| academicism |
in the arts, rigid adherence to accepted and traditional forms. |
| antebellum |
in or of the period prior to a war, especially the American Civil War. |
| assuage |
to make less severe or more bearable; alleviate. |
| augury |
the art or practice or an instance of predicting the future or obtaining hidden knowledge by interpreting omens. |
| bathos |
a sudden descent from an exalted style or esteemed state to the commonplace. |
| bereft |
deprived or stripped of something. |
| cognoscente |
someone who has exceptional knowledge in a given area, especially of fashion, literature, or the fine arts; connoisseur. |
| convoluted |
complex; intricate. |
| disheveled |
not neat; messy. |
| epigraph |
a pertinent quotation or motto, especially found at the beginning of a literary work or of a chapter. |
| insipid |
having a bland or uninteresting flavor; tasteless. |
| pusillanimous |
shamefully timid; cowardly. |
| recrudesce |
to become active again or break out anew, as a disease or harmful condition. |
| sepsis |
infection, especially by pus-forming bacteria in the blood or tissues. |
| solipsism |
the self-centered habit of interpreting and judging all things exclusively according to one's own concepts of meaning and value. |