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Vocab 7

adventitious            adj           Not inherent or natural to but added from the outside. Serafina's southern accent was entirely adventitious; she picked it up during a summer stay in Alabama while she was on leave from her job in the Bronx.

aegis                       n            1. Protection: Lyra is a child whose welfare is now under the aegis of the courts.  2. Sponsorship; patronage: Tonight we're holding a concert held under the aegis of the parents' association. 3. Greek Mythology: The shield or breastplate of Zeus, later an attribute of Athena, carrying at its center the head of Medusa.

anodyne                  n            Something which reduces or cures pain. Three aspirin are usually a certain anodyne for my headaches, but today I needed four.

auspicious              adj          Boding well or having favorable prospects for the future, showing a good omen. I was worried when the boss called me into his office, but I took his beaming smile to be a most auspicious indicator.

entrepreneur          n            A person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk of a business venture. Vincenzo proved to be a visionary entrepreneur, opening a successful Italian bakery in Chinatown. 

exonerate              v            To free from blame or guilt (ex = out + onus = burden). The eyewitness testimony putting Felix in the restaurant at the time of the gas station robbery was enough to completely exonerate him. 

insatiable               adj          Incapable of being filled up or satisfied. Harold's appetite for reading was insatiable; he read five hours every day and could still be seen curled up in bed with a good book. 

legacy                   n             1) Money or property handed down to the next generation.  Aaron spent his entire legacy of $12,000,000 on luxury items and travel; his grandfather would not have been pleased. 2) Something handed down from an ancestor or a predecessor or from the past: From the founders of the country we have inherited a legacy of religious freedom.

panacea                n             A cure-all, something believed to be the solution to any ill. Too many misguided "do-gooders" see government regulation as the panacea for every social problem; they fail to consider personal responsibility when trying to "cure" society.

panegyric             n            Elaborate praise or compliment. Embarrassed by the elaborate introductory panegyric, Eleanor tried to downplay the praise by telling a few jokes about herself.