The word ‘Ostracism’ itself comes from the voting procedure. Sometimes, the ostracisms were preemptive (before committing any wrongdoing), if they were perceived as a potential threat to the state (city-states in Greece, not cities).Ĭontrary to modern trials, where juries are asked whether the accused is guilty or not, in an ostracism proceeding, the jury (comprising of a minimum of 6000 people) is asked if they want to find someone/anyone guilty or not, and then the subject is accused to stand judgement. In an ostracism proceeding, people convened to vote/exile someone out of the city for a period of ten years, if said person had committed some grave wrongdoings. Common people, as a collective, held a lot of power over political and societal goings-on. Ostracism is a fascinating practice, originating from Ancient Greek times.Īthens is widely known as the first democracy. The strongest examples of heresy are in religion and politics. In medieval times, pagans, people of religious minorities were often branded heretics, and exiled/ostracized. Heresy is having an opinion/belief that is contrarian to well-established / widely held opinions/beliefs. Hearsay is close to the word Heresy and can be easily mistaken for it. Usage – You can’t judge someone solely on the basis of hearsay. I heard Bill steals from the cash register. Usage – Bill began his speech with a humorous aphorism from one of his favorite authors.ĭefinition – information received from other people which cannot be substantiated.Į.g. (3,4)(6)įor more Spoonerisms and other kinds of word games, check out IITM Word Games Club here.ĭefinition – a succinct observation which contains a general truth. Cry a Spanish artist’s festival of lights. Simply find a set of words, the meanings of which are altered when the first syllable of each word is interchanged.ġ. Here are a few spoonerisms for you to solve. A phrase is given, containing synonyms for the Spoonerisms. The enumeration (number of letters) is also provided. In the domain of Word Games, Spoonerisms are extremely popular and are seen in many competitions and forms. (The rate of wages will press hard upon the employer.) The weight of rages will press hard upon the employer. (You have missed all my history lectures.) He was the quintessential ‘absent-minded professor.’ĭo you think Spoonerism is the same as Malapropism? Or a variant? Express your opinion in the comments. Reverend Spooner was an Oxford don (a tutor of sorts) and tended to mix up the first syllables of adjacent words while speaking, often changing the meaning completely, and often to comedic effect. Usage – In class, everyone laughed at Bill’s malapropism when he complained about electrical votes instead of electoral votes.Īnother interesting form of speech errors is Spoonerism. Synonyms – solecism, misusage, error, slip of the tongue. In the play, she utters other malapropisms such as “illiterate him quite from your memory” (instead of “obliterate”), and “she’s as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile” (instead of alligator). Word Origin: “malapropism” (and its earlier variant “malaprop”) comes from a character named “Mrs Malaprop” in Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s 1775 play, The Rivals. saying ‘She’s the pineapple of patience’ instead of pinnacle. The words in our set this week are Malapropism, Aphorism, Hearsay, Soliloquy, and Lexicon.ĭefinition – the mistaken use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one, often with an amusing effect.Į.g. We hope you liked our debut GRE Word List Blog last week, where we wrote about Latin loanwords.Įach week, we’ll post GRE Vocabulary Flashcards on our social media handles, and finish the set off with 2 extra words here, our GRE Blog, accompanied by stories, facts and some questions for you to answer. Yes, you read that right. It’s an example of the first word in this GRE Word List Blog.
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