JAZZY WORDS (WORDS # 31)

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JOCULAR

Adjective (formal) – humorous

The director was in a jocular mood, he made us all laugh.

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JOSTLE

Verb (Intransitive/transitive) - To push against someone because you are trying to move past them in a crowd

We managed to jostle our way to the front

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JOVIAL

Adjective – Cheerful and friendly

We admired his jovial personality, which he maintained in spite of his problems

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JUXTAPOSE

Verb (transitive, formal) – To place things together or to describe things together so that people can see how they are different

The two artists’ paintings were juxtaposed one beside the other so as to show the contrasts

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MY COMMENTS ON THESE WORDS

A rather complex collection this time! The words don’t seem to inspire many comments.

“Jocular” is quite a well known word, and it is used, I think, both in speaking and in writing. However, it’s not a really comfortable word. I would probably avoid it and find another way of saying the same thing. I think I would use a description, something like “he was in a happy mood today and made us all laugh with his amusing comments”. Well, “jocular” would of course be much shorter, so maybe it could be useful after all.

“Jostle” is definitely a word I would use, especially if somebody was pushing against me in a crowd, I’m sure I would turn round and snarl “Stop jostling me!”  I think I could do that very efficiently!

“Jovial” is also a well used word, I think many of us can think of an uncle or relative or a friend who came to visit and was “jovial”. Just think of Santa! This word probably describes him perfectly. 

“Juxtapose” sounds very technical, and it is, in the sense that it describes a very specific relation between two objects and also includes a reference to their relative positions.  I think it would be quite difficult to explain the positions in any other way, this is the exact word! The definition provided by the dictionary is perfectly clear, and so is the example, I think. So there is not much more to say about this word, except that it looks very forbidding to actually write it.

The good news for Spanish speakers if that jovial and yuxtaponer both exist, sound the same and mean the same! There is also another word, jocoso, which corresponds to “jocular”, but the similarity is not so close.

So there you have this new short list, taken from the lists of words provided for the graduate entry tests. Study them up, and increase your rating on the tests!

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 © 2013  joveron  (Joan Robertson)

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