woebegone tovarich

The cantankerous man's jingoism, and twaddling about squalid, pre-fab parallelepiped boathomes and their metacenters, made his woebegone tovarich daydream about orthoepy.

• cantankerous: 1. Ill-tempered and quarrelsome; disagreeable: disliked her cantankerous landlord. 2. Difficult to handle: “had to use liquid helium, which is supercold, costly and cantankerous” (Boston Globe).
• jingoism: Extreme nationalism characterized especially by a belligerent foreign policy; chauvinistic patriotism.
• twaddle: intr.v. To talk foolishly; prate. |n. Foolish, trivial, or idle talk or chatter.
• squalid: 1. Dirty and wretched, as from poverty or lack of care. See synonyms at dirty. 2. Morally repulsive; sordid: “the squalid atmosphere of intrigue, betrayal, and counterbetrayal” (W. Bruce Lincoln).
• parallelepiped: A solid with six faces, each a parallelogram and each being parallel to the opposite face.
• metacenter: The intersection of vertical lines through the center of buoyancy of a floating body when it is at equilibrium and when it is floating at an angle. The location of the metacenter is an indication of the stability of a floating body.
• woebegone: 1. Affected with or marked by deep sorrow, grief, or wretchedness. See synonyms at sad. 2. Of an inferior or deplorable condition: a rundown, woebegone old shack.
• tovarich: A comrade.
• orthoepy: 1a. The study of the pronunciation of words. b. The study of the relationship between the pronunciation of words and their orthography. 2. The customary pronunciation of words.