The valiant Vlad- Origins
ABANDON: To give up completely – abandonedthe sinking ship.
Synonyms: relinquish, forgo, forsake
It sadly not a dark or a stormy night, in fact it was sunny and 30 degrees and here we begin our story. He was an orphan of normal conditions. His parents had abandoned him when he was little and ran away to the circus to lead not-so-normal lives.
ABASH: To lose self-confidence; to confuse, put to shame – abashed before the assembled dignitaries.
Synonyms: fluster, disconcert, discomfit, discompose
Antonym: (adj.) self-possessed
His parents, trapeze artists, he had found out when he was older and thought it would be nice to go look for the nice people who gave birth to him and left him in the street, had been killed during the great safety net strike where the nets, tired of being there for everybody but nobody being there for them picked themselves up and left. His parents, never to be abashed or fazed by the trifles of safety went forth on their routine and plunged to their deaths.
ABDICATE: To give up claim to – abdicated the throne
Synonyms: renounce, abandon, relinquish
Their death defying acts post the safety net strike had earned his parents the titles of King and Queen of the trapeze, meaning that our hero would rightfully be the heir to the throne and someday inherit the entire circus. Being a bit of a pansy and a play-safe kind of guy, our hero abdicated the throne, which subsequently went to his nemesis Robert Bobby.
ABET: To encourage -or support – treacherously abetted the enemy.
Synonyms: spur, incite
Antonym: deter
Growing up in an orphanage was never easy especially if the orphanage was called St. Natas’ Home for unreasonably evil children. He always felt that there was something fishy, rather something with horns and a pitchfork-y about the place. All the naughty kids’ actions were abetted and the nice one i.e. him, was always punished.
ABRIDGE: To shorten – abridged his lengthy speech.
Synonyms: curtail, diminish, retrench
Anthonyms: protract, elongate, amplify
The abridged version of this boy’s childhood goes thusly: he was a brilliant student, he went to college and did his Ph.D. in Physics, the Soviet Union collapsed, he emigrated, became a janitor and after many years of cleaning up vomit he became Superintendent Vladimir Valourino.
ABROGATE: To abolish or render void – a treaty abrogated by mutual consent.
Synonyms: annul, nullify, rescind, void
You may wonder why Superintendent Vladimir Valourino never pursued a career in physics or even why he is called Superintendent Vladimir Valourino and not Dr. Superintendent Vladimir Valourino. The answer lied in the depths of Soviet- American relations during the cold war, having done his Ph.D. from a Russian university which when translated into English became ‘The Room Above the Bowling Alley University’ it was understood that his Ph.D. stood abrogated.
ABSTEMIOUS: Moderate in the use of food or drink – abstemiousin his habits.
Synonym: temperate
Now that the past is out of the way, it is time to focus on the current events. Currently Superintendent Vladimir Valourino is cleaning dried vomit from the carpets while wondering why these bloated kids would not be more abstemious in their eating ways and why must they waste so much food. Somewhere in the back of his mind, the question ‘why did I just use the word abstemious’ played over and over again, but he ignored it.
ACADEMIC: Pertaining to school; theoretical academic interests; an academic discussion, with no practical implications.
Synonym: scholastic
As time progressed, he realized that kids these days were less interested in academic pursuits and more interested in snogging each other, shooting hoops and swinging hula hoops. He didn’t approve of the first two but the third one he loved. But who was he to tell them what to do? Even if he had the authority, he probably have no one say anything to, with his shift starting after football practice.
ACCEDE: To agree to -accede to a request.
Synonym: assent
Antonym: demur
Being an easy going sorta guy, Superintendent Vladimir Valourino acceded to disacceede and went on with his life
ACCELERATE: – To quicken, speed tip – took an accelerated course in order to graduate early.
Synonym: expedite (adj. expeditious)
Antonym: retard
It was on a day similar to the one mentioned in the first paragraph that his journey into superness began. He was trying to clean an unusually tough stain from the back of the boys’ lavatory. With his potent yet gentle on hands ‘Ye Olde Cleanig Agent’ cleaning agent, he began to scrub away when suddenly the stain eating action of the cleaning agent accelerated and resulted in an explosion. When he woke up, he was glowing green and felt better than never before.
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