Grade 10 College Vocabulary, Week 25

Definition: An encroachment or intrusion; an invasion or hostile attack.

From the reading: "During Silas’s absence in the daytime the door had been locked, and there had been no marks of any inroad on his return by daylight." (Silas Marner)

Synonyms:

trespass, encroachment

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:in + road, in its old sense of a riding, a raid (Old English rad, riding): a raid into another's territory.

Definition: Foolish or senseless behavior.

From the reading: "It’s hardly worth while to pry into young men’s fooleries: it wouldn’t have made any difference to you, sir, if I’d not had the bad luck to lose Wildfire." (Silas Marner)

Synonyms:

folly, tomfoolery, craziness

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:fool (Old French fol, from Latin follis, a bellows or windbag) + -ery, conduct of: foolish conduct.

Definition: Without or deprived of the use of speech or words.

From the reading: "It clung round his neck, and burst louder and louder into that mingling of inarticulate cries with “mammy” by which little children express the bewilderment of waking." (Silas Marner)

Synonyms:

unarticulate, mute, tongueless

Antonyms:

articulate

Root:Latin inarticulatus; pref. in- not + articulatus articulate. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: A witty saying.

From the reading: "“Ah, she has a quick wit, my friend Priscilla has,” said the doctor, choosing to attribute the epigram to a lady rather than allow a brother-in-law that advantage over him." (Silas Marner)

Synonyms:

quip

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin epigramma, from Greek épigramme. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Total lack of meaning or ideas.

From the reading: "Do we not wile away moments of inanity or fatigued waiting by repeating some trivial movement or sound, until the repetition has bred a want, which is incipient habit?" (Silas Marner)

Synonyms:

senselessness, mindlessness, vacuity

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin inanitas, from inanis empty: compare French inanité. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: A gloomy ill-tempered feeling; a sullen moody resentful disposition.

From the reading: "And poor Silas was vaguely conscious of something not unlike the feeling of primitive men, when they fled thus, in fear or in sullenness, from the face of an unpropitious deity." (Silas Marner)

Synonyms:

moroseness, glumness, sulkiness

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Old French solain, alone, from Latin solus, alone + -ness: a gloomy keeping to oneself.

Definition: The rise and fall of the voice in speaking; the chanting of the opening words of a psalm or hymn.

From the reading: "You’re dillicate made, my dear,” he added, with a tender intonation—“that’s what Mrs." (Silas Marner)

Synonyms:

modulation, chanting

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Showing deep-seated resentment.

From the reading: "In the past I have bee proved his rancorous enemy." (Oedipus the King and Antigone)

Synonyms:

resentful

Antonyms:

unresentful

Root:Old French rancuros. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Serving as an introduction or preface.

From the reading: "My little book seems scarcely to admit of prefatory words: either it will speak for itself, or all my additions must fail to speak for it." (In the Bleak Mid-Winter)

Synonyms:

introductory, prefatorial, preceding

Antonyms:

succeeding

Root:Latin praefatio, a saying beforehand (prae-, before + fari, to speak) + -ory: of the nature of a preface.

Definition: To burn the skin or flesh of a wound to stop bleeding or prevent infection; to deaden feeling.

From the reading: "But the great atheists, indeed are hypocrites; which are ever handling holy things, but without feeling; so as they must needs be cauterized in the end." (Essays)

Synonyms:

sear, burn; deaden

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin cauterizare, Greek cautérised. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Make weak.

From the reading: "A form was near—what form, the pitch-dark night and my enfeebled vision prevented me from distinguishing." (Jane Eyre)

Synonyms:

debilitate, drain

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Old French enfeblir, enfeiblir; pref. en- (Latin in) + feble, French faible, feeble. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Transmitting light; able to be seen through with clarity; (of language) transparently clear; easily understandable.

From the reading: "Under white fantastic arches, and long tunnels freaked and fretted, and between pellucid pillars jagged with nodding architraves, the red impetuous torrent rushed, and the brown foam whirled and flashed." (Lorna Doone)

Synonyms:

crystalline, limpid, lucid

Antonyms:

opaque, unclear

Root:Latin pellucidus; per (see Per-) + lucidus clear, bright: compare French pellucide. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To involve someone deeply in a conflict or difficult situation.

From the reading: "However, this I will promise you, that if you should get into any scrape I will come with what speed I can to your rescue, even if it embroil me with half the nobles of Scotland." (In Freedom's Cause)

Synonyms:

involve, entangle, ensnare

Antonyms:

extricate

Root:French embrouiller; pref. em- (Latin in) + brouiller. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Interpret in the wrong way.

From the reading: "Still, when I reached my chamber, I felt a pang at the idea she should even temporarily misconstrue what she had seen." (Jane Eyre)

Synonyms:

misinterpret, misconceive, misunderstand

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:mis-, wrongly + Latin construere, to build or arrange (com-, together + struere, to pile): to put together wrongly in the mind.

Definition: Gloomy and slow; dark in mood.

From the reading: "In front of the large hall fire, over which hung the colonel’s sword, the process was completed and the company, including the saturnine Crook, presented to Sir Leopold Fischer." (The Innocence of Father Brown)

Synonyms:

gloomy, dour, morose

Antonyms:

cheerful

Root:Latin Saturnus the god Saturn, also, the planet Saturn: compare French saturnin of or pertaining to lead (Saturn, in old chemistry, meaning lead),saturnien saturnine, saturnian. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Fussy about one's needs or requirements; requiring great attention to detail.

Context (original sentence): The finicky cat would eat only fresh fish.

Synonyms:

fussy, particular, fastidious

Antonyms:

easygoing

Root:perhaps from finical.

Definition: To speak badly of or tell lies about someone so as to damage their reputation.

From the reading: "But certainly he is traduced; for his words are noble and divine: Non deos vulgi negare profanum; sed vulgi opiniones diis applicare profanum." (Essays)

Synonyms:

badmouth, malign

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin traducere, to lead across, to parade in disgrace (trans-, across + ducere, to lead): to slander.

Definition: Excessively fat.

From the reading: "His mantle and hood were of the best Flanders cloth, and fell in ample, and not ungraceful folds, around a handsome, though somewhat corpulent person." (Ivanhoe)

Synonyms:

obese, weighty, rotund

Antonyms:

thin

Root:Latin corpulentus, from corpus: compare French corpulent. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: A system of order or rule prevailing at a particular time; exemption from a rule; the act of distributing.

From the reading: "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:" (Ephesians 1:10)

Synonyms:

exemption, permission; system, order

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:French dispensation, Latin dispensatio. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: The act of anointing with oil as a religious rite; excessive, insincere earnestness.

From the reading: "But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things." (1 John 2:20)

Synonyms:

anointing; unctuousness, oiliness

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Old English unccioun, uncioun, Old French oncion, onction, French onction, from Latin unctio, from ungere, unctum, to anoint. (Webster, 1913)