Seven words with stories you won't forget
A word's history is a memory hook the dictionary gives you for free. These seven earn their place in Verba's corpus twice over — once for being useful, once for the story.
a person with a casual or superficial interest in an art or subject, without serious commitment
He collected instruments like a dilettante, never sticking with one long enough to master it.
to speak evasively or misleadingly in order to avoid stating the truth directly
Asked point-blank about the layoffs, the CEO prevaricated for a full five minutes without answering.
a political leader who gains power by stirring up the fears and prejudices of ordinary people
Historians remain split: some call him a visionary, others just a gifted demagogue.
extravagantly ornate and elaborate in style, especially in art, music, or architecture
The cathedral's baroque interior piles gold and marble onto every surface.
something constructed by piecing together whatever materials happen to be available
The sculpture is a bricolage of bicycle chains, bottle caps, and broken violin strings.
a measure of disorder or randomness in a system, which tends to increase over time
Without regular tidying, the garage seemed to drift toward entropy on its own.
a person, often an artist or writer, who lives in a way that ignores conventional social rules
The neighborhood was once full of bohemians who paid rent by selling sketches on the corner.
Every word in Verba carries its story with it — not trivia, but the kind of note that makes a word stick on the first meeting.
