Oblation

An oblation is a sacred offering to a diety. In Christianity this is often the bread and the wine of the Eucharist.

Obdurate

Obdurate means stubborn or persistent and usually refers to wrong-doing, such as a hardened criminal might exhibit. Nevertheless, it is also used in describing someone who has become resistant to emotions and or is just hard-hearted and stubborn. Obdurate comes from the Latin "to harden." -dur in the middle of the word can be found in other words such as durable which also conotates to hardness or toughness.

Eulogize

To eulogize is to praise highly, in speech or in writing. For example, we tend to provide eulogies formally at funerals. A eulogy can be like an epic poem, praising a person's wonderful qualities.

Objurgate

This means to scold or reprimand sharply and critically, or to express strong disapproval of something or someone. It resembles closely and stems from the latin verb meaning "to rebuke."

Maudlin

Maudlin is mostly used negatively to indicate something that is overly emotion-laden or foolishly sentimental. Slushy or gushy are more colloquial terms for such bathos. It derrives from Mary Magdalene who was portrayed iconographically in paintings as weeping.

Choleric

A choleric person is easily moved to anger, given that choler or yellow bile was the humor of anger.

Melancholoy

Sad, gloomy, and depressed are appropriate words that describe melancholy. Like the other humors, it is connected to a bodily fluid--this time black bile. One supposes that too much black bile is never good for anyone. Interestingly enough, instead of sadness, melancholy's nature was laziness.

Sanguine

A sanguine person is very happy and generally optimistic. It is one of the humors and derives from the French for "blood." Blood was sometimes considered to be the fire of the body (and the heart was the furnace) although in the case of the humors, choler takes on that function.

Humors

Referring to the four fluids anciently considered the substances of the human body . . . also associated with the four 'elements.' Blood corresponded to fire, Phlegm to water, Black Bile to earth, and Yellow Bile to Air. Imbalances of these fluids were thought to be the cause of most human illnesses, as well as personality traits and characteristics.

Phlegmatic

Phlegmatic describes a person who is calm and lacks emotion. It does indeed derive from "phlegm" in that to the ancients, phlegm was the body's calming agent. We'll explore the other humors, as they are called, in the next little while. (Well at least I will. I don't know what likeaduck has in store for us.)

Hyperkinesis

Hyperkinesis is the medical term for cramp or a muscle that is in spasm. It is also used in psychiatry to indicate children who are hyperactive and have a difficult time concentrating. It is Greek for "above normal motion."