Grade 12 College Vocabulary, Week 3

Definition: The moment in a drama when a character makes a critical discovery, especially of his true identity or situation.

Context (original sentence): The anagnorisis of Oedipus comes when he learns that he himself is the murderer he has been seeking.

Synonyms:

recognition, discovery, revelation

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Greek anagnorisis, recognition (ana- + gignoskein, to know).

Definition: A sudden reversal of fortune or change in circumstances, especially in a tragedy.

Context (original sentence): The messenger's news produces the peripeteia, turning the king's joy into horror.

Synonyms:

reversal, turnabout

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Greek peripeteia, a sudden change (peri- + piptein, to fall).

Definition: A fatal flaw or error leading to the downfall of a tragic hero.

Context (original sentence): Pride is often named as Macbeth's hamartia, but ambition fits better.

Synonyms:

tragic flaw, failing

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Greek hamartia, error, failure (hamartanein, to miss the mark).

Definition: Imitation or representation of the real world in art and literature.

Context (original sentence): Aristotle defined tragedy as a mimesis of an action that is serious and complete.

Synonyms:

imitation, representation

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Greek mimesis, imitation (mimeisthai, to imitate).

Definition: A novel dealing with a person's formative years and moral education.

Context (original sentence): David Copperfield is a bildungsroman that follows its hero from birth to manhood.

Synonyms:

coming-of-age novel

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:German Bildung, formation + Roman, novel.

Definition: A short pastoral poem, especially a dialogue between shepherds.

From the reading: "It is an academic exercise consisting of a series of twelve pastoral poems in imitation of the eclogues of Vergil and Theocritus." (The Faerie Queene, Book I)

Synonyms:

pastoral, idyll, bucolic

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Greek ekloge, a selection.

Definition: A poem or book dealing with agriculture or rural topics.

From the reading: "I propped my book open and stared listlessly at the page of the ‘Georgics’ where tomorrow’s lesson began." (My Antonia)

Synonyms:

agricultural poem

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Greek georgikos, agricultural (ge, earth + ergon, work).

Definition: A song or poem celebrating a marriage.

Context (original sentence): Spenser wrote an epithalamium for his own wedding day.

Synonyms:

wedding song, marriage hymn

Antonyms:

elegy

Root:Greek epithalamion (epi-, upon + thalamos, bridal chamber).

Definition: A song or poem of lament for the dead.

Context (original sentence): The old bard sang a threnody for the warriors who had fallen at the ford.

Synonyms:

lament, elegy, dirge

Antonyms:

epithalamium

Root:Greek threnoidia (threnos, lament + oide, song).

Definition: A long, mournful complaint or lamentation; a list of woes (from the prophet Jeremiah).

Context (original sentence): The retired colonel's letter to the newspaper was a jeremiad against modern manners.

Synonyms:

lament, tirade, complaint

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:French jeremiade, from Jeremiah, the prophet of Lamentations.

Definition: A nineteen-line poem with two repeating rhymes and two refrains.

Context (original sentence): Writing a villanelle forces the poet to make two lines carry new meaning at every return.

Synonyms:

fixed-form poem

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Italian villanella, a rustic song (villano, peasant).

Definition: A poem of six six-line stanzas and a three-line envoi, in which the same six line-ending words recur in shifting order.

Context (original sentence): The sestina's six recurring end words make it one of the hardest forms in English.

Synonyms:

fixed-form poem

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Italian sestina, from sesto, sixth.

Definition: A manuscript on which later writing has been superimposed on erased earlier writing; something reused but bearing traces of its earlier form.

Context (original sentence): Under ultraviolet light the prayer book proved to be a palimpsest hiding a lost work of Archimedes.

Synonyms:

overwritten manuscript, layered text

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Greek palimpsestos, scraped again (palin, again + psen, to rub).

Definition: Notes written in the margins of a book or manuscript.

Context (original sentence): The marginalia in his grandfather's Bible recorded births, deaths, and favorite verses.

Synonyms:

annotations, glosses, notes

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Medieval Latin marginalis, of the margin (margo).

Definition: A statement at the end of a book giving information about its printing; a publisher's emblem.

Context (original sentence): The colophon at the end of the old book named the printer and the year 1498.

Synonyms:

imprint, emblem

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Greek kolophon, summit, finishing touch.

Definition: A book printed before 1501, in the infancy of printing (plural incunabula).

Context (original sentence): The library's prize possession was an incunabulum printed in Venice.

Synonyms:

early printed book

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin incunabula, swaddling clothes, cradle.

Definition: A room set apart for writing, especially one in a monastery where manuscripts were copied.

Context (original sentence): In the scriptorium the monks copied the Gospels by candlelight.

Synonyms:

writing room, copying room

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Medieval Latin scriptorium, from scribere, to write.

Definition: Fine parchment made from the skin of a calf; heavy paper resembling it.

From the reading: "Choking oneself with opium and writing little erotic verses on vellum was not his notion of how a gentleman should go to the devil." (The Innocence of Father Brown)

Synonyms:

parchment, skin

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Old French velin, from veel, calf.

Definition: An ancient manuscript in book form rather than a scroll.

Context (original sentence): The early Christians favored the codex because it was easier to search than a scroll.

Synonyms:

manuscript, volume

Antonyms:

scroll

Root:Latin codex, tree trunk, wooden tablet, book.

Definition: A song of praise or triumph; an enthusiastic expression of praise.

From the reading: "The fields around with Io Paean! ring; And peals of shouts applaud the conqu’ring king." (The Aeneid)

Synonyms:

hymn, anthem, tribute

Antonyms:

dirge, lament

Root:Greek paian, a hymn to Apollo the healer.