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compulsory · CSS study notes

Bucket 5 — Human Behaviour & Personality

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Best for: describing historical figures, literary characters and social attitudes. 15 words.

1. AFFABLE (adj.)

  • Urdu: ملنسار، خوش اخلاق
  • Meaning: friendly, good-natured and easy to talk to
  • Syn: amiable, genial, cordial, approachable · Ant: surly, aloof, unfriendly, cold
  • ✍️ Use: An affable district officer can defuse tension that force only inflames.
  • 🧠 Hook: affa-ble → af-fa-bul-ous: someone fabulous to talk to.

2. AMBIVALENT (adj.)

  • Urdu: متضاد جذبات رکھنے والا، تذبذب کا شکار
  • Meaning: having mixed or contradictory feelings about something
  • Syn: uncertain, undecided, conflicted, equivocal · Ant: certain, decisive, resolute, sure
  • ✍️ Use: Pakistan remains ambivalent about joining rival economic blocs.
  • 🧠 Hook: ambi (both) + valent (strong) → both feelings equally strong.

3. APATHETIC (adj.)

  • Urdu: بے حس، لاتعلق
  • Meaning: showing no interest, enthusiasm or concern
  • Syn: indifferent, uninterested, unconcerned, listless · Ant: enthusiastic, passionate, eager, concerned
  • ✍️ Use: Low turnout suggests an electorate apathetic about its own future.
  • 🧠 Hook: a (without) + pathos (feeling) → without feeling.

4. ARTLESS (adj.)

  • Urdu: سادہ، بے تکلف، بناوٹ سے پاک
  • Meaning: natural and sincere, without deceit; sometimes unskilled
  • Syn: ingenuous, naive, guileless, simple · Ant: artful, cunning, crafty, sophisticated
  • ✍️ Use: The child's artless question exposed the adults' hypocrisy.
  • 🧠 Hook: art-less → without the art of deceiving.

5. ASCETIC (adj./n.)

  • Urdu: زاہد، تارکِ دنیا
  • Meaning: practising severe self-discipline and avoiding pleasure
  • Syn: austere, abstemious, self-denying, monastic · Ant: hedonistic, indulgent, sensual, luxurious
  • ✍️ Use: Gandhi's ascetic lifestyle became a political symbol in itself.
  • 🧠 Hook: sounds like "a sceptic" of luxury; Sufi saints living in a hujra.

6. ASSIDUOUS (adj.)

  • Urdu: محنتی، مستقل مزاج
  • Meaning: showing great care, attention and persistence
  • Syn: diligent, sedulous, industrious, conscientious · Ant: lazy, negligent, careless, indolent
  • ✍️ Use: Assiduous revision, not last-minute cramming, clears the CSS written exam.
  • 🧠 Hook: sedere (to sit) → someone who sits at the desk for hours.

7. CAPRICIOUS (adj.)

  • Urdu: من موجی، متلون مزاج
  • Meaning: changing mood or behaviour suddenly and unpredictably
  • Syn: fickle, erratic, whimsical, mercurial · Ant: consistent, steady, stable, predictable
  • ✍️ Use: Investors flee capricious tax policies that change with every budget.
  • 🧠 Hook: capra (goat) → a goat jumps about unpredictably.

8. DIFFIDENT (adj.)

  • Urdu: شرمیلا، خود اعتمادی سے عاری
  • Meaning: shy; lacking self-confidence
  • Syn: shy, timid, bashful, insecure · Ant: confident, bold, assertive, self-assured
  • ✍️ Use: Diffident candidates often undersell themselves in the viva.
  • 🧠 Hook: dis (not) + fidere (trust) → does not trust himself; opposite of confident.

9. IRASCIBLE (adj.)

  • Urdu: چڑچڑا، جلد غصے میں آنے والا
  • Meaning: easily angered
  • Syn: irritable, short-tempered, testy, choleric · Ant: calm, placid, easy-going, even-tempered
  • ✍️ Use: An irascible leader turns every policy disagreement into a personal feud.
  • 🧠 Hook: ira (Latin: anger), as in irate → quick to ire.

10. MISANTHROPE (n.)

  • Urdu: انسانوں سے نفرت کرنے والا، مردم بیزار
  • Meaning: a person who dislikes humankind
  • Syn: cynic, recluse, loner, hater of mankind · Ant: philanthropist, humanitarian, altruist
  • ✍️ Use: Swift's satire is sometimes misread as the work of a misanthrope.
  • 🧠 Hook: mis (hate) + anthropos (man); opposite of phil-anthrop-ist.

11. OBSEQUIOUS (adj.)

  • Urdu: خوشامدی، حد سے زیادہ تابعدار
  • Meaning: excessively eager to please or obey
  • Syn: servile, sycophantic, fawning, subservient · Ant: assertive, independent, domineering, haughty
  • ✍️ Use: An obsequious bureaucracy tells rulers what they want to hear, not what they need to know.
  • 🧠 Hook: ob + sequi (follow) → follows the boss like a shadow, as in sequence.

12. PHILISTINE (n./adj.)

  • Urdu: فن و ادب سے بے بہرہ، بدذوق
  • Meaning: a person hostile or indifferent to culture and the arts
  • Syn: boor, lowbrow, barbarian, ignoramus · Ant: aesthete, connoisseur, intellectual
  • ✍️ Use: Cutting arts funding first is a philistine view of national development.
  • 🧠 Hook: the biblical Philistines were painted as uncultured enemies → no phil (love) for the fine arts.

13. QUIXOTIC (adj.)

  • Urdu: خیالی، غیر عملی مثالیت پسند
  • Meaning: extremely idealistic and impractical
  • Syn: idealistic, unrealistic, romantic, utopian · Ant: pragmatic, practical, realistic
  • ✍️ Use: Promising free electricity for all is a quixotic pledge for a debt-ridden state.
  • 🧠 Hook: Don Quixote charged at windmills thinking they were giants.

14. SYCOPHANT (n.)

  • Urdu: خوشامدی، چاپلوس
  • Meaning: a person who flatters the powerful to gain advantage
  • Syn: flatterer, toady, yes-man, bootlicker · Ant: critic, detractor, independent thinker
  • ✍️ Use: Leaders surrounded by sycophants lose touch with public anger.
  • 🧠 Hook: syco-phant → "sick of the fawner"; a chamcha.

15. TACITURN (adj.)

  • Urdu: کم گو، خاموش طبع
  • Meaning: habitually silent; saying little
  • Syn: reticent, reserved, laconic, uncommunicative · Ant: talkative, garrulous, loquacious, chatty
  • ✍️ Use: The taciturn general's rare statements carried great weight.
  • 🧠 Hook: tacit (silent) + turn → he turns away from talking.