try and do anything they can

8:39

to avoid really answering the question.

8:42

So they're being evasive,

8:45

they're dodging and weaving trying

8:47

to avoid the

8:50

truth of the matter usually. But

8:52

in general, anytime you're trying to avoid

8:56

saying something

8:57

or

8:58

acting in an avoidant

9:01

way or an evasive way, you're

9:03

pre-varicating.

9:05

Some synonyms of pre-varicate

9:08

are to be evasive, to

9:10

beat about the bush, to dodge

9:13

the issue or to pussyfoot.

9:16

And this word apparently comes from the Latin

9:19

pre-varicate, which means

9:21

to walk in a deviated

9:23

way or to walk crookedly, which

9:27

when thinking of the term crooked

9:30

or crook seems to describe politicians

9:33

quite well, I think. Perhaps

9:36

I should be less cynical about politicians,

9:38

but oh well. Anyway,

9:41

going on to our final word today,

9:44

which is wylie, wylie

9:47

spelled W-I-L-Y,

9:50

and to be wylie, because

9:52

it's an adjective, means to be

9:54

skilled at gaining an advantage, but

9:58

especially in a deceitful way. deceitful

10:01

or cunning way. So

10:03

there is an implication here that

10:06

you're tricking people or

10:08

maybe lying. So

10:11

while wily means skilled

10:13

at gaining some advantage, there is

10:15

this implication which is not a positive

10:17

one, it's a negative implication that

10:20

you're deceitful, maybe you're

10:23

manipulating people, you're good

10:25

at manipulating people, you're being

10:27

tricky in this slightly

10:29

negative way. And I think

10:31

perhaps many of you may be familiar with

10:33

the classic cartoon about wily

10:37

coyote and the roadrunner. And

10:40

the slightly funny thing there is that the

10:42

coyote is actually named while

10:45

e. So w-i-l-e

10:48

space e, that was his name,

10:51

but obviously sounds like the word wily.

10:54

So it was their sort of joke pun

10:56

name for the coyote. But

10:59

anyway, this cartoon, which if you haven't

11:01

seen it, I'm sure you can find it on YouTube

11:03

or find some clips, but the coyote is always

11:06

trying to set traps or

11:09

has some new cunning scheme

11:11

to try and catch this roadrunner, and

11:14

I assume eat the roadrunner.

11:17

Anyway, but yes,

11:19

he is being wily. He's

11:21

skilled at gaining some advantage. Some

11:25

synonyms of wily are shrewd,

11:28

clever, sharp, astute,

11:32

canny, smart, and

11:34

crafty. And

11:37

this is another of those words where the

11:39

origin is a bit debated,

11:41

I would say, because we have

11:44

in old English, there's a word will, which

11:47

meant stratagem or trick. There's

11:50

an old French word, wheel,

11:54

which meant guile. There's

11:56

an old Norse word, vel,

11:59

which meant trick. or fraud and

12:01

there's another old English word wicker

12:04

which meant wizard so you can

12:08

sort of see how all of these different origins

12:11

may have come together somehow and we

12:13

end up getting this word wily. So yes

12:17

that's cool. And

12:19

those were our four words for today. So August,

12:23

florid, pre-varicate and wily

12:26

and now I'm going to give

12:28

you my test sentences. When

12:32

planning a surprise birthday party

12:34

one needs to know when to avoid the questions

12:37

and dodge the issue to avoid

12:39

spoiling the surprise. When

12:43

challenged on his policies the

12:45

politician grew red-faced, flushed

12:47

and angry as he tried to find

12:49

some words to defend himself. Captain

12:54

Beakey and his friends all considered

12:56

Artful Owl to be a distinguished

12:59

and respected member of the woodland community.

13:03

The coyote indeed was quite cunning

13:06

but strangely the roadrunner was somehow

13:08

even more crafty and always

13:11

ended up on top in their altercations.

13:15

Okay so there we had pre-varicating

13:18

when trying to plan a surprise birthday

13:20

party and not let the person

13:22

whose party it is know that there's

13:25

a surprise happening. We

13:27

have the florid, red-faced,

13:29

flushing politician getting angry. We

13:33

have Captain Beakey and his woodland friends

13:36

who consider Artful Owl to be an august

13:38

member of the community. And

13:41

we have finally the wily

13:43

coyote who is

13:46

super cunning and crafty but

13:49

the roadrunner somehow is even more

13:51

crafty. Okay

13:53

so we're done with episode 124 and

13:56

our words were august, florid, and flustered. florid,

14:00

prevaricate, and wily. And

14:03

I just want to encourage

14:06

any of our dozens of listeners from

14:10

around the world to please email

14:12

me because maybe

14:14

I'm a little bit selfish and I love it

14:16

when people email me. And especially

14:19

those from far-flung countries around

14:21

the world. It's always really

14:23

good to hear from you. And if there's things

14:25

that you like or that you don't like about the podcast

14:28

or things you want more of, please let

14:30

me know and I'll make changes, right?

14:33

This isn't necessarily fixed. I

14:35

try and make it the best way I can and

14:38

do it in a way which I think is helpful. But

14:41

if there's something you want more of, perhaps

14:43

I can do bonus episodes or something like that.

14:46

Just ask me and let me know. And

14:48

you can email me at sam.fold

14:51

at gmail.com. So sam.fold

14:54

at gmail.com and please do

14:57

so. Thank you so much for listening and

14:59

speak to you tomorrow. Bye bye.