Word - 14

IGNOMINIOUS \ig-nuh-MIN-ee-us\ adjective

1 : marked with or characterized by disgrace or shame : dishonorable
2 : deserving of shame or infamy : despicable
*3 : humiliating, degrading

Example sentence:
The director's first film was an ignominious failure, panned by critics and ignored by moviegoers.

Did you know?

The "-nom-" of "ignominious" comes from "nomen," the Latin word for "name" or “repute.” (It's also the root of "misnomer," "nomenclature," and "nominal," among others.) The "ig-" part of the word is akin to the negative prefix "in-"; when joined to the root "-nom-," it indicates the namelessness that goes with shame or dishonor. To suffer an ignominious fate is to lose the opportunity to make a name for oneself or to lose one's good name. When "ignominious" was first borrowed from a French form of the word in the 15th century, it meant "disgraced" or "dishonorable." "Ignominious" continues to have such meanings, but it also has somewhat milder meanings -- "embarrassing" and "humiliating."

Word - 13

ALEMBIC \uh-LEM-bik\ noun

1 : an apparatus used in distillation
*2 : something that refines or transmutes as if by distillation

Example sentence:
In the alembic of the child's mind, the ratty old blanket became a magnificent cape.

Did you know?

The alembic is a kind of still that has been used since ancient times and continues to be used even today in the production of cognac, a distinctive brandy distilled from white wine in western France. In ancient times, this apparatus was called "al-anbiq," a word that means "the still" in Arabic and can be traced to "ambix," meaning "still" in Greek. When the apparatus found its way into Medieval European laboratories, scientific texts first transformed the Arabic word into Medieval Latin as "alembicum." English speakers shortened it to "alembic," and some also dropped the initial "a." That change led to "limbeck," a standard variant still in use today. "Alembic" acquired its figurative use in the 17th century.