eximious
\eg-ZIM-ee-uh s\
adjective
1. Obsolete. distinguished; eminent; excellent.
Quotes
I must applaud your eximious valour, however, for life can be very difficult–and dangerous …
— Claire Lorrimer, The Silver Link, 1993

savoir-faire
\SAV-wahr-FAIR\
noun
1. knowledge of just what to do in any situation; tact.
Quotes
Son of a clerk and grandson of peasants, Ryszard was keenly aware how much deportment and savoir faire figure in the impression one makes on others, and was not about to relax his standards for himself because he had read (all travelers were in agreement about this) that fine manners counted for little in the New World.
— Susan Sontag, In America, 2000

galimatias

\gal-uh-MEY-shee-uh s, -MAT-ee-uh s
noun
1. confused or unintelligible talk.
Quotes
I have seen this letter in which you tell me there is so much galimatias, and I assure you that I have not found any at all. On the contrary, I find everything plainly expressed …
— George Eliot, “A Woman in France: Madame de Sablé,” The Westminster Review, January and April, 1854

obdurate

\OB-doo-rit
adjective
1. unmoved by persuasion, pity, or tender feelings; stubborn; unyielding.
2. stubbornly resistant to moral influence; persistently impenitent: an obdurate sinner.
Quotes
Still, Michael was unforgiving. Stubborn as a balking goat. When, after they’d become engaged, Corinne had wanted to see her friend one final time to explain what had happened, Michael was obdurate in opposition: no.
— Joyce Carol Oates, We Were the Mulvaneys, 1996

quotidian
\kwoh-TID-ee-uh n\
adjective
1. usual or customary; everyday: quotidian needs.
2. daily: a quotidian report.
Quotes
Gradually the new style becomes everyday, quotidian, rendered neutral. No matter how exotic it is, like a morsel to which an amoeba is attracted and which it surrounds and takes into itself, it is devoured and becomes part of the transparent flowing substance of the amoeba.
— Walker Percy, Lost in the Cosmos, 1983

bathos
\BEY-thos, -thaws, -thohs\
noun
1. insincere pathos; sentimentality; mawkishness.
2. a ludicrous descent from the exalted or lofty to the commonplace; anticlimax.
Quotes
The Finnish director has an exact target in mind, the niche between bathos and true poignance.
— Desson Howe, “La Vie de Boheme,” Washington Post, November 5, 1993

circumspect
\SUR-kuh m-spekt\

adjective
1. well-considered: circumspect ambition.
2. watchful and discreet; cautious; prudent: circumspect behavior.

Quotes
… proper arrangements in the distribution of the Supplies, and a careful eye to the use of them, is of great importance, and calls for a circumspect choice.
— , George Washington to the Secretary of War, July 4, 1798, The Writings of George Washington, Volume 36, 1941