i.psnk.'ti--.asl

Very careful about the details of codes or conventions. A *punctilio* is a small point—a minor rule, or a little detail of conduct in a ceremony. A person who pays close attention to such minor details is punctilious. *Punctiliousness* can be valuable, especially for certain kinds of tasks, as long as you don't become so concerned about small points that you fail to pay attention to the large ones.

rpsnk..chea..wal

Being on time; prompt. The original meaning of *punctual* described a *puncture* made by a surgeon. The word has meant lots of other things through the centuries, usually involving being precise about small points. And today *punctuality* is all about time; a punctual train or a punctual payment or a punctual person shows up “on the dot.”

Ikksm.ppsnkkshenl

(1) Anxiety caused by guilt. (2) A slight misgiving. *Compunction* is most often used in describing people who don't feel it—that is, who aren't “stung” or “pricked” by conscience. Ruthless businessmen steal clients and contracts from other businessmen without compunction, and hardened criminals have no compunctions about armed robbery and worse. Notice how compunction can be used in a noncountable way, like *guilt* (“He killed without compunction”), or in the plural, like *qualm* (”She had no compunctions about lying”). But words like *guilt, qualm, regret, remorse, doubt,* and *unease,* unlike *compunction*, are often used when talking about people who actually suffer from them.

A method of relieving pain or curing illness by inserting fine needles through the skin at specific points.

In Latin, *acus* means “needle,” and the English word *acupuncture* was coined way back in the 17th century to describe a technique the Chinese had already been using for 2,000 years. An *acupuncturist* may insert many extremely fine needles at a time; the treatment is usually uncomfortable but not truly painful. In China today, even major surgery is often carried out using only acupuncture to kill the pain; it's also used for many other conditions, including insomnia, depression, smoking, and overweight. Acupuncture is based on ancient theories of bodily energy that few Western doctors have ever accepted; but even though attempts to explain its effects by Western science have been unsuccessful, it's now widely recognized by doctors as effective for pain reduction.

ppps.tten.shsv

(1) The possibility that something will happen in the future. (2) A cause for hope. Potential can be either good or bad. Studying hard increases the potential for success, but wet roads increase the potential for accidents. But when a person or thing “has potential,” we always expect something good from it in the future. As an adjective (as in “potential losses,” “potential benefits,” etc.), *potential* usually means simply “possible.” In science, however, the adjective has a special meaning: *Potential energy* is the kind of stored energy that a boulder sitting at the top of a cliff has (the opposite of *kinetic energy,* which is what it has as it rolls down that cliff).

rim.pps.tantt

Lacking power or strength. A police department may be impotent to stop the flow of drugs into a neighborhood. A group of countries may be impotent to force another country to change its human-rights policies. The *impotence* of a prime minister may be shown by her inability to get an important piece of legislation passed. *Impotent* and *impotence* may also have a special meaning, when they refer to a man's inability to have sexual intercourse.

i.ple.ns.pps.ttent.shes.rel

A person, such as a diplomat, who has complete power to do business for a government. Back in the 12th century, when the Roman Catholic Church in some ways resembled the powerful Roman empire that had come before it, the Church revived the Roman concept of an official with *plena potens*—“full powers”— to negotiate agreements (see PLE/PLEN). Whereas an ambassador could only make offers that a faraway ruler had specified, often weeks or months earlier, a plenipotentiary could negotiate an entire agreement without checking back constantly with his ruler. Today, with instant electronic communications, this distinction has generally lost its importance, but there are still ambassadors who wouldn't be allowed at a negotiating table.

rp-tton.ttatt

A powerful ruler. Like such titles as *grand vizier, caliph,* and *khan*, *potentate* summons up thoughts of absolute rulers of an earlier age in such lands as Turkey, Persia, and India. It often suggests a person who uses power or authority in a cruel and unjust way—that is, a tyrant. Today, though it's still used as a title by the organization called the Shriners, it's more often used humorously (“Supreme Intergalactic Potentate,” “Potentate of Pasta,” etc.).