Up Your Score (22 page)

“I’ve had a hard day at the
orifice
,” said the dentist.

to swing back and forth

“His behavior
oscillated
,” the babysitter reported. “He would be
docile eight
hours and then go crazy!”

apparent; seeming (but usually not really)

The
ostensible
reason that
Austin is able
to bench-press 300 pounds is his daily workout routine. The real reason is anabolic steroids. (This could also account for his breasts.)

showy; pretentious

Glittering Emerald City is
Oz-tentatious
.

to banish or exclude

The
ostracized
ostr
ich stuck its head in the sand.

open and observable, not hidden (see
COVERT
)

Meg
overtly
knocked
over T
eddy’s crystal toothbrush holder in order to attract attention.

I went to the king, seeking to marry his daughter, but he was
obdurate
in his refusal. I was
obsequious
, but he was an
odious
and
obstreperous
man who kicked me out of the
opulent
palace because I was not pleasing to his
olfactory
sense. I went away, determined to
obtrude
my marital aspirations on him by raising an army and assaulting his
omnipotent
forces. However, my own forces were blown to
oblivion
.

I then went to see
Omniscient
Olga, an old one-eyed witch who dealt in the
occult
and
oscillated
between sanity and insanity. When I arrived at the
orifice
that led to her cave, she
ogled
me with her one eye as though I was
obtuse
to visit her. She advised me to go and be of service to the king, to offer to carry out every
onerous
task,
ostensibly
out of the kindness of my heart, but really to penetrate the castle and elope with the princess.

I made my way to the
ostentatious
royal city. As I
overtly
approached the gate, however, an
officious
guard informed me that I had been
ostracized
from the kingdom. Heartbroken, I left and went to seek my fortune selling doorknobs to nomads.

acceptable to the taste; sufficiently good to be edible (think:
plate
-able)

The cannibal found his
pal edible
and quite
palatable
.

to moderate the severity of, abate

“He looks
pale; he ate
something poisonous,” the doctor said.
“We’ll have to
palliate
the poison with an antidote.”

having an extremely pale complexion

He was so
pallid
that even his eyes had
pale lids
.

capable of being touched or felt (see TANGIBLE); real

I pinched my
pal Pablo
to see if he was
palpable
.

model or example of perfection

Batman and Robin were a
pair of gone
rs but Robin, that
paragon
of digital dexterity, managed to reach his utility belt and foil the Riddler’s evil trap.

to make very dry, especially by heating

When things heat up playing board games, my throat sure
parches easy
, and I have to get a drink. (If you don’t get the joke in this sentence, consult your local board game dealer.)

stingy

The man was so
parsimonious
that he would not share his
persimmon with us
.

quality in something that makes you pity it; feeling of sympathy or pity (remember “pathy” = feeling)

Feel
pathos
for me as I wander down this
path oh s
o pitiful.

smallness in number; scarcity (see DEARTH)

Remember, never name your pet store “
Paw City
.” The
poor city
has a
paucity
of rich people.

relating to money

“Lacking
pecuniary
support” is a euphemism for “being broke.”

schoolteacher or educator; boring, dry teacher

The teacher was such a
pedagogue
that
Peter gagged
at the thought of listening to another one of her boring lectures.

boring person who knows a lot but has little practical experience; dweeb

Melvin, the six-year-old
pedant
, brought his
pet ant
to show-and-tell and droned on about it until all the kids fell asleep.

You already know that this means a person traveling on foot. However, when it’s used on the SAT it means
commonplace; ordinary.

Compared to being a neurosurgeon, being a
pediatrician
is
pedestrian
.

strong liking; inclination

Baseball teams have a
penchant
for
pennants
.

engaged in deep, often sad, thought

After much deep, often sad, thought, William
Penn
decided to call his new state
Pensive
ania.

Don’t get the next two words confused. They have the same first five letters and they both have to do with money, which you can remember because of the word
pen
ny. However,
penurious
has two very different definitions, and only one of them relates to
penury
.

parsimonious; stingy

Scrooge was
penurious
.

extremely poor

Tiny Tim was
penurious
.

poverty; destitution

Tiny Tim lived a life of
penury
.

Penury
is a poor word that doesn’t have as many letters as
penurious
.
Penurious
is a stingy word with lots of letters but it won’t give any of its letters to
penury
.

dishonest (with an evil connotation)

“Step into my parlor,” said the
perfidious
spider to the fly.

done routinely, carelessly, and listlessly

If you are studying in a
perfunctory
manner, it’s time for a break. Put on some funk music and let it permeate your room. But you can’t do that, because you don’t know what permeate means yet. So you’d better forget the break and continue studying.

capable of being
permeated

to spread or flow through

Your hair must be
permeable
to Ogilvie if you want a
perm
.

perceptive; understanding

If you look at things from all
perspect
ives, you are
perspicacious
.

unreasonably irritable or ill-tempered

That
pet you lent
me barked and snapped and was generally
petulant
. I’m giving it back.

improvement of the world through charity; love of humanity in general

We did not write this book out of a penchant for pecuniary matters, as that would have been parsimonious and penurious of us. Instead,
philanthropy
was our motive.

to rob violently

SATilla the Hun
pillaged
the village.

concise and meaningful

Pyth
agoras approached this triangle from the right angle, when he came up with his
pithy
Pyth
agorean theorem: a
²
+ b
²
= c
²
.

Note:
The root “plac-” in the next two words means “calm.”

to appease, pacify, or calm

7 tried to
placate
gossip-starved 8 by telling her that 9 had 6 with 5, but instead of appeasing her, the news seemed to
plague 8
.

calm; composed; undisturbed

“Pla!” Sid
said, spitting out a mouthful of water. “This lake is calm and
placid
, but it tastes disgusting.”

sad; MELANCHOLY (think: com
plain
)

When she realized that Judge Judy was going to rule against her, the
plaintiff
became
plaintive
.

superabundance;
ple
nty; excess (opposite of DEARTH)

In case you haven’t noticed yet, there is a
plethora
of terrible puns in this book.

to rob (usually violently); to
PILLAGE

SATilla the Hun rode in like th
under
to
plunder
our village. I escaped because I hid
under
my mattress.

shrewd; clever

Politic
ians must be
politic
in order to win votes.

continuing or done after one’s death