Page 128 - WEBSTER Essential vocabulary

11_571656 ch07.qxd 11/10/04 12:35 PM Page 119
G – H

gargantuan (gahr GAN tyoo uhn) adj. huge; gigantic (from Rabelais’s 1552 satire,
Gargantua and Pantagruel)
• There was a gargantuan traffic jam at the in-bound George Washington
Bridge.
garish (GAI rish) adj. 1. very showy; very bright and gaudy; 2. showily dressed,
written, or decorated
• The outfit she chose, with the hot pink top and the chartreuse bottom, can
only be described as garish.
• The decorations were a garish blend of Peter Max, Andy Warhol, and
Dollywood, with a liberal sprinkling of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
[-ly adv.]
genealogy (JEE nee AH li jee) n. 1. a chart showing the ancestry of a person or
family; 2. the study of family descent
• Gloria’s genealogy was spread out on the dining room table.
• Rick could trace his genealogy back to late-nineteenth-century Russia, but
no farther back than that.
[geneological adj., genealogically adv.]
generalize (JEN er il YZ) vt. to put into nonspecific terms; to infer from —vi. 1.
to talk in generalities; 2. to create principles from known events; 3. to spread
• It is easy to generalize about the benefits of voting for one over the other,
but a lot harder to get down to specifics.
• Most politicians find it easier to generalize than to take a fast stand for
which they might later be called to task.
• Newton generalized from the things he observed every day to ultimately
develop his laws of motion.
• The local custom of buttering one’s plate and then rubbing bread on it is
unlikely to generalize to the nation at large.
[-d, generalizing, generalization n.]
generation (JEN er AY shun) n. 1. the act of producing something; 2. the spe-
cific act of producing offspring; procreation; 3. a single stage in the life cycle of a
species; time between birth and procreation (in humans about 25 years); 4. a group
of people born around the same time period
• The generation of electricity is a high priority for western states, which are
growing in population density.
• Henry VIII’s desire for the generation of a male heir was the main reason
the Church of England separated from Rome.
• Fruit flies are much better subjects for studying genetics than humans
because there can be a new generation every few days.
• If you were born after 1970, you are part of the computer generation.

119