1. Disposed to fight; pugnacious.      

            2. Expressing bitter opposition; scathing.      

            3. Disposed to or exhibiting violence or destructiveness; fierce.   

[Latin truculentus, from trux, truc-, fierce.]

Amazed and truculent, Maraj turned around, went right back into the jewelry store and yelled at the poor sales associate for selling the earrings to someone else. "I even called and told you I would probably be in to buy them!"  

The flustered salesman replied, "I'm sorry Ma'am, but I didn't know who you were and lots of people say they'll probably be back. It's my job to sell them to whoever actually walks in and is ready to pay."  

The final insult. He called her "Ma'am."  

Maraj decided to go to the spa for a hydrating facial and a wonderful massage to work out the tension caused by this guy's idiotic and rude behavior. She pulled the cell phone out of her purse with a graceful air, tossed her hair, called up Misha's, told the receptionist she would probably be in today -- and hung up before hearing the bad news that the spa was completely booked. -- N

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Background: 

Along with countless other people the world over, I enjoy my subscription to A. Word. A. Day. that results in a daily email message with interesting, sometimes completely unknown-to-me words, along with pronounciation guide, etymology typical usage and more.

The New York Times hailed AWADmail as: "The most welcomed, most enduring piece of daily mass e-mail in cyberspace."

One day way back when, I decided that for learning, it would be helpful and fun to use the words AWAD sent to me in a sentence or two. Of course I found myself going beyond that and using them in not-so-obvious ways that entertained my friends as well as myself. Sometimes I use words incorrectly on purpose. But if you know the meaning, you get the joke. It is kind of a backward way of doing things, but that's creativity, right?

The first character inspired by AWAD was Maraj (not her real name.) She has quite a few fans. At the encouragement of several persistent friends, I decided it was time to share her and the others with my new friends here at OS, and begin on the first day of 2010. 

I'm offering vocabulary words I received from AWAD and what I wrote to practice using them. Tell me this isn't a much more fun way to work on improving one's vocabulary. Enjoy. Maraj and more will be back – and check out www.wordsmith.org to sign up for the free subscription. They don't know me, but for fun tell them I sent you. Like OS, it can be addictive. -- Natalie