AF: The Vocab Post

We need to start working "eight-plus-eight" -- every time I give you eight words, you find eight words of your own, using the same source.  Find words you do not have command of.  Perhaps you've seen the word; perhaps you even understand what it means — but you don't OWN it.  You never say it, and you never use it in your writing.  Those are the eight you choose.  And of course, you can ALWAYS pick a word that is just downright mysterious: never seen it, never heard it, never said it.

So here are the eight I chose from Chapter 3 in Language of Composition:  

vitriolic (82); tenets (84); zero-sum game (not sure of page#); belies (93); dichotomy (101); disenfranchise (104); syllogism (118); despot (123)

Where are your eight?  I do not know, but they are somewhere between pages 81-139 and I'll be looking for them when I check vocab on Friday.

I see interesting words that fit that category I was describing above -- words that are familiar, but that we don't use or own easily and naturally, like "conjure" or "tailspin" or "concede" or "veracity."  Stretch a little.  Don't pick words that are already safely in your working vocabulary.