Acumen (judgmnet) *** Acuity (sense) & Acuteness (pain)

acumen







Y

D



–noun 

keen 

insight; shrewdness: remarkable acumen in [business] matters.  





C



acuity, acumen, acuteness (nn.)   

 

Acuity is "keenness of thought or senses": 



His [visual] acuity was remarkable. 





Acumen (stress it on either the first or second syllable) means "keenness and sharpness, particularly of mind and understanding; shrewd judgment": 



Her [financial] acumen will be a great help. 





Acuteness is the most general of the three terms, meaning "possessed of a general shrewdness, sharpness, quickness of mind, and sensitivity": 



Those three judges combine a range of acuteness of [perception] and [mind] that should make their decisions very wise indeed. 



Acuteness is also the choice when a pain is literal and physical: The acuteness of the [toothache] drove all thought from my mind. 





　

Will the current craze for filmed Shakespeare and the ongoing one for genteel adaptations of 19th-century novels 



genteel 

–adjective

1. belonging or suited to polite society.

2. well-bred or refined; polite; elegant; stylish.

3. affectedly or pretentiously polite, delicate, etc.



[vault] the great miniaturist Eric Rohmer 

beyond

his own long-established niche? 



Here is an auteur whose movies are as richly verbal as any stage play, as steeped [in] romantic complication as Edith Wharton, and, 



albeit less obviously so, as purely cinematic as those of his model, Alfred Hitchcock. 





Autumn Tale, 

the latest and perhaps the last Rohmer opus, 



is set somewhere in the Rhône valley in the south of France. Summer may be ending, but [meals] are still taken alfresco and 



[talk] of marriage is in the air. 



The film's opening scene has the fortysomething Isabelle (Marie Rivière) discussing daughter Émilia's wedding, then musing on the lonely situation of her best friend, Magali (Béatrice Romand), a widow with a small vineyard and an empty nest. 





Hoping to find the diffident Magali an appropriate suitor, Isabelle, who owns a bookstore in town (proof of her [business] acumen and romantic imagination), 



places a discreet personal ad in a local paper. Then, posing as Magali—who, of course, knows nothing of this scheme—



Isabelle dates the most promising prospective swain, 



swain

–noun

1. a male admirer or lover.

2. a country lad.

3. a country gallant.



a pied-noir salesman named Gerald (played with smooth eligibility by Alain Libolt), before comically disorienting him with the explanation that she is only a surrogate.





witticism

conundrum tantrum rummage Fray 

repartee

astute gumption shrewd 

Threnody



cad 

callow cherub

lad

The lad is determined to let his acting do the talking 

Nubile