Behave Yourself! Vocabulary for Good, Bad, and Indifferent Conduct

It's important to be precise about behavior. Saying that "someone breaks the rules" is boring and doesn't convey the nerve they have in breaking them the way "someone is brazenly flouting the rules" does. Here are words about behavior that are easy to confuse with other words, or easy to be confused about, period. Is that in- at the beginning of intemperate a negative or not? What does that mean for the word as a whole? What about the in- at the start of inure? Learn this list and find out!
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. intemperate
    excessive in behavior
    Second is the bubbling over of that incoherence into intemperate behavior, such as recent remarks which could be construed as invitations to treason.
    —Salon May 6, 2014
    The problem with this word is that temperate is often associated with things you don't do- like drink, or engage in excessive behavior of any kind. So with the negative in- at the front, the word means to engage in that kind of excess.
  2. inure
    cause to accept or become hardened to
    But the sights of the battlefield are grim even for a man inured to violence.
    —The Guardian Jul 7, 2014
    Inure does not contain a negative element. The in- is actually from the first part of a 15th Century expression, in ure, which meant "in use".
  3. stultify
    deprive of strength or efficiency; make useless or worthless
    Setting too-rigid boundaries and rules that replace experimentation can stultify your people.
    —Forbes Feb 12, 2014
    Stultify sounds a little like stuffy and if you think of a hot, stuffy room on a blistering summer day which makes work impossible, you come close to the meaning of stultify.
  4. fulsome
    unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating
    The tremulous Bilbo tries diverting his captor with  fulsome praise: “Truly songs and tales fall utterly short of your enormity, O Smaug the Stupendous.”
    —Time Dec 9, 2013
    Although it may sound cheerful, like it means " having a full belly" or "overflowing", the connotations of fulsome are not very positive.
  5. enervate
    weaken physically, mentally, or morally
    It was extremely exhausting and enervating, this prowling about under the perpetual strain of danger.
    — Abraham Cahan
    Due to what looks like "energy" in the first part if this word, it is very easy to get its definition exactly backwards. It doesn't mean "to energize", but rather to drain of energy and leave weak.
  6. insouciant
    marked by unconcern
    Stanford has a perpetually insouciant fan base; it didn't fill the stadium when Andrew Luck was at his collegiate peak.Seattle Times (Nov 29, 2012)
    It's sometimes hard to tell if this word is positive or negative, because unhappy people who are weighed down with cares often use it to critique the happy, care-free members of society.
  7. elan
    enthusiastic and assured vigor and liveliness
    He was a strong public speaker and was standing his ground, presenting his case with rare confidence and elan.
    —Newsweek
    A word that denotes excitement and style, élan is a fancy compliment when spirited just won't do.
  8. bellicose
    having or showing a ready disposition to fight
    His bellicose pamphlet called for a pre-emptive war against Russia—something no one advocates today.
    —Time (May 16, 2014)
    Another word that sounds as if it might be describing the pleasantly plump, this word comes from the Latin for "war."
  9. sanguine
    confidently optimistic and cheerful
    Getting stranded on the runway when your flight gets hit with last-minute delays is enough to fray the temper of even the most sanguine flier.
    —The Guardian Jul 9, 2014
    An excess of blood was though to cause optimism and cheerfulness in people, and that's the connection between the meaning of this word and its root, which means "blood".
  10. fastidious
    giving careful attention to detail
    Her father had been a fastidious man, impeccable, close- shaven, with razor-sharp creases pressed into his trousers.
    —Dreaming in Cuban
    The "fast" part of fastidious can be very misleading. In fact, people who are very fastidious are often slow and deliberate and can take a long time to do anything.
  11. ingratiating
    calculated to please or gain favor
    He almost continually flashed about the room the ingratiating boyish smile.The Autobiography of Malcolm X
    Not to be confused with the noun ingrate, which is someone who doesn't appreciate what is done for them, ingratiating describes a person trying to get on someone's good side, often by insincere means.
  12. stolid
    having or revealing little emotion or sensibility
    New York magazine's Jesse Green wrote that the production proved "commendable but vague, powerful but stolid: a statue not fully liberated from the stone."
    —Los Angeles Times Aug 6, 2014
    This is a word that sounds like what it means-solid, unmoved and maybe unmoveable emotionally.
  13. assuage
    cause to be more favorably inclined
    “This can skew the ratings positively,” the story explained, “because assuaged customers can always delete their previously negative reviews.”
    –Time Aug 5, 2014
    Sounding vaguely like persuade, this word is most often used when calming someone down or convincing them their fears are unfounded.
  14. brazen
    unrestrained by convention or propriety
    Residents were fed up with packs of brazen monkeys entering homes, opening fridges and biting people.
    —The Guardian Aug 1, 2014
    A bold word for bold behavior, brazen is often used associated with outlaws and social misfits, people who do what they want and just don't care.
  15. desultory
    marked by lack of definite plan, purpose, or enthusiasm
    People in the charter movement use the word “intentionality” often; very little is done in a desultory way or left to chance.
    —Washington Times Jun 14, 2014
    This word may sound sad or depressing, and it is, in the sense that something not well-thought out or half-hearted can be a little bit sad. Desultory suggests that the intention is there, but the will or strength to really see something through to the full extent may not be.
Created on Sun Aug 17 18:13:15 EDT 2014 (updated Thu Oct 23 15:20:55 EDT 2014)

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