GRE word list

agnomen \ag-NOH-muhn\, noun

1. A nickname.

2. An additional, fourth name given to a person by the ancient Romans in allusion to some achievement or other circumstance, as “Africanus” in “Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus.”

He was thin in person and low in stature, with light sandy-colored hair, and small pale features, from which he derived his agnomen of Bean or white.

-- Sir Walter Scott, Waverley

Successful Roman generals were frequently given an agnomen celebrating the source of their victories.

-- Waldo E. Sweet, Lectiones Primae

Agnomen comes from the Latin tradition of adding a fourth nickname to someone's given name. Ag- is a variation of the prefix ad- meaning "to" or "near." Nomen means "name."

aliquant \AL-i-kwuhnt\, adjective

Contained in a number or quantity, but not dividing it evenly: An aliquant part of 16 is 5.

Cunning is the aliquant of talent; as hypocrisy is of religion; all the threes in the universe cannot make ten

-- Thomas Hall, The Fortunes and Adventures of Raby Rattler and His Man Floss

...even though that number was an odd number and by a quarter the number of his confiteors, even though four was an aliquant part of two thousand to hundred and nineteen, nothing being changed with regard to the masses...

-- Raymond Queneau, The Blue Flowers

Aliquant stems from the Latin roots ali- meaning "differently" and quantus meaning "great."

mucro \MYOO-kroh\, noun

A short point projecting abruptly, as at the end of a leaf.

The outward surface of it was extremely slippery, and the mucro, or point, so very cold withal, that upon endeavoring to take hold of it, it glided through the fingers like a smooth piece of ice.

-- Richard Hughes, Spectator, No. 281

Munro holds that it must be "from the mucro or point of the stylus setting a mark at each end of any length you wish to note."

-- William Ellery Leonard, De Rerum Natura

Mucro stems from Latin word mucro meaning "sharp point."