Fa, Fess Words: “affability” to “professor”fa-, fam-, fan-, fat-, -fess (Latin: talk, speak, say, spoken about)affability, affableness:
The quality of being affable; readiness to converse or be addressed; especially, by inferiors or equals; courteousness, civility, openness of manner.
affable:
Easy of conversation or address; civil and courteous in receiving and responding to the conversation or address of others; especially, inferiors or equals; accostable, courteous, complaisant, benign.
affably:
In an affable manner; in a manner indicating willingness to converse; courteously.
confess:
1. To declare or disclose (something which one has kept or allowed to remain secret as being prejudicial or inconvenient to oneself); to acknowledge, own, or admit (a crime, charge, fault, weakness, or the like).
2. To acknowledge or formally recognize (a person or thing) as having a certain character or certain claims; to own, avow, declare belief in or adhesion to. 3. In religion, to acknowledge sins orally as a religious duty, with repentance and desire of absolution. 4. To make formal confession of sins; especially, to a priest, in order to receive penance and absolution. confession:
An admission of having done something wrong or embarrassing.
2. In law, a voluntary written or verbal statement admitting the commission of a crime. 3. A profession of emotions or beliefs; such as, love, loyalty, or faith. 4. A formal declaration of sins confidentially to a priest or to God. confessor:
1. Someone who makes a confession.
2. A priest who hears confessions and sometimes acts as a spiritual adviser. defamation:
A verbal or written attack on someone’s good name, character, or reputation.
defamatory:
Harmful statements regarding someone’s good name, character, or reputation.
defame:
To attack someone or someone’s reputation, character, or good name by making slanderous or libelous statements.
fable:
1. A short story with a moral, especially one in which the characters are animals. 2. A story about supernatural, mythological, or legendary characters and events. 3. A false or improbable account of something. 4. Myths and legends collectively. Fables, a collection of stories attributed to Greek writer Aesop (c. 6th century B.C.). Many of the tales feature animals as characters and each one illustrates a specific moral. It is traditionally said to be the origin of the literary fable (although earlier examples have been found), they were used by the ancient Greeks for both educational and rhetorical purposes.
We should distinguish between the fable and the myth. A fable is a story, like “The Fox and the Grapes”, in which characters and plot, neither pretending to be real nor demanding believability, are fabricated as the vehicle of moral or didactic instruction. Myths, on the other hand, are stories of anonymous origin, prevalent among primitive peoples and by them accepted as true, concerning supernatural beings and events, or natural beings and events influenced by supernatural agencies. Fables are made by individuals; they may be told in any stage of a nation’s history. They are vessels made to order into which a lesson may be poured. Myths are born, not made. They are born in the infancy of a people and their culture. fabled:
Famous from being described or recounted in legenda.
fabulous:
1. Informally speaking, extremely good, pleasant, or enjoyable.
2. Amazingly or almost unbelievably great or wonderful. 3. Existing only in, described in, or typical of myths and legends. fame:
1. The condition of being very well known.
2. Someone’s reputation. famed:
Very well known.
famous:
Known and recognized by many people.
fate:
1. Literally, “something spoken (by the gods).”
2. The force or principle believed to predetermine events. 2. A consequence or final result. 3. Destiny or something that inevitably happens to someone or something. 4. An unhappy consequence or a disastrous or ruinous outcome. fated:
Believed to be controlled or predetermined by fate (or the fates).
The Greek goddesses of destiny. In Greek mythology, the three goddesses, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, often depicted as women of advanced years spinning, were believed to decree the events in and duration of someone’s life. The Greeks believed that Clotho spun the thread that represented a person’s life, Lachesis decided the extent (or length) of it, and Atropos was the one who cut it at the determined span of time.
fateful:
1. After which an important, often dire consequence, seems to have been made inevitable.
2. Predetermined or controlled by fate. 3. Foretelling what is to come; especially, when it is something disastrous. ineffable, ineffability:
Incapable of being expressed in words.
infamous:
1. Having an extremely bad reputation.
2. So bad as to earn someone an extremely bad reputation. infamy:
1. The disgrace to someone’s reputation caused by an infamous act or behavior.
2. Shameful or criminal conduct or character. infancy:
1. The condition or time of childhood before a baby walks or talks.
2. An early stage of development for an idea, project, or enterprise. infant:
1. A very young child who can neither walk nor talk.
2. A young person legally considered a minor. 3. From Latin, literally “not speaking”; from infans, “not able to speak”. infanticide:
1. The killing of an infant.
2. The practice of killing newborn babies. infantile:
1. Showing a lack of maturity; childish.
2. Relating to infants or infancy. infantilism:
A condition of mental or physical underdevelopment, in which a person fails to mature sexually and emotionally; childish or immature behavior.
infantry:
1. The soldiers or a unit of soldiers who are trained to fight on foot.
2. From Latin infans, “not speaking” then Italian infante, “youth, foot soldier” and via French infanterie, to English. First recorded by John Wycliffe in 1382, infant comes from the Latin infans, “unable to speak”. It once meant a “childe” or “a young knight, a youth of gentle birth” as well as a baby. Thus we have the word infantry for foot soldiers, “soldiers too young and inexperienced to serve in the cavalry”.
preface:
1. An introductory section at the beginning of a book or speech that comments on aspects of the text; such as, the writer’s intentions; to say before.
2. To introduce an action, speech, or piece of writing. prefatory:
Serving to introduce something else such as a main body of text or a speech.
profess:
1. To declare openly, announce, affirm; to avow, acknowledge, confess oneself to be (or do) something.
2. To affirm or declare one’s faith in or allegiance to; to acknowledge or formally recognize as an object of faith or belief (a religion, principle, rule of action; God, Christ, a saint, etc.). profession:
1. An occupation that requires extensive education or specialized training and/or experience.
2. The members of a particular occupation. 3. A declaration of belief in a religion or faith. professional:
1. Engaged in an occupation as a paid job rather than as a hobby.
2. Showing a high degree of skill or competence. professionalism:
1. The skill, competence, or character expected of a member of a highly trained profession.
2. The use of professionals instead of amateurs. professionalize:
To make an occupation professional, especially by paying the people who engage in it or improving the conditions or standards of their work.
professor:
1. Someone who professes a religion or other belief.
2. A teacher holding the highest academic rank in a college or university or simply a teacher in such institutions. |