Lexicon

• Clement (adj.) lenient; compassionate 
• The clement father forgave his daughter easily.
• Meet (v.) to come together (n.) an assembly where people come together as in a "track meet"
• The woman arranged to meet with her father for the first time at a neutral coffee shop.
• Condign (adj.) well deserved; fitting; adequate
• Since the defendant was remorseless after having admitted to first degree murder, most agreed that the judge's ruling of a life-time sentence with no parole was condign albeit perhaps even a bit clement.  
• Jocund (adj.) cheerful; merry; gay; blithe
• I would like to be described by the people that know me as jocund.  My dog Levi is jocund
• Levi is jocund.
• Levi is jocund!
• Recondite (adj.) requiring special knowledge to be understood
• The vocabulary of Fodor and Palmarini's critique of simple minded Darwinism is recondite, albeit once the terms of the debate are understood, it is a very rewarding read.
• Metonym (n.) a figure of speech in which a word that designates one thing or concept is used for something that is closely related to it, i.e. "to count heads" for "to count people" 
• Lakoff and Johnson distinguish between a metonym and a metaphor.  While both provide tools for understanding phenomena, a metonym is special in that it coordinates between essential parts of things and the whole of a thing.  For instance, a good example of a metonym is the following sentence.  "I counted heads and one is missing."  "Heads" in this context functions as a metonym in that it refers to individual people, but uses the word head to make the reference. 
• The difference between metonym and metaphor is that when people use a metonym they typically do not intend to transfer properities concerning the source concept to the transfer concept; whereas in metaphor, people do tranfer properties of the source to the transfer.  So, for instance, I might use "the crown" to refer to the king, but I don't think and intend for there to be any transference of crown-like properties to the king.  But, if I say, "my father rules the house with my mother as the queen", then I do intend for some properties of kings to be tranfered when thinking about my father, which rules the house as a king and has a queen, my mother, for his bride.  
• Synecdoche (n.) a figure of speech in which the part is used to name the whole or the whole is used to name the part
• Lakoff and Johnson group synecdoche and metaphor together.  However, some people believe that there is a fine grained distinction between the two concepts.  The example given earlier of "counting heads" is actually an example of synecdoche.  My dad gave me  a set of wheels.  Here, "set of wheels" is a part of a car, and is used to refer to the thing of which it is a part.  
• Homonym (n.) a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differing in meaning 
• Sail and sale are homonyms since they sound alike but differ in meaning. 
• Pugnacious (adj.) inclined to quarrel or fight; quarrelsome; belligerent 
• My pugnacious mother made it difficult for my father to stick around during my childhood. 
• Stalwart (adj.) strong or stoutly built; sturdy
• The stalwart cabin in the forest withstood the fierce winters resolutely.
• Doughty (adj.) steadfastly courageous and resolute 
• The doughty hiker fought past the torrential downpour and mudslide to make it to the end of the trail.
• The witch goddess Circe fell in love with the doughty Odysseus and had him stay with her for a full year of feast before he was sent back to Itacha.  
• Intractable (adj.) not easily controlled or directed; stubborn; obstinate
• Levi is an intractable dog; but with some patience and care, instead of controlling him, one can learn to work with him as a team member.  
• Opprobrium (n.) the negative feeling (disgrace or reproach or blame) incurred as a result of shameful behavior 
• The opprobrium experience by the parents of Miley Cyrus after her tweaking episode must have been colossal.  
• Invective (n.) vehement or violent accusation; vituperation 
• The invective speech against President Obama's healthcare reform plan performed by Ted Cruz in front of Congress caused considerable outrage among the American people and Cruz's constituents.  He would be smart to avoid such vituperative claims in the future.   
• Beguile (v.) to charm, divert, take away from something with trickery 
• The little girl beguiled the candies form her mother, pleading with her big brown eyes.
• Cloy (adj.) 
• I tend to cloy after I eat just a few chocolates or sweets.  As a child I did not always have this problem, my desire for both was intractable.
• Cant (n.) speech that is insincere; or speech based on a private lexicon 
• The attractive girl's cant was not appreciated by the boy who had worked up the courage to ask her to the prom.
• Plaintive (adj.) expressing sorrow or melancholy
• Henryk Gorecki's album Misere is a plaintive gesture toward the brutal fact of our mortality.  
• Arresting (adj.) capable of attracting interest
• The street performers drumming was arresting.
• Attract (adj.) having the power of attracting 
• Although the drums could attract, the street performer was unskilled and could not fetch a crowd.  
• Intriguing (adj.) strongly captivating 
• By making his single drum sounds like 10 drums, the intriguing street drummer captured a large crowd.