Grade 11 College Vocabulary, Week 10

Definition: Inherent ability.

From the reading: "The natural aptitude of the French for seizing the picturesqueness of things seems to be peculiarly evinced in what paintings and engravings they have of their whaling scenes." (Moby-Dick)

Synonyms:

ability, power

Antonyms:

inaptitude

Root:French aptitude, Late Latin aptitudo, from Latin aptus. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Causing moral revulsion; very bad.

From the reading: "Abominable are the tumblers into which he pours his poison." (Moby-Dick)

Synonyms:

loathsome, detestable, odious

Antonyms:

admirable, delightful

Root:Latin abominari, to deprecate as an ill omen.

Definition: Continuous change; the action of flowing.

From the reading: "Certain it is, that the matter is in a perpetual flux, and never at a stay." (Essays of Bacon)

Synonyms:

change, fluctuation, instability

Antonyms:

stability

Root:Latin fluxus, from fluere, to flow.

Definition: Wisdom that is recondite and abstruse and profound; intellectual depth; penetrating knowledge; keen insight; etc.

From the reading: "But vain to popularize profundities, and all truth is profound." (Moby-Dick)

Synonyms:

reconditeness, abstruseness, abstrusity

Antonyms:

superficiality

Root:Latin profunditas: compare French profondite. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Great eagerness or greediness, especially in eating.

From the reading: "His voracity is well known, and from the circumstance that the inner angles of his lips are curved upwards, he carries an everlasting Mephistophelean grin on his face." (Moby-Dick)

Synonyms:

edacity, esurience, ravenousness

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin voracitas: compare French voracité. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Wrongfully seizing and holding (an office or powers) by force (especially the seizure of a throne or supreme authority); entry to another's property without right or permission.

From the reading: "From even the barely hinted imputation of usurpation, and the possible consequences of such a suppressed impression gaining ground, Ahab must of course have been most anxious to protect himself." (Moby-Dick)

Synonyms:

trespass, encroachment, violation

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin usurpatio making use, usurpation: compare French usurpation. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: The act of propelling; a propelling force.

From the reading: "To the whale, his tail is the sole means of propulsion." (Moby-Dick)

Synonyms:

drive, thrust, impulsion

Antonyms:

(none exact)

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

Definition: Impossible to deny or disprove; necessarily or demonstrably true.

From the reading: "The principle expressed is incontrovertible—but there may be something beyond it." (Poe, selected tales and poems)

Synonyms:

irrefutable, positive, undeniable

Antonyms:

deniable, contestable

Root:in-, not + Latin controvertere, to turn against (contra, against + vertere, to turn) + -ible: not able to be disputed.

Definition: To divert the energy of a desire or impulse into a more acceptable or higher activity.

From the reading: "I can conceive nothing more sublimating than the strange peril and novelty of an adventure such as this." (Poe, selected tales and poems)

Synonyms:

rarefy, subtilize, purify

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Late Latin sublimatum. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: (of a fact) to be a powerful factor in preventing or bringing about.

From the reading: "He was in many respects like Francis Vivian in Bulwer’s novel of ‘The Caxtons.’ Passion, in him, comprehended many of the worst emotions which militate against human happiness." (Poe, selected tales and poems)

Synonyms:

weigh, tell, work against

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin militare, militatum, to be a soldier, from miles, militis, soldier. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Moving and bending with ease.

From the reading: "But this among other cities its head as far hath exalted As the cypresses do among the lissome viburnums." (Christmas Bells)

Synonyms:

lissom, lithe, lithesome

Antonyms:

awkward

Root:a contraction of lithesome: lithe (Old English lithe, gentle, supple) + -some: supple.

Definition: To torment or tease someone with the sight or promise of something that is unobtainable.

From the reading: "There lives no man who at some period has not been tormented, for example, by an earnest desire to tantalize a listener by circumlocution." (Poe, selected tales and poems)

Synonyms:

tease, taunt, torment

Antonyms:

satisfy

Root:From Tantalus: compare French tantaliser. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Having a good reputation.

From the reading: "It is only necessary to say that his published inferences, in regard to the number of ruffians, have been properly ridiculed as unjust and totally baseless, by all the reputable anatomists of Paris." (Poe, selected tales and poems)

Synonyms:

time-honored, time-honoured, esteemed

Antonyms:

disreputable

Root:From Repute. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: The concluding passage of a piece of music or a work of literature.

Context (original sentence): The novel's coda follows the hero into old age.

Synonyms:

conclusion, finale, epilogue

Antonyms:

prelude, introduction

Root:Italian coda, tail.

Definition: Belonging to a thing by its very nature; situated within or belonging solely to the organ or body part on which it acts.

From the reading: "By their objective good I mean that intrinsic object, in the possession and enjoyment of which they are happy." (Early American Voices: Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God)

Synonyms:

intrinsical, built-in, constitutional

Antonyms:

extrinsic, external

Root:Latin intrinsecus inward, on the inside; intra within + secus otherwise, beside; akin to English second: compare French intrinsèque. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Cause to move forward with force; give an incentive for action.

From the reading: "But, in all the experiments made with models at the Adelaide Gallery, it was found that the operation of these fans not only did not propel the machine, but actually impeded its flight." (Poe, selected tales and poems)

Synonyms:

impel, motivate, actuate

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin propellere, propulsum; pro forward + pellere to drive. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Self-assertive in a rude, noisy, or overbearing way.

From the reading: "When me and Jim heard that we didn’t feel so brash as what we did before." (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)

Synonyms:

bold, brazen, impudent

Antonyms:

meek, modest

Root:Cf. Gael. bras or German barsch harsh, sharp, tart, impetuous, Dutch barsch, Sw. & Dan. barsk. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Lacking definite form or limits; of or relating to or resembling a nebula.

From the reading: "When I look from my window at night, And the welkin above is all white, All throbbing and panting with stars, Among them majestic is standing Sandalphon the angel, expanding His pinions in nebulous bars." (Christmas Bells)

Synonyms:

cloudy, nebulose, indistinct

Antonyms:

distinct, definite

Root:Latin nebulosus: compare French nébuleux. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To make persistent demands on someone for payment of a debt; as a color, dull grayish-brown.

From the reading: "I therefore kept my three duns working with great diligence, pounding down ice around the central cask, and stirring the acid in the others." (Poe, selected tales and poems)

Synonyms:

pester, hound, press

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: An armed ship owned by private persons and commissioned by a government to attack enemy shipping.

Context (original sentence): A French privateer captured the merchant ship off Cornwall.

Synonyms:

corsair, buccaneer, raider

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:private + -eer.