SAT Vocabulary: The Blind Side (Michael Lewis)

This is simultaneously a story about changes to the way football was played, the free market's ability to accurately judge the value of certain players, and a family who kindly takes in a homeless kid without realizing how their support will make it possible for him to become a star.

More than anything else, though, Michael Lewis makes it a story. He manages to weave sports history, economics, and biography into an almost seamless narrative that I couldn't put down. I wanted to learn because I loved the book and not the other way around. In this sense, it serves the same purpose as Liar's Poker and The Big Short.

You might pick this book up to learn some SAT words, but you'll gain a respect for football, markets, and the power of love. Those, in turn, will help you appreciate the richness of a good story - or is it the other way around?

Lewis, Michael. The Blind Side. W. W. Norton & Company, 2007.

SAT Vocabulary Words in The Blind Side

Connoisseur: an expert judge in matters of taste.

"Parcells became a connoisseur of the central nervous system in opposing quarterbacks." (p. 17)

Sangfroid: composure or coolness, sometimes excessive, as shown in danger or under trying circumstances.

"Those who had watched Taylor's career closely might have expected a bit more sanfroid in the presence of an injured quarterback." (p. 26)

Homunculus: a very small human or humanoid creature.

"But by the mid-1990's the market disagreed: it had declared this one member of the offensive line a superstar. Not some interchangeable homunculus, not low-skilled labor, but rare talent." (p. 33)

Vogue: the prevailing fashion or style at a particular time.

Antitype: a person or thing that represents the opposite of someone or something else.

"The types came and went - one decade there would be a vogue for speedy little receivers, the next decade the demand would be for tall, lanky receivers. And there were antitypes; Lord help the white running back or wide receivere or, until the early 1990's, the black quarterback." (p. 37)

Pathological: compulsive; obsessive.

"Football was a team game; there was a limit to the pathological behavior it would tolerate, especially in a high school player." (p. 40)
"In addition to their pathological friendliness, and their constant need for medical attention, they exhibited a bizarre tendency to leave their most valuable possessions unattended." (p. 312)

Inglorious: (of an action or situation) causing shame or a loss of honor.

"Lemming had seen hundreds of NFL-caliber players with social problems come to inglorious ends." (p. 40)

Ignoramus: an ignorant or stupid person.

"At several schools Michael Oher had been given F's in reading his first term, and C's the second term, which allowed him to finish the school year with what was clearly an ignoramus's D. They were giving him grades just to get rid of him, to keep the assembly line moving."

Gig: a job, especially one that is temporary or that has an uncertain future.

"The restaurants ran themselves, the Grizzlies gig was a night job, church was on Sundays." (p. 65)

Magnum: a gun designed to fire cartridges that are more powerful than its caliber would suggest.

" 'And when he comes to get me, he shows up with this magnum strapped to his chest.' " (p. 68)

Dun: make persistent demands on (someone), especially for payment of a debt.

"She called Ramsey, who said he was more than happy to dun his teammates for their old clothing." (p. 72)

Quixotic: exceedingly idealistic; unrealistic and impractical.

"By the time he had finished his quixotic track career, Michael Oher would break the West Tennessee sectional record in the discus, and threaten it in the shot put." (p. 79)

Bivouak: stay in a temporary camp without cover.

"But because Big Tony lived such a long way from school, Michael had bivouacked some nights here and there in East Memphis, several of them on Tony's sofa." (p. 83)

Bid: make an effort or attempt to achieve.

"[O]ne of the coaches, in his bid to separate himself from the others, had wandered up beside him." (p. 95)

Platoon: a group of people acting together.

"After that, the coaches came in platoons." (p. 96)

Fetish: an excessive and irrational devotion or commitment to a particular thing.

"Reduced by NCAA regulations to a single sense, the coaches fetishizhed that sense." (p. 99)

Chump: a foolish or easily deceived person.

"And Stan Walters was no chump." (p. 105)

Prima donna: a very temperamental person with an inflated view of their own talent or importance.

"If they led their teams to Super Bowls, these prima donnas became all but irreplaceable, in the public mind." (p. 106)

Visceral: relating to deep inward feelings rather than to the intellect.

"Finally, the Walsh plan addressed the football coach's visceral fear of an offense based on the passing game." (p. 109)

Marquee: leading; preeminent.

" 'Ron decided that he should be a marquee player, and subsequently sounded off in the locker room about how he should have been receiving credit and publicity.' " (p. 123)

Tort: a wrongful act or an infringement of a right (other than under contract) leading to civil legal liability.

" 'Did the whistle blow?" asked Sean, who could have made a good living as a tort lawyer." (p. 136)

Apotheosis: the highest point in the development of something; culmination or climax. The elevation of someone to divine status; deification.

"Technically, it was Hugh's job to talk to Michael, as, since Michael's apotheosis, Hugh had taken a special interest in the offensive line." (p. 137)

Garish: obtrusively bright and showy; lurid.

Muu-muu: a woman's loose, brightly colored dress, especially one traditionally worn in Hawaii.

"She wore a muu-muu and a garish wig that Leigh Anne assumed she had thrown on when they'd called to tell her they were on their way." (p. 144)

Moraine: a mass of rocks and sediment carried down and deposited by a glacier, typically as ridges at its edges or extremity.

"The she yanked open the box and down came the avalanche: water bills, light bills, gas bills, phone bills, eviction notices. It looked to be about three months' worth of stuff, and when it was done falling out, a moraine of future trouble rose from the pavement." (p, 144)

Nubile: (of a girl or young woman) sexually mature; suitable for marriage.

"How have you handled having your gorgeous, nubile, seventeen-year-old daughter living under the same roof with a huge young black man the same age?" (p. 146)

Expiate: atone for (guilt or sin).

"White Memphis life was organized around churches, and the churches, at any rate most of them, viewed homosexuality as either a sin to be expiated or a disease to be treated." (p. 149)

Indolence: avoidance of activity or exertion; laziness.

"Ten yards later he was delivered, violently, back to the earth, where he vanished for several seconds beneath Michael, until Michael, with the indolence of an heir to a great fortune getting out of bed in the morning, lifted himself off the flattened body." (p. 159)

Gamer: (especially in sports) a person known for consistently making a strong effort.

"The fullback was a five eight, 165-pound gamer named Clarke Norton." (p. 164)

Imprimatur: a person's acceptance or guarantee that something is of a good standard.

"At the end of December 2004, she and Sean would become Michael's legal guardians, but even without the imprimatur of law Michael felt so much a part of the family that he couldn't imagine himself out of the Christmas picture." (p. 167)

Festoon: adorn (a place) with ribbons, garlands, or other decorations.

"When coaches walked into the living room of the Tuohys' lovely Memphis home, the first thing they saw was the Rebel Christmas tree: red and blue branches festooned with nothing but Ole Miss ornaments." (p. 169)

Pincer movement:a movement by two separate bodies of troops converging on the enemy.
"In what came to be, perhaps inadvertently, a kind of Ole Miss pincer movement, Leigh Anne had brought in Sue Mitchell to tutor Michael every night." (p. 170)

Ditzy: silly or scatterbrained.
Debutante: an upper-class young woman making her first appearance in fashionable society.

"Michael, for his part, did an excellent imitation of a ditzy debutante unable to decide which of the fifteen eager young men in her parlor she wanted to escort her to the ball." (p. 171)

Booster: a keen promoter of a person, organization, or cause.
Graft: practices, especially bribery, used to secure illicit gains in politics or business; corruption.
"Leigh Anne and Sean explained to him that, if he had any intention of going to Ole Miss, they really ought to go through the process of formally adopting him, so that the many gifts they had already bestowed on him might be construed not as boosters' graft but parental love." (p. 171)

Rap: a talk or discussion, especially a lengthy or impromptu one.
"With that, Sean Junior took off on a surprisingly insistent rap. He explained how important it was for him to be near Michael, and how concerned he was that once Michael committed himself to some big-time college football program, he'd become to totally inaccessible." (p. 174)

Quotidian:ordinary or everyday, especially when mundane.
"The trouble was that there was no end to the quotidian details of upper-class American life bafflingly new to Michael Oher." (p. 175)

Lurid: (of a description) presented in vividly shocking or sensational terms, especially giving explicit details of crimes or sexual matters.
"He was at a serious disadvantage with Michael, however, because Michael had already visited LSU and been entertained for a lurid evening by a few of LSU's star football players. Michael refused to go into the details of the night, but when he come home his eyes were big and round." (p. 182)

Tableau: a group of models or motionless figures representing a scene from a story or from history; a tableau vivant.
Swanky: stylishly luxurious and expensive.

"His plan had been to roll up to Briarcrest in the Volunteers'  swanky team buses, and, offensive linemen leading the charge, have the entire team surround Michael Oher and give him a cheer. Even more shrewdly, Fulmer staged his tableau on the very Friday that Michael was meant to make his official visit to Ole Miss." (p. 185)

Hokey: mawkishly sentimental.

Mawkish: sentimental in a feeble or sickly way.

"He couldn't be nicer in his own hokey way, thought Leigh Anne, kind of like the Andy Griffith character in Mayberry R.F.D." (p. 188)

Expurgate: remove matter thought to be objectionable or unsuitable from (a book or account).

"For his senior yearbook, he'd selected his quote, from a rap song, which he'd expurgated for Briarcrest Christian School consumption." (p. 203)

Scintilla: a tiny trace or spark of a specified quality or feeling.
"To his one-word answer he would add nothing - not a scintilla of color commentary or new information." (p. 206)

Hoot: express loud scornful disapproval of something.
Effusive: expressing feelings of gratitude, pleasure, or approval in an unrestrained or heartfelt manner.

"She also advertised herself as a liberal. When Sean heard that, he hooted at her, 'We had a black son before we had a Democrat friend.' Still. in spite of these presumed defects, Miss Sue was relentless and effusive - the sort of woman who wants everything to be just great between her and the rest of the world but, if it isn't, can adjust and go to war." (p. 208)

Tawdry: showy but cheap and of poor quality. Sordid or unpleasant.
"Pick the courses shrewdly and work quickly and the most tawdry academic record could be renovated in a single summer." (p. 210)

Brigade: a subdivision of an army, typically consisting of a small number of infantry battalions and/or other units and often forming part of a division.
" 'All in the valley of Death rode the six hundred. "Forward the Light Brigade!" ' " (p. 216)

Expropriation: the action by the state or an authority of taking property from its owner for public use or benefit.
"There were a number of colleges - and Ole Miss was one of them - for which the expropriation of the market value of pre-professional football players was something very like a core business." (p. 219)

Bonhomie: cheerful friendliness; geniality.
"The first time the NCAA lady had walked into his living room, Sean Tuohy had been all false bonhomie." (p. 220)

Whey-faced: (of a person) pale, especially as a result of ill health, shock, or fear.
"One of the kids, a whey-faced doughboy, was twice as large as the others." (p. 228)

Purchase: a hold or position on something for applying power advantageously, or the advantage gained by such application.
"Wallace can't get a purchase on him; his only hope is to give him a big hard push at exactly the right moment." (p. 243)

Conceit: a fanciful notion.
"Even he was constrained in his financial demands by the conceit that one good lineman was no different from any other." (p. 248)

Finesse: intricate and refined delicacy.
"He heard scouts say, also, that he was a 'finesse' player. He reckoned that scouts always had to have one critical reservation, and so they'd dreamed that one up for him, as he had no flaw." (p. 258)

Ersatz: (of a product) made or used as a substitute, typically an inferior one, for something else.
Jalopy: an old car in a dilapidated condition.
Hubcap: a metal or plastic cover for the hub of a motor vehicle's wheel.
Rig: set up (equipment or a device or structure), typically hastily or in makeshift fashion.
"The color of their skin was just the beginning of what set the Ole Miss football players apart. They wore different clothes: oversized ersatz sports apparel so loose fitting that every stiff breeze threatened to leave them naked in the streets. They drove different cars - these jalopies outfitted with hubcaps worth twice the market value of the entire vehicle. You'd see them driving around in these bizarre-looking rigs with the front seats tilted so far back that the driver appeared to be an astrologist hard at work in a fully reclined Barcalounger." (p. 264)

Aide-de-camp: a military officer acting as a confidential assistant to a senior officer.
"As Hugh Freeze, who was now Coach O's closest confidante and chief aide de camp, put it, 'This is a a game we don't need to be losing.' " (p. 272)

Hoary: old and trite.
Trite: (of a remark, opinion, or idea) overused and consequently of little import; lacking originality or freshness.
"The game served as a proxy for the hoary Mississippi class struggle, between white folks who wore shirts with collars on them and white folks who did not." (p. 272)

Teetotaler: a person who never drinks alcohol.
" 'Will I be the only person at Ole Miss who doesn't drink?' (The small club of teetotalers was accepting all applicants.)" (p. 273)

Internecine: destructive to both sides in a conflict. Relating to conflict within a group or organization.
"On the football field the players became honorary white people, but off it they were sstill black, and unnatural combatants in Mississippi's white internecine war." (p. 280)

Laconic: (of a person, speech, or style of writing) using very few words.
" 'He was a runaway most of the time,' she said, laconically." (p. 292)

Lam: in flight, especially from the police.
"Carlos showed up, and together they went on the lam." (p. 302)

Lithe: (especially of a person's body) thin, supple, and graceful.
"He wanted to be lithe and fast; he wanted to be Michael Jordan." (p. 307)

Abet: encourage or assist (someone) to do something wrong, in particular, to commit a crime or other offense.
"But Michael was different, because the white world had so unusually aided and abetted his rise." (p. 317)

Insinuate: maneuver oneself into (a position of favor or office) by subtle manipulation.
"How, on the brink of adulthood, with a measured IQ of 80, he had so insinuated himself into rich white Memphis that white people no longer noticed the color of his skin." (p. 328)