Contrite is a formal adjective used to describe someone who feels regret for their bad behavior, or something, such as an apology, that shows such regret.

// Although the mayor appeared contrite about the most recent scandal plaguing city hall, many constituents remained unpersuaded.

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“At the restaurant, late into the meal, ‘Honey, Honey,’ from the ‘Mamma Mia’ soundtrack began to play, with [Amanda] Seyfried’s 22-year-old voice issuing through the restaurant’s speakers. The waitress came over, contrite. The song was just part of the usual play list. ‘Listen, I love having a stake in pop culture,’ Seyfried reassured her. ‘It’s really nice.’” — Alexis Soloski, The New York Times, 11 Mar. 2025

Props to Elton John: sorry really does seem to be the hardest word. But saying it (in something other than a nonapology, of course) is an important part of being contrite—that is, feeling or showing sorrow and remorse for one’s bad behavior. Contrite traces back to the Latin verb conterere, meaning “to pound to pieces,” “to crush, “to wear out or down,” or “to exhaust mentally or physically.” In Medieval Latin—the Latin used in Medieval times especially for religious or literary purposes—conterere came to mean “to crush in spirit with a sense of one’s sin,” or “to render contrite.” Anglo-French speakers borrowed a form of the verb conterere and made it the adjective contrit, which was in turn adopted into English in the 1300s.

Impunity, usually used in the phrase "with impunity," refers to exemption or freedom from punishment, harm, or loss.

// They mistakenly believe that they can break the camp's rules with impunity.

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"For his part, [artist Adam] Leveille doesn't expect to see his painting again. ... Still, he feels compelled to speak out publicly about what happened and has asked on his Instagram account and on Reddit for anyone with information about the heist, or who might have seen his painting appear somewhere, to come forward. If anything, he just wants to let potential area art thieves know they can't steal from local artists with impunity." — Spencer Buell, The Boston Globe, 1 Feb. 2025

Impunity, like the words pain, penal, and punish, traces to the Latin noun poena, meaning "punishment." Poena, in turn, came from the Greek poinē, meaning "payment" or "penalty." Impunity has been around since the 1500s; in 1660, Englishman Roger Coke wrote "This unlimited power of doing anything with impunity, will only beget a confidence in kings of doing what they [desire]." While royals may act with impunity more easily than others, the word impunity can be applied to beings great and small. Take, for example, this 2023 quote from the Sidmouth Herald in England: "The [yew tree] fruits are readily eaten by birds but they do not digest the seeds as they are poisonous. Only one bird, the rare and shy Hawfinch, is able to eat the seeds with impunity."

To rescind something, such as a law, contract, agreement, etc., is to end it officially. Rescind can also mean “to take back; to cancel.”

// Given the appeal court’s recent decision, it is likely that the law will be rescinded.

// The company later rescinded its offer.

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“A state environmental oversight board voted unanimously to rescind a controversial proposal that would have permitted California municipal landfills to accept contaminated soil that is currently required to be dumped at sites specifically designated and approved for hazardous waste.” — Tony Briscoe, The Los Angeles Times, 16 May 2025

Rescind and the lesser-known words exscind and prescind all come from the Latin verb scindere, which means “to split, cleave, separate.” Rescind was adapted from its Latin predecessor rescindere in the 16th century, and prescind (from praescindere) and exscind (from exscindere) followed in the next century. Exscind means “to cut off” or “to excise,” and prescind means “to withdraw one’s attention,” but of the three borrowings, only rescind established itself as a common English term. Today, rescind is most often heard in contexts having to do with the withdrawal of an offer, award, or privilege, or with invalidation of a law or policy.

Boffo is an informal word that describes things that are extremely good or successful.

// The most recent film in the long-running franchise has done boffo business at the box office, a testament to the series’ enduring popularity.

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“A strong showing at the Senior Bowl was followed by a boffo performance at the NFL combine, where the 6-foot-4, 214-pound [Isaac] TeSlaa zoomed through the 40-yard dash in 4.43 seconds …” — Rainer Sabin, The Detroit Free Press, 27 Apr. 2025

Boffo made its print debut as a noun referring to something great: a solid joke or a good punch line. It did so right around the same time—the 1930s, at the dawn of Hollywood’s golden age—as boff, a noun with an identical meaning thought to perhaps come from “box office.” Within a few years, boffo began to be applied adjectivally to things that, like a good joke, were a big hit: performances, all-star casts, movies. To this day it is used mostly in the context of performing arts, spectator sports, and other entertainments.

A simulacrum is a superficial likeness of something, usually as an imitation, copy, or representation. The plural of simulacrum is either simulacrums or simulacra.

// The surprise still succeeded, thanks to the simulacrum of confusion expressed by two guests when they were spotted before the big moment.

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"Under the lid, there are no strings to move the air, but rather speakers that create an uncanny simulacrum of a grand piano." — Robert Ross, Robb Report, 17 July 2024

There is more than a crumb of similarity between simulacrum and simulate: both words come from simulāre, a Latin verb meaning "to pretend, produce a fraudulent imitation of, imitate." At the root of simulāre is the Latin adjective similis, which means "having characteristics in common." Many "similar" words trace back to similis, hence the resemblance between simulacrum and familiar terms like simultaneous, simile, and of course similarity.

Something described as exemplary is extremely good and deserves to be admired and copied.

// Our research team was awarded for our exemplary work on the project.

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“[Director, Oliver] Hermanus again shows highly polished craftsmanship, adding the subtlest hint of sepia tones to evoke the period in the early sections, but never to the point where the characters compete with the settings. His direction of the actors is exemplary, even with characters seen only briefly ...” — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 May 2025

It’s usually not a good thing if someone wants to make an example of you, unless, of course, it’s because you happen to be exemplary. Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, someone or something may be deemed exemplary if they, by their example, are worthy of imitation. Like a few other English words beginning with ex—such as exceptional and extraordinary—exemplary describes that which is a cut above the rest. But though exemplary, which comes from the Latin noun exemplum (“example”), describes something “excellent,” it almost always carries the further suggestion that the thing described is an excellent model to follow.

To procrastinate is to be slow or late about doing something that should be done, or about doing or attending to things in general.

// Tickets to the event are selling swiftly, so don't procrastinate—buy yours today.

// Not one to procrastinate, Harry set to work on the project immediately.

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"Researchers found that individuals who tend to procrastinate often do so because they fear not meeting their high standards or worry too much about failing. The study also showed that this fear of failure and the habit of overgeneralizing failures (like thinking one mistake means you're a failure) strongly connect perfectionism to procrastination." — Mark Travers, Forbes, 28 May 2025

We won't put off telling you about the origins of procrastinate: it comes from the Latin prefix pro-, meaning "forward," and crastinus, meaning "of tomorrow." To procrastinate is to work or move slowly so as to fall behind; it implies blameworthy delay especially through laziness or apathy. English has other words with similar meanings, such as defer and postpone, but none places the blame so directly on the person responsible for choosing a later time to do something. Procrastinate is also a malleable word: English speakers have wasted no time creating clever variations, most of them delightfully self-explanatory. Don't let coinages like procrastibake, procrastinetflix, and procrasticlean pass you by; they may not meet our criteria for entry into the dictionary, but their potentials for use are undeniable.

Antic refers to an attention-drawing, often wildly playful or funny act or action. It is usually used in its plural form, and is often used disapprovingly.

// It wasn't clear which students were ultimately responsible for the antics that unfolded in the cafeteria that day.

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“A couple of adult gorillas, including one majestic silverback, lay indolently on the ground—seemingly reveling in the early morning sunshine, while a pair of young gorillas tumbled down from a mound and played together on the muddy earth. It was remarkable to see how similar they are to humans. They live in family groups and their movements, antics and expressions are so like ours. In fact, data shows that humans and gorillas differ in only 1.75 per cent of their DNA, far less than previously assumed. (Chimpanzees—our closest relatives—differ only 1.37 per cent from our genomes.)” — Zeineb Badawi, An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence, 2025

When referring to one of the grotesques—the fanciful, often fantastical mural paintings found in the ruins of ancient Roman buildings—the Italian descendants of the ancient Romans used the word antico, meaning “ancient thing.” In 16th-century English, antico (itself a descendant of the Latin word for “ancient,” antiquus) became antic, and got applied as both a noun and an adjective in contexts related to decorative art—sculptures, painting, architecture, etc.—inspired by the original grotesques. Antic shifted in meaning over time, eventually gaining the senses we use more often today: antic as an adjective describes the absurd or whimsical, and antic as a usually plural noun refers to attention-grabbing, playful or funny acts and actions.

A cantankerous person is often angry and annoyed, and a cantankerous animal or thing is difficult or irritating to deal with.

// Although the former postman was regarded by some townspeople as a scowling, cantankerous old coot, he was beloved by neighborhood children, to whom he would regularly hand out butterscotch candies from his front stoop with a twinkle in his eye.

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“The film ‘Hard Truths,’ which opens in New York on Friday and nationwide in January, centers on [Marianne] Jean-Baptiste’s Pansy, a cantankerous middle-aged woman who spits venom at unsuspecting shop assistants, bald babies, her 20-something son Moses (Tuwaine Barrett) and her dentist, among others.” — Simran Hans, The New York Times, 9 Dec. 2024

A person described as cantankerous may find it more difficult than most to turn that frown upside down, while a cantankerous mule/jalopy/etc. is difficult to deal with—it may not turn in your desired direction. It’s been speculated that cantankerous is a product of the obsolete word contack, meaning “contention,” under the influence of a pair of “difficult” words still in use: rancorous and cankerous. Rancorous brings the anger and “bitter deep-seated ill will” (as rancor can be understood to mean), and cankerous brings the perhaps understandable foul mood: a cankerous person suffers from painful sores—that is, cankers.

Yankee can refer broadly to anyone born or living in the U.S., more narrowly to only those in the northern U.S., or even more narrowly to only those in the states of New England. The broadest use is especially common outside the U.S.

// It took the children some time to adjust to being the only Southerners in a classroom full of Yankees.

// After years of international travel, he'd grown accustomed to living as a Yankee abroad.

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"Anthony Pettaway's coworkers at Norfab Ducting have known for the past six years he was good at getting their deliveries to the right department. They also knew from his accent that the receivables department employee was a relocated Yankee." — Jill Doss-Raines, The Dispatch (Lexington, NC), 10 June 2025

We don't know the origin of Yankee but we do know that it began as an insult. British General James Wolfe used the term in a 1758 letter to express his low opinion of the New England troops assigned to him, and from around the same time period there is a report of British troops using Yankee as a term of abuse for the citizens of Boston. In 1775, however, after the battles of Lexington and Concord showed that colonials could stand up to British regulars, Yankee was proudly adopted by colonials as a self-descriptor in defiance of the pejorative use. Both derisive and respectable uses have existed ever since.