GRE word list

apoplectic \ap-uh-plek-tik\, adjective

1. Intense enough to threaten or cause a stroke.

2. Of or pertaining to apoplexy.

3. Having or inclined to apoplexy.

noun:

1. A person having or predisposed to apoplexy.

When Abie used to shout, Rebecca always used to make a joke that he was having one of his apoplectic fits.

-- Alan Grayson, Mile End

...four years, one recession and a host of battles — over financial regulation and the nomination of Elizabeth Warren, over Dodd-Frank and the Buffett Rule — have taken their toll. Some on Wall Street are apoplectic. One former supporter, Dan Loeb, compared Obama to Nero; the president’s enemies insinuated worse.

-- Nicholas Confessore, "Obama’s Not-So-Hot Date With Wall Street", The New York Times Magazine, May 2, 2012

Apoplectic stems from the Greek word apoplektikós which meant "pertaining to stroke". It literally meant "struck down".

versicolor \VUR-si-kuhl-er\, adjective

1. Changeable in color: versicolor skies.

2. Of various colors; parti-colored: a versicolor flower arrangement.

The three large versicolor flowers opened up with a silky slap…

-- Boris Vian, Foam of the Daze

The versicolor glow of the Algeron Effect, just a few hundred thousand kilometers from the space station, angled through the viewing port and stippled the far wall.

-- David R. George III, Serpents Among the Ruins

Versicolor comes from the Latin roots vers meaning "to turn" and color. It entered English in the 1620s.