Grade 10 College Vocabulary, Week 6

Definition: Liable to sudden, unpredictable changes of mood.

From the reading: "They are expressed in the most plain and simple terms, wherein those people are not mercurial enough to discover above one interpretation: and to write a comment upon any law, is a capital crime." (Gulliver's Travels, Parts I-II)

Synonyms:

erratic, fickle, volatile

Antonyms:

steady, stable

Root:Latin mercurialis, from Mercurius Mercury: compare French mercuriel. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To pretend to be someone one is not; to go about in disguise.

From the reading: "On the other hand, Archimago symbolizes the deceptions of the Jesuits and Duessa the false Church of Rome masquerading as true religion. (c) Personal and Political Allegory.--Here we find a concrete presentation of many of Spenser's chief contemporaries." (The Faerie Queene, Book I)

Synonyms:

disguise, mask

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:French mascarade, from Spanish mascarada, or Italian mascherata. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To act in an obsequious way to win favor.

From the reading: "Pocket had a toady neighbour; a widow lady of that highly sympathetic nature that she agreed with everybody, blessed everybody, and shed smiles and tears on everybody, according to circumstances." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

fawn, flatter, truckle

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Shortened from toadeater. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: The action of going out of or leaving a place; a way out.

From the reading: "When she had laid the supper-cloth, the bridge was lowered to give her means of egress, and she withdrew for the night." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

exit, departure, way out

Antonyms:

entrance, ingress

Root:Latin egressus, from egredi to go out; e out + gradi to go. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To cut up a body or plant methodically in order to study its parts; to analyze in minute detail.

From the reading: "He might dissect, anatomise, and give names; but, not to speak of a final cause, causes in their secondary and tertiary grades were utterly unknown to him." (Frankenstein)

Synonyms:

analyze, analyse

Antonyms:

synthesize

Root:Latin dissectus, past participle of dissecare; dis- + secare to cut. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Acting or done in a secret or dishonest way.

Context (original sentence): The rival merchant used underhanded methods to ruin his business.

Synonyms:

sly, deceitful, devious

Antonyms:

honest, aboveboard

Root:under + hand.

Definition: Having a common boundary or edge; abutting; touching; very close or connected in space or time.

From the reading: "It was likewise to be noted of this majestic spirit, that whereas it always appeared with an air of having been out a long time and walked an immense distance, it perceptibly came from a closely contiguous wall." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

immediate, close, conterminous

Antonyms:

distant, unconnected

Root:Latin contiguus; akin to contigere to touch on all sides. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To agree or express agreement; yield to another's wish or opinion.

From the reading: "Disappointed in the expectation of a customer, she coolly acceded to my request." (Jane Eyre)

Synonyms:

submit, bow, defer

Antonyms:

dissent

Root:Latin accedere to approach, accede; ad + cedere to move, yield: compare French accédere. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Marked by refinement in taste and manners.

From the reading: "Annesley, a genteel, agreeable-looking woman, whose endeavour to introduce some kind of discourse proved her to be more truly well-bred than either of the others; and between her and Mrs." (Pride and Prejudice)

Synonyms:

civilized, civilised, cultivated

Antonyms:

unrefined

Root:French gentil noble, pretty, graceful. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Arousing or intended to arouse angry or violent feelings.

From the reading: "I cannot conceive why everybody of his standing who visited at our house should always have put me through the same inflammatory process under similar circumstances." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

incendiary, provocative, inciting

Antonyms:

soothing, conciliatory

Root:Cf. French inflammatoire. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Goods that have been imported or exported illegally; smuggled goods.

From the reading: "A certain portion of his time was passed at Cambridge, where he read with undergraduates as a sort of tolerated smuggler who drove a contraband trade in European languages, instead of conveying Greek and Latin through the Custom-house." (A Tale of Two Cities)

Synonyms:

smuggled goods, bootleg, black-market goods

Antonyms:

legal

Root:Italian contrabando; contra + bando ban, proclamation: compare French contrebande. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: (of theories etc) incapable of being defended or justified.

From the reading: "This left me no course but to regret that I had been “betrayed into a warmth which,” and on the whole to repudiate, as untenable, the idea that I was to be found anywhere." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

indefensible, unreasonable

Antonyms:

reasonable

Root:un-, not + tenable, from French tenir, Latin tenere, to hold: not able to be held or defended.

Definition: Injurious to physical or mental health.

From the reading: "Brocklehurst’s eye into an artful, noxious child, and what could I do to remedy the injury?" (Jane Eyre)

Synonyms:

baneful, deadly, pernicious

Antonyms:

innocuous

Root:Latin noxius, from noxa harm; akin to nocere to harm, hurt. Cf. Nuisance, Necromancy. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Conspicuously and outrageously bad or reprehensible.

From the reading: "The injustice of his sentence was very flagrant; all Paris was indignant; and it was judged that his religion and wealth rather than the crime alleged against him had been the cause of his condemnation." (Frankenstein)

Synonyms:

crying, egregious, glaring

Antonyms:

inconspicuous

Root:Latin flagrans, -antis, p.pr. of flagrate to burn, akin to Greek flagrant. Cf. Flame, Phlox. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: The action or process of changing something.

From the reading: "One grandson was the Abbe Edgeworth, known in France as De Firmont, such being the alteration of Fairymount on French lips." (A Book of Golden Deeds)

Synonyms:

change, modification, adjustment

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Cf. French altération. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: A treatise advancing a new point of view resulting from research; usually a requirement for an advanced academic degree.

From the reading: "We laughed at the Squire's dissertation; for how should he know all these things, being nothing better, and indeed much worse than a mere Northmolton blacksmith?" (Lorna Doone)

Synonyms:

thesis

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin dissertatio: compare French dissertation. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: A state of extreme (usually irremediable) ruin and misfortune; an event resulting in great loss and misfortune.

From the reading: "Miserable I am, and must be for a time; for the catastrophe which drove me from a house I had found a paradise was of a strange and direful nature." (Jane Eyre)

Synonyms:

calamity, disaster, tragedy

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Greek katastrophe, an overturning, from kata, down + strephein, to turn: a sudden downturn.

Definition: An approach or proposal made with the aim of opening negotiations; an orchestral introduction to an opera.

From the reading: "And then arose a difficult question--who was to take the risk of making overtures so unpleasant?" (Lorna Doone)

Synonyms:

preliminary, prelude, advance

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Old French overture, French ouverture, from Old French ovrir, French ouvrir. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: A stipulated condition.

From the reading: "Lizzie sat on a log of wood, and listened with all her ears up, having made proviso that no one else should be there to interrupt her." (Lorna Doone)

Synonyms:

provision

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin, (it) being provided, abl. of provisus, past participle of providere. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: A letter, especially one of the letters of the apostles in the New Testament.

From the reading: "So when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch: and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the epistle:" (Acts 15:30)

Synonyms:

letter, missive

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Old English epistle, epistel, Old English (Anglo-Saxon) epistol, pistol, Latin epistola, from Greek epistle, epistre, French épître. (Webster, 1913)