Make Your Point > Archived Issues > EVANESCE

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connect today's word to others: Were you pleasantly surprised when the band Evanescence stuck around for well over a decade? Their name (incorrectly) foretold a swift disappearance. From the Latin vanus, meaning "empty or void," we get our word evanesce ("to disappear quickly") as well as vain, vanity, vanish, and the word va___, which means "to talk about things in a boastful way." Can you recall it? So, when things are evanescent, they disappear quickly: they're: eph____al, tra___tory, and tra__ient. (To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) make your point with... "EVANESCE" From Latin roots that literally mean to "vanish out (of)," the word "evanesce" means "to fade away, or to disappear quickly." Pronunciation: EH vuh NESS Part of speech: Verb, the intransitive kind: "it evanesces," "the idea evanesced." Other forms: evanesced, evanescing; evanescent, evanescently;  evanescence How to use it: When you need a more poetic, more dramatic word than "evaporate," "dissipate," or "disappear," pick "evanesce." Talk about ghosts, images, trends, ideas, feelings and so on that evanesce. You can say that things evanesce in or into other things: "his hopes evanesced into nothingness," "the main character's original goal evanesces in a whirlwind of rising action." examples: Layla purrs in my lap, her gray ears soft and warm under my palm. My tension evanesces. "Morrison’s voice turns into one long, yawning syllable, as if he’s plunging into an abyss or evanescing into the next life. ...[The] record player has died."    — Chris Richards, The Washington Post, 8 September 2014 study it: Explain the meaning of "evanesce" without saying "evaporate" or "dissolve." try it out: Fill in the blanks: "_____ captures the evanescent beauty of _____." Example 1: "The photograph captures the evanescent beauty of soap bubbles." Example 2: "My Girl captures the evanescent beauty of first love." before you review, play: Spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—let your working memory empty out first. Our game is "TV Tropes!" This month, we're playing with tropes from TVTropes.org. TV tropes are storytelling devices, which can come from any source of fiction—TV, movies, books, you name it. They're the archetypes, the story patterns, the plot devices, the cheap tricks, the situational clichés that we see over and over throughout fiction.  Examples of TV tropes include "Skyward Scream," "Banister Slide," "Caught on the Jumbotron," "Burp of Finality," "City People Eat Sushi," "Dance Party Ending," "Clean Pretty Childbirth," "Come Back to Bed, Honey," "Even the Subtitler is Stumped," and tens of thousands more. Naming a trope can be a straightforward business, as in the "Skyward Scream." But often it demands precision, inviting the use of humorously sophisticated terms. Enter our Make Your Point words.  In each issue this month, consider the name of a TV trope, and try to define it or even give an example from a TV show or other work of fiction. From the previous issue: In fiction, what is the trope known as a Diabolus ex Machina? (Compare it to a deus ex machina.) Answer: It's a "Devil out of a Machine:" it's when, out of nowhere, some unexpected force makes things devilishly difficult for the characters. For example, in Doctor Who, just when everything is going well, a crack appears in space-time and leads to a character's death. Try this last one today: In fiction, what is the trope known as In Vino Veritas? (Compare it to words like veracious and verisimilitude.) review today's word: 1. One opposite of EVANESCE is A. ALLEVIATE. B. ERADICATE. C. MANIFEST. 2. In mathematics, "evanescent" quantities are those that approach _____. A. zero, as if vanishing away B. the mean, as if drawn to it magnetically C. infinity, as if doubling themselves again and again Answers are below. a final word: Make Your Point is crafted with love and brought to you each weekday morning by Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From Liesl's blog:    36 ways to study words.    Why we forget words, & how to remember them.    How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes. Answers to review questions: 1. C 2. A