Difficult Words : Laconic, Labyrinth, Lament, Lampoon and Languish
Laconic (luh KON ik) adj: using few words, especially to the point of seeming rude The manager's laconic dismissal letter left the fired employees feeling angry and hurt. When she went backstage, June discovered why the popular rock musician was so laconic in public: his voice was high and squeaky. Lament (luh MENT) v: to mourn From the balcony of the bullet-pocked hotel, the foreign correspondents could hear hundreds of women and children lamenting the fallen soldiers. As the snowstorm gained in intensity, Stan lamented his decision that morning to dress in shorts and a T-shirt. Lamentable means regrettable. Lampoon (lam POON) v: to satirize, to mock, to parody The irreverent students mercilessly lampooned their Latin teacher's lisp in a skit at the school talent show. The Harvard Lampoon, the nation's oldest humor magazine, has lampooned just about everything there is to lampoon in its 112-year history. Languish (LANG gwish) v: to become weak, listless, depressed The formerly eager and vigorous accountant languished in his tedious job at the international conglomerate. The longer Jill remained unemployed, the more she languished and the less likely it became that she would find another job. To languish is to be languid. The child seemed too languid that his father thought he was sick and called the doctor. It turned out that the little boy had simply had an overdose of television.
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