Grade 10 College Vocabulary, Week 3

Definition: greedy desire, especially for money or possessions.

From the reading: ★ "...as were before occasioned by the cupidity of territory or dominion?" (Hamilton)

✝ link: "Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have" (Hebrews 13:5).

Synonyms:

greed, avarice, acquisitiveness

Antonyms:

generosity, contentment, liberality

Root:Latin cupiditas, from cupere, "to desire."

Definition: trying to control others in an arrogant, overbearing way.

From the reading: ★ "Is not the love of wealth as domineering and enterprising a passion as that of power or glory?" (Hamilton)

✝ link: "Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock" (1 Peter 5:3).

Synonyms:

overbearing, tyrannical, autocratic

Antonyms:

meek, submissive, deferential

Root:Latin dominari, "to rule," from dominus, "lord, master."

Definition: something that pushes or encourages a person to act.

From the reading: ★ "Has not the spirit of commerce, in many instances, administered new incentives to the appetite, both for the one and for the other?" (Hamilton)

Synonyms:

motive, inducement, spur, stimulus

Antonyms:

deterrent, disincentive, hindrance

Root:Latin incentivus, "setting the tune," from incinere (in- + canere, "to sing"). Something that "strikes up" action.

Definition: (n.) a slight trace or tinge; (v.) to color or tinge slightly, or to give a trace of some quality.

From the reading: ★ "...liable to be tinctured by the passions and views of those individuals?" (Hamilton)

Synonyms:

tinge, color, imbue, trace

Antonyms:

(v.) purify, cleanse; (n.) entirety, whole

Root:Latin tinctura, "a dyeing," from tingere, "to dye."

Definition: a person or nation that attacks first or starts a quarrel without provocation.

From the reading: ★ "Carthage, though a commercial republic, was the aggressor in the very war that ended in her destruction." (Hamilton)

✝ link: "From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?" (James 4:1).

Synonyms:

attacker, assailant, instigator

Antonyms:

defender, victim, peacemaker

Root:Latin aggredi, "to approach, attack" (ad- "toward" + gradi "to step").

Definition: the killing of large numbers of people, especially in battle.

From the reading: ★ "...and Rome was never sated of carnage and conquest." (Hamilton)

Synonyms:

slaughter, butchery, bloodshed

Antonyms:

peace, preservation, rescue

Root:Latin caro, carnis, "flesh," through Italian carnaggio.

Definition: satisfied to the full, or filled past wanting more.

From the reading: ★ "Sparta was little better than a wellregulated camp; and Rome was never sated of carnage and conquest." (Hamilton)

✝ link: "Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied" (Proverbs 27:20).

Synonyms:

satiated, glutted, gorged, surfeited

Antonyms:

hungry, unsatisfied, ravenous

Root:probably Old English sadian, "to fill," later shaped by Latin satiare, from satis, "enough."

Definition: wanting greedily what belongs to someone else.

From the reading: ✝ "Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth" (Luke 12:15).

Synonyms:

greedy, grasping, envious, acquisitive

Antonyms:

content, generous, unselfish

Root:Old French coveitier, from Latin cupiditas. Covetous and cupidity (No. 1) come from the same root.

Definition: showing signs of future success; favorable.

From the reading: ★ "...at once in an auspicious and an evil hour detecting his infamy..." (Dickens, the Attorney-General at Darnay's trial, Book 2)

Synonyms:

favorable, promising, propitious

Antonyms:

ominous, inauspicious, unpromising

Root:Latin auspicium, "watching birds for omens," from avis ("bird") + specere ("to look").

Definition: to kill as a sacrifice; to destroy or give up something for a cause.

From the reading: ★ "...had resolved to immolate the traitor he could no longer cherish in his bosom, on the sacred altar of his country." (Dickens, Book 2)

Synonyms:

sacrifice, offer up, slay

Antonyms:

spare, preserve, save

Root:Latin immolare, "to sprinkle with sacrificial meal," from mola, "meal."

Definition: fluent and smooth in speech but shallow or insincere.

From the reading: ★ "...while Mr. Stryver was a glib man, and an unscrupulous, and a ready, and a bold, he had not that faculty of extracting the essence from a heap of statements..." (Dickens, Book 2)

✝ link: "For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God" is a fine contrast. Glib speech flatters, while honest speech tells the whole truth.

Synonyms:

slick, facile, smooth-tongued

Antonyms:

sincere, earnest, halting, inarticulate

Root:probably from Low German glibberig, "slippery."

Definition: having no moral scruples; willing to do wrong to get what one wants.

From the reading: ★ "...Mr. Stryver was a glib man, and an unscrupulous, and a ready, and a bold..." (Dickens, Book 2)

Synonyms:

unprincipled, dishonest, conscienceless

Antonyms:

scrupulous, honorable, conscientious

Root:un- + Latin scrupulus, "a small sharp stone." A scruple is like a pebble in the shoe: the small pain of a tender conscience.

Definition: sympathy and sorrow for someone else's suffering.

From the reading: ★ "There was much commiseration for her as she was removed, and much sympathy with her father." (Dickens, Lucie at the trial, Book 2)

✝ link: "Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep" (Romans 12:15).

Synonyms:

compassion, pity, sympathy, condolence

Antonyms:

indifference, callousness, schadenfreude

Root:Latin com- ("with") + miserari ("to pity"), from miser, "wretched."

Definition: a filthy, wretched condition caused by poverty or neglect.

From the reading: ★ "...so spectral did they become in the inappropriate squalor and misery through which they were seen..." (Dickens, the prisoners in La Force, Book 3)

Synonyms:

filth, wretchedness, sordidness

Antonyms:

cleanliness, splendor, luxury

Root:Latin squalor, "filth, roughness," from squalere, "to be stiff with dirt."

Definition: punishment given in return for a wrong; repayment, especially as revenge.

From the reading: ★ "Vengeance and retribution require a long time; it is the rule." (Dickens, Madame Defarge, Book 2)

✝ link: "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord" (Romans 12:19).

Synonyms:

vengeance, reprisal, requital, punishment

Antonyms:

forgiveness, pardon, mercy

Root:Latin retribuere, "to pay back" (re- "back" + tribuere "to assign, give").

Definition: a deep-seated feeling of dislike or opposition.

From the reading: ★ "We know now, the natural antipathy you strove against, and conquered, for her dear sake." (Dickens, Darnay to Doctor Manette, Book 3)

✝ link: "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you" (Matthew 5:44).

Synonyms:

aversion, hostility, animosity, enmity

Antonyms:

affection, sympathy, affinity

Root:Greek antipatheia, from anti ("against") + pathos ("feeling").

Definition: a model, pattern or typical example, especially one that sets a standard.

From the reading: ★ "A particular case offered to prove a general claim; Aristotle called it the rhetorical form of induction." (Lesson 1.3, key term "example (paradigm)")

✝ link: "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition" (1 Corinthians 10:11).

Synonyms:

model, pattern, exemplar, archetype

Antonyms:

exception, anomaly, aberration

Root:Greek paradeigma, "pattern," from paradeiknunai, "to show side by side."

Definition: (n.) a justification or reason that supports a claim; in argument, the link that shows why the evidence proves the point. (v.) to justify or call for.

From the reading: ★ "After you tell it, add the bridge: the sentence that ties it to your claim." (Lesson 1.3, where the bridge is also called the warrant)

✝ link: "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

Synonyms:

(n.) justification, grounds, basis; (v.) justify, merit

Antonyms:

(v.) forbid, prohibit; (n.) groundlessness

Root:Old North French warant, "protector, guarantor," from Frankish. Guarantee comes from the same root.

Definition: an attitude of acting superior while stooping to deal with "lesser" people. In older English it could also mean gracious kindness toward those of low station.

From the reading: ★ "He was saying the affectionate word, however, with a far more grudging condescension and patronage than he could have shown if their relative merits and positions had been reversed..." (Dickens, Solomon Pross to his sister, Book 3)

✝ link: "Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits" (Romans 12:16). This is the older, good sense of the word.

Synonyms:

disdain, superciliousness, patronizing manner

Antonyms:

respect, deference, humility

Root:Late Latin condescendere, "to stoop" (con- + descendere, "to come down").

Definition: not able to be corrected, reformed or improved.

From the reading: ★ "...will you never understand that I am incorrigible?" (Dickens, Sydney Carton to Stryver, Book 2)

Synonyms:

hopeless, unreformable, inveterate, hardened

Antonyms:

reformable, penitent, tractable

Root:Latin in- ("not") + corrigere ("to correct"), from com- + regere ("to rule, set straight"). Carton calls himself incorrigible, but the novel ends in his redemption. Grace reaches even the people who call themselves hopeless.