Grade 10 College Vocabulary, Week 29

Definition: Having a strong pleasant odor; serving to bring to mind.

From the reading: "The odour which now filled the refectory was scarcely more appetising than that which had regaled our nostrils at breakfast: the dinner was served in two huge tin-plated vessels, whence rose a strong steam redolent of rancid fat." (Jane Eyre)

Synonyms:

evocative, remindful, reminiscent

Antonyms:

unmindful, odorless, malodorous

Root:Latin redolens, -entis, present participle of redolere to emit a scent, diffuse an odor; pref. red-, re-, re- + olere to emit a smell. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: A building or vault where bones or bodies are kept; ghastly, suggesting death.

From the reading: "It may hate him who dares to scrutinise and expose—to rase the gilding, and show base metal under it—to penetrate the sepulchre, and reveal charnel relics: but hate as it will, it is indebted to him." (Jane Eyre)

Synonyms:

ghastly, sepulchral, deathly

Antonyms:

inoffensive

Root:French charnel carnal, fleshly, from Latin carnalis. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Desiring or striving for recognition or advancement.

From the reading: "To the Press, for the fair field its honest suffrage has opened to an obscure aspirant." (Jane Eyre)

Synonyms:

aspiring, wishful, ambitious

Antonyms:

unambitious

Root:Cf. French aspirant, present participle of aspirer. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Tearful; given to weeping.

From the reading: "The best fun was with Madame Joubert: Miss Wilson was a poor sickly thing, lachrymose and low-spirited, not worth the trouble of vanquishing, in short; and Mrs." (Jane Eyre)

Synonyms:

tearful, weepy, mournful

Antonyms:

joyful

Root:Latin lacrymosus, better lacrimosus, from lacrima, lacruma (also badly spelt lachryma) a tear, for older dacrima, akin to English tear. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Conspicuously and offensively loud; given to vehement outcry.

From the reading: "It passed off in a clamorous peal that seemed to wake an echo in every lonely chamber; though it originated but in one, and I could have pointed out the door whence the accents issued." (Jane Eyre)

KJV link: "A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple, and knoweth nothing." (Proverbs 9:13)

Synonyms:

blatant, clamant, strident

Antonyms:

quiet

Root:Late Latin clamorosus, for Latin Clamosus: compare Old French clamoreux. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Increasing or reviving after a period of little activity.

Context (original sentence): Resurgent trade brought new life to the harbor.

Synonyms:

reviving, renewed, rising

Antonyms:

declining

Root:Latin resurgere, to rise again.

Definition: The endurance of pain or hardship without a display of feelings and without complaint.

From the reading: "In spite of his Christian stoicism, when she went up and addressed him, and smiled gaily, encouragingly, even fondly in his face, his hand would tremble and his eye burn." (Jane Eyre)

Synonyms:

stolidity, stolidness, Stoicism

Antonyms:

(none exact)

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

Definition: Unnatural lack of color in the skin (as from bruising or sickness or emotional distress).

From the reading: "Rochester’s extreme pallor had disappeared, and he looked once more firm and stern." (Jane Eyre)

Synonyms:

paleness, pallidness, wanness

Antonyms:

ruddiness

Root:Latin, from pallere to be or look pale. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Strongly infatuated; stupefied, as with drink.

From the reading: "There is no folly so besotted that the idiotic rivalries of society, the prurience, the rashness, the blindness of youth, will not hurry a man to its commission." (Jane Eyre)

Synonyms:

infatuated, smitten; stupefied

Antonyms:

indifferent

Root:be-, thoroughly + sot, a fool or drunkard (Old French sot, foolish): made foolish, as by drink or infatuation.

Definition: Not easily borne; wearing.

From the reading: "Reed is dead, and his wife cast me off.” “Why?” “Because I was poor, and burdensome, and she disliked me.” “But Reed left children?—you must have cousins?" (Jane Eyre)

KJV link: "And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it." (Zechariah 12:3)

Synonyms:

onerous, taxing, heavy

Antonyms:

light

Root:burden (Old English byrthen, a load, from beran, to bear) + -some: like a heavy load.

Definition: A sea monster in Scripture; anything very large or powerful.

From the reading: "Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again Ere the leviathan can swim a league." (A Midsummer Night's Dream)

Synonyms:

giant, colossus, monster

Antonyms:

dwarf

Root:Hebrew liwyathan.

Definition: Mutual accusations.

From the reading: "Mutual recrimination passed between them: they parted in anger, and were never reconciled." (Jane Eyre)

Synonyms:

accusation, accusal

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:French récrimination, Late Latin recriminatio. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Without a basis in reason or fact; incapable of being justified or explained.

From the reading: "Nor was it unwarranted: in five minutes more the grating key, the yielding lock, warned me my watch was relieved." (Jane Eyre)

Synonyms:

indefensible, insupportable, unjustifiable

Antonyms:

excusable, supported, reasonable

Root:un-, not + warrant (Old French warant, a protector or guarantee, of Germanic origin) + -ed: not guaranteed or justified.

Definition: Pompous or pretentious speech or writing; a thick cotton cloth.

From the reading: "The line is worth a hundred pages of fustian." (Jane Eyre)

Synonyms:

bombast, rant, claptrap

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Old English fustan, fustian, Old French fustaine, French futaine, Italian fustagno, from Late Latin fustaneum, fustanum; compare Pr. fustani, Spanish fustan. So called from Fustat, i. e., Cairo, where it was made. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Thinking only of oneself, without regard for the feelings of others.

Context (original sentence): The egocentric actor spoke only of his own triumphs.

Synonyms:

selfish, self-centered, egotistic

Antonyms:

altruistic, selfless

Root:Latin ego, I + centrum, center.

Definition: The quality of being agreeably stimulating or mentally exciting; a tart spicy quality.

From the reading: "Still some novelty was necessary, to give to their return the piquancy with which I wished it to be invested." (Jane Eyre)

Synonyms:

nip, piquance, piquantness

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Something that strongly attracts attention and admiration; something that provides guidance (as Polaris guides mariners).

From the reading: "Then I thought of Eliza and Georgiana; I beheld one the cynosure of a ball-room, the other the inmate of a convent cell; and I dwelt on and analysed their separate peculiarities of person and character." (Jane Eyre)

Synonyms:

center of attention, focus, guiding star

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin Cynosura theconstellation Cynosure, Greek Cynic. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: A thin board on which an artist mixes colors; the range of colors used in a picture.

From the reading: "The translation of a few pages of German occupied an hour; then I got my palette and pencils, and fell to the more soothing, because easier occupation, of completing Rosamond Oliver’s miniature." (Jane Eyre)

Synonyms:

pallet, pallette

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: A claim or assertion that someone has done something wrong, typically without proof.

From the reading: "“I am in a condition to prove my allegation: an insuperable impediment to this marriage exists.” Mr." (Jane Eyre)

Synonyms:

allegement

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin allegatio, from allegare, allegatum, to send a message, cite; later, to free by giving reasons; ad + legare to send, commission. Cf. Allege and Adlegation. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: A state of quiet (but possibly temporary) inaction; quiet and inactive restfulness.

From the reading: "He never omitted the ceremony afterwards, and the gravity and quiescence with which I underwent it, seemed to invest it for him with a certain charm." (Jane Eyre)

Synonyms:

dormancy, quiescency, sleeping

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin quiescere, to rest, from quies, rest: a state of rest.