I hate you so much right now! THE WORDS: repulsive fickle hypocritical volatile barbaric pompous contemptuous treacherous histrionic obsequious THE MEANINGS: 1 Imagine someone who makes you feel physically sick. Maybe they pick their nose or take great pleasure in showing you an overgrown toenail that s going yellow; either way, you think they are DISGUSTING. They literally repel you they make you back away. You find this person repulsive. 2 We all change our mind sometimes: maybe we think we want the milk chocolate toffee but then we change and decide we actually want the strawberry crème. However, some people change their mind about friendships and who they should be loyal to as well. Maybe they accepted the invitation to your party and promised they would be there, but then the most popular boy/girl in the year above invites them to go to the new restaurant that just opened. They think that sounds exciting too, so what do they do? Go to that instead, of course. They are CHANGEABLE and DISLOYAL. He / she is a fickle person. 3 Has your parent / aunt / older sister ever told you not to do something, but then gone and done it themselves? Maybe they tell you to always eat healthily as they greedily slurp a fizzy drink and bite into a hotdog? This person pretends that they have certain beliefs and values, such as eating healthily, never swearing or always telling the truth, but then FAILS TO ACT IN THE WAY THEY TELL EVERYBODY ELSE TO BEHAVE. This person is hypocritical.
4 Some people are changeable, but you know there s only one thing they are going to change into: explosive anger. Think of a teacher you know who is all sweetness and light one minute then, before you know it, they are screaming at whichever poor, unfortunate wretch has crossed their path. Think of certain substances you encounter in chemistry: hold a match up to them and some will sit calm and placid, while others will burst into flames or blue smoke or blow up in your face. These people are like the second kind. They are CHANGEABLE and ANGRY. This is a volatile person. 5 In the novel Lord of the Flies young boys are left on an island with no grown ups to tell them what to do. After a while, some of them realize they won t get told off if they do something bad and they start to act in a horrible way. They throw stones at the younger children, bully the weakest and even start to torture them. Their actions become unbelievably CRUEL and they begin to act like SAVAGES, more like animals than humans. They became barbaric. 6 Imagine you go for lunch with a duke. He is extremely SERIOUS and THINKS HE IS very IMPORTANT. He keeps name-dropping all of his famous and rich friends. He is wearing very formal clothes and cannot help but tell you all about himself, his successes and point out all the impressive statues and works of art around his manor. You don t just have to be a duke to be like this of course. Perhaps his butler is also like this; he never laughs and he always acts as though he is very important, perhaps walking around with his head held high and solemnly giving orders to others. These people are pompous. 7 In a favourite book from my childhood there was a character called Amelia. She was spoilt and from a rich family and, as a result, she tended to look at others as though they were not as good as her. She would curl her lip up at one end or raise an eyebrow and generally think things like, Why should I bother to talk to YOU? She often THOUGHT OTHERS were inferior to her and pretty WORTHLESS in general. Amelia was contemptuous towards other people.
8 If you ve read Shakespeare s play Macbeth you ll know that the main character Macbeth is totally trusted by the King, but Macbeth becomes overly ambitious and kills him. He quite literally stabs him in the back! He then worries that his best friend Banquo will find him out and so kills him too. Both of these people trusted Macbeth and yet he DECEIVED and BETRAYED them anyway. Macbeth was treacherous. 9 When some people walk into a room everyone knows it. They swing open the door then noisily bustle, flaunt or moan their way to their seat talking loudly the whole time about HOW unbelievable their journey was or HOW cold they are while moving their hands around like they are playing a game of charades and making animated facial expressions and getting louder and louder and louder. You get the idea. They are a DRAMA QUEEN who loves to exaggerate and attract attention. This person is histrionic. 10 You ve probably been told by your parents that it s important to be polite. Maybe you even say please or thank you to the people you meet. However, it s unlikely you say, Yes, sir, every time the bus driver gives you your ticket. I doubt that you say, Of course miss, right away, anything you say miss, when the teacher asks you to rub the board at the end of the lesson. And it s unlikely that you will bow your head and lower your eyes to the ground as you say these things. Most people consider this to be unnecessarily deferent behaviour where you are so OBEDIENT to another person that you almost act like their slave. Some people might think this kind of person is just trying to SUCK UP to someone. This person is obsequious. SAY IT; DRAW IT Say the words out loud and then draw a picture that summarises the word for you. re-pul-sive FIC-kle
HYP-o-CRIT-i-CAL VOL-a-tile bar-ba-ric POMP-ous con-temp-tu-ous TREACH-er-ous HIS-tri-ON-ic ob-se-qui-ous
MATCH-UP TEST 1. disgusting 2. changeable & disloyal 3. overly serious and self-important 4. changeable & angry 5. drama queen 6. overly obedient 7. looks down on others 8. don t act in the way you tell everyone else to behave 9. betrays someone 10. savagely cruel a. hypocritical b. fickle c. volatile d. repulsive e. obsequious f. contemptuous g. histrionic h. treacherous i. barbaric j. pompous TRUE OR FALSE? 1. A person you find repulsive would be nice to kiss. true / false 2. True friends should not be fickle. true / false 3. If I tell you not to smoke while I am smoking myself, this makes me a hypocrite. true / false 4. A volatile person is likely to keep calm even in a difficult situation. true / false 5. An axe murderer is likely to be considered as barbaric. true / false
6. Someone who is obsequious might refuse to do what they are told. true / false 7. A histrionic person might also be an attention-seeker. true / false 8. You can trust a treacherous person. true / false 9. Someone who is pompous will often crack jokes. true / false 10. If someone looks at your new jacket with a contemptuous look, they probably think it is pathetic. true / false COVER UP & RECALL 1. gets angry without warning 2. change your mind even if it means being disloyal 3. makes you feel disgusted 4. not acting in the same way that you tell other people to act 5. thinking other people are inferior / a bit worthless 6. overly serious and self-important 7. exaggerates and is overly dramatic 8. likely to stab you in the back 9. tries to please by doing acting like your servant 10. so cruel you act like an animal a. V b. F c. R d. H e. C f. P g. H h. T i. O j. B
USE IT! Write a short story about your journey to school and your first lesson. Get a point each time you use one of the ten words we learnt. Tick them off as you write. repulsive fickle hypocritical volatile barbaric pompous contemptuous treacherous histrionic obsequious GAME Across 6. This person acts in a servile, overly-deferent way. 7. You never know when this person will 'explode'. 8. Very loud and over-the-top. 9. Tell people they should behave in one way and then act in a totally opposite way yourself. 10. A person who is so disgusting they make you feel sick. Down 1. You thought you could trust them, but you couldn't. 2. Very serious, very self-absorbed, acts in an overly 'grand' manner. 3. Acting with shocking cruelty. 4. This person is not very loyal; they change their allegiance easily. 5. You often look at people like they are pathetic and not worth your time.