121: A Phalanx in the Army of Language Lovers
English Vocab by Victorprep
Sam Fold
5 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 27 September 2023
⏱️ 13 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The words for today are: Abdicate, Forestall, Phalanx, Distaff
Featuring a quote from Jorge Luis Borges.
VictorPrep's vocab podcast is for improving for English vocabulary skills while helping you prepare for your standardized tests!
This podcast isn't only intended for those studying for the GRE or SAT, but also for people who enjoy learning, and especially those who want to improve their English skills.
I run the podcast for fun and because I want to help people out there studying for tests or simply learning English.
The podcast covers a variety of words and sometimes additionally covers word roots. Using a podcast to prep for the verbal test lets you study while on the go, or even while working out!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello there, and this is episode 121 of the Victor Prep Vodka podcast, and to get us started |
| 0:09.6 | today, I have a short quote from the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges, sorry, sorry for |
| 0:18.6 | Spanish speakers, and I have a horrible pronunciation, I think, but yes, I've just started reading |
| 0:24.8 | my first books by Borges, and so I thought in honor of him I would find a quote, and I found |
| 0:31.9 | a nice quote from him about poetry, so this is a Jorge Luis Borges on poetry. Truly fine |
| 0:40.8 | poetry must be read aloud. A good poem does not allow itself to be read in a low voice or silently. |
| 0:48.9 | If we can read it silently, it is not a valid poem. A poem demands pronunciation. |
| 0:56.4 | Poetry always remembers that it was an oral art before it was a written art. It remembers that it |
| 1:03.3 | was first sung. Okay, so thanks Borges, I totally agree with you. My advice to all listeners is, |
| 1:12.4 | if you're going to read or write poetry yourself, read it out loud. If you can read it out loud, |
| 1:20.1 | and it sounds good, it is good, in my opinion, so there you go. Okay, so now we will do a quick |
| 1:26.8 | review of yesterday's words, and those were mollify, mercurial, compendium, and discordant. |
| 1:37.8 | So, mollify that is to appease the anger, or soothe the anger or anxiety of someone, or to reduce |
| 1:48.0 | the severity of something. Mercurial, that is something that is subject to sudden or unpredictable |
| 1:56.7 | changes of mood or mind, and in general something changing or reacting in unexpected ways. |
| 2:05.2 | Compendium, that is a collection of concise, detailed information about a certain subject, |
| 2:12.9 | often in a book, and finally, discordant, meaning disagreeing or incongruous, and when talking |
| 2:24.3 | about a sound, harsh and jarring because of a lack of harmony. Okay, now moving swiftly on to |
| 2:32.9 | our new words, and our first word is abdicate, abdicate, spelled ABD, ICATE, it's a verb, |
| 2:44.5 | and to abdicate, the main meaning is to renounce one's throne or to resign or give up your throne. |
| 2:54.0 | So, if you're a king or a queen, and you decide, I don't want to be king anymore, I don't want |
| 2:58.9 | to be queen, it sucks. I want to quit. Then you are abdicating, renouncing your right to the throne, |
... |
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