Minion (noun) – A minion (MIN-yun) is a servile follower or subordinate of a person in power. As used by Ivanka Trump: “I am not a clone, and I am not a minion.”

Nemesis vs. enemy (nouns) – An enemy (EN-uh-mee) is a foe that you can defeat or who can defeat you. A nemesis (NEM-us-sis) is unconquerable, a lifelong opponent or rival.

Example for enemy: “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” – Sun Tzu

Example for nemesis: “It’s not easy being number two. As a marketer, you have limited choices – you can pretend you’re not defined by the market leader, or you can embrace your position and go directly after your nemesis.” – John Battelle

I got this from Tim Ferriss’s blog. It’s a great word. (I posted an essay about this recently: “Are You an Information Addict?”)

Ferriss says:  Japanese has wonderfully short words that can replace paragraphs in English. Sundoku is one such example.

Here’s part of the Wikipedia entry:

sundoku (積ん読) is acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one’s home without reading them. The term originated in the Meiji era (1868–1912) as Japanese slang. It combines elements of tsunde-oku (積んでおく, to pile things up ready for later and leave) and dokusho (読書, reading books). It is also used to refer to books ready for reading later when they are on a bookshelf. As currently written, the word combines the characters for “pile up” (積) and the character for “read” (読).

Cozen (verb) – To cozen (KUH-zuhn) is to cheat, deceive, trick. As used by William Bolitho: “The shortest way out of Manchester is notoriously a bottle of Gordon’s gin; out of any businessman’s life there is the mirage of Paris; out of Paris, or mediocrity of talent and imagination, there are all the drugs, from subtle, all-conquering opium to cheating, cozening cocaine.”

Vitiate (verb) – To vitiate (VISH-ee-ate) is to impair, debase, make ineffective. As used by George Orwell: “All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome.”

Inculpate (verb) – To inculpate (in-KUHL-pate) is to blame or accuse. As used by Germaine Greer: “Guilt is one side of a nasty triangle; the other two are shame and stigma. This grim coalition combines to inculpate women themselves of the crimes committed against them.”

Cupidity (noun) – Cupidity (kyoo-PID-ih-tee) is greed or avarice; eager or excessive desire. As used by Théodore Guérin: “[The Americans’] cupidity renders them daring and indifferent to everything else.”

Demarcate (verb) – To demarcate (dih-MAR-kate) is to define the boundaries or limits of something. As used by Christopher Morley in Pipefuls: “Out at Hillside the stones that demarcate the territory of an old-fashioned house are new and snowily whitewashed.”

Agglomeration (noun) – An agglomeration (uh-glom-uh-RAY-shun) is a group of many (usually disparate) things that have been collected or brought together. As used by Voltaire: “This agglomeration which was called… the Holy Roman Empire was neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.”

Celtic (adjective) – Did you ever wonder why Celtic is sometimes pronounced KEL-tik and sometimes SEL-tik? The answer is very interesting… at least it was to me.