ebullient exuberant, bubbling over with high spirits
Beware the fool, whose loud ebullient laugh
jumps back and forth, like a cracked phonograph.
It’s not a truly happy sign at all;
more like the echo of a cattle call.
éclat conspicuous success, general applause or acclaim, elaborate display
Most public piety, with grand éclat,
convinces fools, while real saints turn away.
ectoplasm a substance supposed to be exuded from a spiritual medium during a trance
we paid our fifty dollars for a reading,
but got no ectoplasm, despite pleading.
emolument a fee received, a salary
What great emolument my service earned
in living costs and taxes was soon burned.
encomium high praise given in speech or writing
Leave off encomium, my cheering thralls;
hard cash seems much more useful, after all.
endogenous growing or originating from within
true moral strength, they say,
must be endogenous;
receiving it through discipline,
it dodges us.
ennui boredom
If you would fight ennui, don’t overtire,
else you just bore yourself ’til you expire.
equivocal able to be interpreted in two ways, ambiguous
Yes, truth and guilt can often seem
equivocal – part fact, part scheme –
designed to trick us from both sides
and leave chaos where they collide.
ersatz serving as a substitute, especially of an inferior kind
Wise men and fools alike believe
themselves led by the truth in things.
One sees a world that cannot be,
while one accepts an ersatz king.
euphemism a mild or roundabout expression substituted for one considered improper or too harsh or blunt
Don’t shuffle on or pass away,
give up the ghost or fade to gray.
Let euphemisms such as these
just die, expire and soon decease.
