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compulsory · CSS study notes

Bucket 21 — Social Status & Manners

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Best for: social behaviour, class distinctions, ingrained prejudice. 10 words (1 repeat).

1. BOOR (n.)

  • Urdu: اجڈ، بدتہذیب شخص
  • Meaning: a rough and bad-mannered person
  • Syn: lout, oaf, churl, philistine · Ant: gentleman, sophisticate, aristocrat
  • ✍️ Use: Online anonymity turns ordinary citizens into boors.
  • 🧠 Hook: sounds like boar (wild pig): messy and rude. Adj: boorish.

2. CHAUVINISM (n.)

  • Urdu: انتہا پسندانہ قوم پرستی، گروہی تعصب (مثلاً مردانہ برتری)
  • Meaning: aggressive or excessive patriotism; prejudiced belief in the superiority of one's own group
  • Syn: jingoism, bigotry, sexism, partisanship · Ant: tolerance, open-mindedness, impartiality
  • ✍️ Use: Male chauvinism remains a barrier to women's participation in the workforce.
  • 🧠 Hook: named after Nicolas Chauvin, a fanatical soldier of Napoleon.

3. GENTEEL (adj.)

  • Urdu: شائستہ، مہذب، اشرافیہ انداز
  • Meaning: polite, refined or respectable, sometimes affectedly so
  • Syn: refined, polite, cultured, well-mannered · Ant: vulgar, coarse, boorish, crude
  • ✍️ Use: Genteel poverty is the quiet struggle of many retired government employees.
  • 🧠 Hook: a gentleman's manner.

4. PATRONIZING (adj.)

  • Urdu: تحقیر آمیز شفقت، احسان جتانے والا انداز
  • Meaning: apparently kind but showing a feeling of superiority
  • Syn: condescending, supercilious, superior, disdainful · Ant: respectful, humble, deferential, egalitarian
  • ✍️ Use: Donor agencies are often criticised for patronizing attitudes towards local expertise.
  • 🧠 Hook: a patron who helps you but looks down on you.

5. PLEBEIAN (adj./n.)

  • Urdu: عوامی، عام لوگوں کا، کمتر طبقے کا
  • Meaning: of the common people; lacking refinement
  • Syn: common, lowly, proletarian, vulgar · Ant: aristocratic, patrician, noble, elite
  • ✍️ Use: Cricket in Pakistan unites plebeian and elite fans alike.
  • 🧠 Hook: the plebs of ancient Rome vs the patricians.

6. PHILISTINE (n.) 🔁

  • Urdu: بدذوق، فن سے بے بہرہ · hostile to culture · Syn: lowbrow · Ant: aesthete · Full entry → Bucket 5

7. BASE (adj.)

  • Urdu: کمینہ، پست، ذلیل
  • Meaning: without moral principles; ignoble
  • Syn: ignoble, mean, sordid, despicable · Ant: noble, honourable, virtuous, lofty
  • ✍️ Use: Exploiting a disaster for political gain is the basest form of opportunism.
  • 🧠 Hook: the basement of human conduct.

8. GLIB (adj.)

  • Urdu: چرب زبان، سطحی اور بے خلوص روانی
  • Meaning: fluent and voluble but insincere and shallow
  • Syn: slick, smooth-talking, superficial, facile · Ant: sincere, thoughtful, profound, halting
  • ✍️ Use: Glib assurances of "zero tolerance" mean little without prosecutions.
  • 🧠 Hook: glib → slippery: words slide out too easily to be trusted.

9. GAUCHE (adj.)

  • Urdu: بدسلیقہ، اناڑی، سماجی آداب سے ناواقف
  • Meaning: lacking social grace; awkward
  • Syn: awkward, tactless, clumsy, uncouth · Ant: graceful, tactful, suave, sophisticated
  • ✍️ Use: It would be gauche to discuss salary in the first minutes of an interview.
  • 🧠 Hook: French for left (hand): clumsy, like writing with the wrong hand. Opposite: adroit (right).

10. DOFF (v.)

  • Urdu: (احتراماً ٹوپی) اتارنا
  • Meaning: remove (an item of clothing, especially a hat) as a sign of respect
  • Syn: remove, take off, tip · Ant: don, put on, wear
  • ✍️ Use: The nation doffed its cap to the flood-relief volunteers.
  • 🧠 Hook: do off your hat. Opposite: don = do on.