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Hello everybody, this is Sam and

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this is episode 133 of the VictorPrepVocab

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podcast.

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And I am trying to record this podcast

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before the approaching thunderstorm

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comes over my house.

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Because I see it coming in the distance and I have

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a feeling it's going to be quite loud. So

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I have to get this done now, otherwise I'm going

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to have to wait for some time I think. So

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without further ado,

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let's do this.

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So yesterday we did episode 132

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and we had slake denigrate,

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vituperative and debullient.

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So slake, that means

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to quench or satisfy your

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thirst for a drink

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usually, but could be thirst for something

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else. Debullite,

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meaning to criticize harshly

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or to disparage. Vituperative,

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meaning bitter, abusive and

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acerbic. And

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finally we had ebullient, which

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means to be cheerful and full

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of energy.

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Okay so now onto the new words.

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And our first word is

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invective. Invective,

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it's a noun spelled I-N-V-E-C-T-I-V-E.

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We seem to have had quite a

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few words recently meaning

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something to do with criticism or

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harsh language.

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And invective is another

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of these words.

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Because invective is

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insulting, abusive or

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highly critical language. So

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thinking about our words from yesterday, invective

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is usually vituperative,

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if that makes any sense. So if

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you said the speech was

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full of invective, it

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means it was bitter. maybe

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there was a lot of swearing

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in it, it was highly critical

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and in general it means

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it was out of order, it was

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uncalled for, it was not reasonable

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language, it was abuse

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in some way. And you might

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often hear the phrase stream

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of invective. So

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the speech was a stream of invective

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or you might hear something like the speech was

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full of invective or filled with

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invective. This is the general

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way it's used. And

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like vituperative, invective

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is a strong word for

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something to qualify as invective, it's

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not just mild, it's not just

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slightly insulting, and

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it's not just one or two insults.

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It implies something a bit more

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lengthy so long-lasting,

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a longer speech which is full

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of insults or cursing or

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otherwise criticism. And

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this is definitely the kind of word you read

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in a newspaper like

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the New York Times when it's describing

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maybe what one politician said

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about another politician. This is a classic

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time when you see this kind of word being used.

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A few synonyms of invective

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are abuse, insults,

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expletives and swearing.

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And our second word today is imbue,

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imbue, spelled I-M-B-U-E.

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It's a verb

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and to imbue means

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to inspire a certain feeling

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or quality or to permeate

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with a feeling or

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quality. So

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this word can be used in lots of ways. It's

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a very nice and useful word but

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you might say for example when you're creating

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something like let's say I'm creating a TV

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program, I'm writing a TV program. I

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want to imbue my TV

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program with a sense of bonne me,

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so I want to imbue my TV program or

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instill it with a sense of good cheer

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and happiness and so on and so forth.

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Or if you're a teacher, you might want

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to imbue a certain

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feeling into your students. So

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you want to imbue a sense

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of hard work into your students through

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your teaching style. And

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you can use it in a slightly different way. So

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you could say something like, the

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ceremony was imbued with

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a sense of tradition. So

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the ceremony was filled

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or permeated with this sense

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of tradition. Or you

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could say something like, the sunrise

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imbued the sky with

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shades of

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orange and pink.

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So that's a slightly different

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sense of imbue, to permeate

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with. The sun is

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permeating the sky with these colors.

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And some other

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words for imbue are permeate,

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saturate, diffuse,

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suffuse, pervade,

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impregnate, and inject.

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And our third word today is ribald. Ribald.

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And it's spelled R-I-B-A-L-D.

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And this is an adjective. And

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it means referring to sexual

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matters in an amusingly

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coarse or irreverent way.

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So when the word ribald is

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used, it's almost always

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because of something someone said, as

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in speech, verbal speech,

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not usually in writing.

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But it can be could be. could be used

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to refer to writing. So if you

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imagine your uncle has

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gone drunk at the Christmas dinner table

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and is making some rude sexual

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jokes, he's behaving

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in a ribbled manner or speaking

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in a ribbled manner. So

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what are the implications of the word

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ribbled? When can you use it

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versus when might you not use it?

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Well, there's

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always an implication of

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sex in there. So

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if someone's just been making jokes

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but non-sexual jokes, you

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probably wouldn't describe their

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speech as ribbled. So

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there almost always has to be this

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sexual part of it. And

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usually ribbled also carries with it this

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implication of roughness

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or coarseness, sort

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of what you might call low class

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or lacking refinement in some way.

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But ribbled isn't all

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bad. It does usually imply

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that it was amusing too. So

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ribbled doesn't mean something that was not

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funny at all and just rude. It's

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definitely possible to have funny or

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amusing ribbled humor.

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And in fact, if you imagine that

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dinner table where the drunken uncle

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is making ribbled humor, the

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way ribbled humor tends to go is you

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could easily imagine half of the family

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not laughing and

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half of the family stifling a laugh

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and maybe a few people laughing out loud. Because

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it's kind of a taste thing. Some

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people like that kind of ribbled humor. Some

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people really frown upon it. And

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some synonyms of ribbled are

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bawdy, indecent, risque,

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rude, racy, naughty,

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and crude. And

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our fun word for today is

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levy, levy,

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spelled L-E-V-E-E.

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Now there's another word that's very

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similar that's L-E-V-Y,

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which is a kind of a tax. We're not

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doing that word. We're doing levy, V-E-E,

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a noun, and this

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kind of levy is a sort of embankment

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built to prevent the overflow of

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a river. A bit like

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a dam, but it's not the

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same as a dam either, right? And I'll

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explain why it's not the same as a dam. So

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a levy is built primarily

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to prevent flooding, so

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it's usually a kind of barrier

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at the side of a river, so the edge

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of a river to prevent the river from spilling

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over and going into the

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land and causing flooding and so on. Now

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dams are primarily not

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created to prevent flooding. They're

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there to store or control the water

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flow for some other purpose, so

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for irrigation or water

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supply or even power generation

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through hydroelectric power. And

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so with a dam, you might put

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the dam right in the river flow to

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create a massive lake or

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otherwise create a huge volume of water

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for some purpose, whereas a levy

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is usually not

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built directly in the middle of a river.

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It's built at the side and

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the levy isn't being built to

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create hydroelectric power

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or for irrigation or for something some

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other purpose. It's really just built

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for protection. Now you

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can use the word levy in a more

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metaphorical way and it

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allows for this idea of protection

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or a barrier against something

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like an emotion or some influence

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that you want to protect against. See

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might say something like, meditation

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was my mental levy, guarding

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my mind against the stress

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and anxiety that comes from social media,

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for example.

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And a few synonyms of levy

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are,

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dam,

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embankment, dyke,

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rampart, barrier, or

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weir.

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Those are our four words for today. Invective,

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imbue, ribald, and

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levy. And here are my

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test sentences.

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Some of my old teachers managed

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to instill a love of reading in me

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which has lasted my whole lifetime. It's

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usually an unwise idea to

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direct a torrent of abuse at

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any person responsible for preparing your

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food. My

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uncle's rude jokes caused

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a shocked silence at our family Christmas

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dinner. The

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rain kept falling with no sign of stopping,

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and the townspeople watched from their windows

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as the river kept rising, hoping

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it wouldn't break its banks. So

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we have my old teachers imbuing

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a love of reading in me. We

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have this invective,

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which it's a bad idea to

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use invective against people responsible

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for making your food for obvious

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reasons. We have the

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uncle's ribald jokes

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at Christmas dinner. And finally

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we have the town levy

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being at risk with this rain

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that doesn't stop. Okay,

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there we go. That's our episode

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for today. Tomorrow

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I'm going to do the next word

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test, which is the

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word test for episodes 120 through 130. So

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have a lovely evening and I'll

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speak to you tomorrow. Bye!