GRE word list

antic \an-tik\, adjective

1. Ludicrous; funny.

2. Fantastic; odd; grotesque: an antic disposition.

noun:

1. Usually, antics. A. A playful trick or prank; caper. B. A grotesque, fantastic, or ludicrous gesture, act, or posture.

2. Archaic. A. An actor in a grotesque or ridiculous presentation. B. A buffoon; clown.

3. Obsolete. A. A grotesque theatrical presentation; ridiculous interlude. B. A grotesque or fantastic sculptured figure, as a gargoyle.

From the subversive to the antic, the uproarious to the disturbing, the stories of Bruce Sterling are restless,

energy-filled journeys through a world running on empty.

-- Bruce Sterling, A Good Old-Fashioned Future

Grey Magic is a work of great scope and stylistic virtuosity, combining antic humor with immense sophistication, an Anglo-American setting with an Anglo-European sensibility and a profound insight into contemporary issues of both personal and collective resonance.

-- Richard Leigh, Grey Magic

Antic comes from the Italian word antico which meant "ancient." Apparently, it was associated with the fantastic figures of the Roman ruins and came to mean "grotesque."

ataraxia \at-uh-RAK-see-uh\, noun

A state of freedom from emotional disturbance and anxiety; tranquility.

The former breathes only peace and liberty; he desires only to live and be free from labor; even the ataraxia of the Stoic falls far short of his profound indifference to every other object.

-- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality and a Discourse on Political Economy

Thus, hedonism ends in ataraxia, which confirms the paradoxical relation between sadism and stoicism.

-- Marquis de Sade, 120 Days of Sodom and Other Writings

Ataraxia stems from the Greek word of the same spelling that meant "impassiveness."

litotes \LAHY-tuh-teez\, noun

Understatement, especially that in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary, as in “not bad at all.”

Stevens does not allow himself much of the Sublime here, yet it creeps in by negation in the litotes or understatement of the stanza's close.

-- Harold Bloom, Wallace Stevens: The Poems of Our Climate

I know it's a textbook example of what lit-crit geeks like to call litotes, a figure of speech in which an affirmative is expressed through the negation of its opposite…

-- Mark Dery, I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts

Litotes comes from the Greek word litótes which meant "plainness, simplicity."