Adjectives and merged words

Exact adjectives. Learn each one with the noun it usually goes with:

• a nagging worry (or headache): one that keeps hurting and won't go away;
• a vague plan: unclear ('vague memories of fitful, disturbed dreams');
• a narrow path ('a couple of narrow escapes');
• a delighted look ('to our delighted surprise, she revived at once');
• an inexplicable reason: one that cannot be explained ('an inexplicable snatch of birdsong');
• sluggish traffic: slow-moving ('my mind seemed to be very sluggish that morning');
• hushed voices: quiet ('we all waited in hushed silence');
• a sheepish expression: embarrassed (Jim 'came back ten minutes later with a sheepish expression').

Notice: nagging, vague, sluggish, hushed quietly describe the effects of the bad air before anyone knows about it.

Blended words. The text uses intercom, made from internal + communication. A blended word takes parts of two words and joins them into one.

More blends:

• breakfast + lunch → brunch (a meal between the two);
• motor + hotel → motel (a roadside hotel for drivers);
• smoke + fog → smog (polluted haze over a city);
• situation + comedy → sitcom;
• video + log → vlog;
• spoon + fork → spork;
• web + seminar → webinar.

Usually the new word keeps the front of the first word and the end of the second. Blends often name something new, which is why there are so many for new technology.