College Vocabulary · Grade 12 · Week 14
20 words for the week · pairs with Composition lesson 4.2.
Reading: the Composition lesson 4.2, "Outlining a Longer Work: From Map to Chapter List." This week's literature book, The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Tolstoy), is in copyright, so no sentences are quoted from it; every ★ sentence comes from the lesson and every ✝ sentence from the KJV.
Theme of the week: An outline is the writer’s sitting down first: it shows whether the plan will carry to the end. "For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?" (Luke 14:28).
Rhythm: 4 words a day, Monday to Friday. Each day: read the entry aloud, copy the quoted sentence into the writing notebook, and write one sentence of your own. Friday: learn the last 4 words, then take the quiz.
Sources: ★ = quoted exactly from this week's reading (the lesson or the literature book) · ✝ = KJV (1769 text), quoted exactly · ◆ = quoted exactly from another work on the approved booklists (public-domain text) · ✎ = original example sentence
Part of speech: adjective
Definition: Marked by moral or cultural decline; self-indulgent.
From the reading: "It only appears at the end of decadent ages like our own: and already Mr." (Orthodoxy)
Root:Medieval Latin decadentia, from decadere, to fall away.
Part of speech: noun (also a verb)
Definition: A person's death; the end or failure of an enterprise.
Context (original sentence): The demise of the old newspaper left the town without a voice.
Root:Old French demis, dismissed, from desmettre, to put away.
Part of speech: verb
Definition: To use up the supply or resources of.
From the reading: "Because the place where I was set to live From day to day of good is more depleted, And unto dismal ruin seems ordained.”" (The Divine Comedy)
Root:Latin deplere, to empty out.
Part of speech: verb
Definition: To remove from office suddenly and forcefully; to testify under oath.
Context (original sentence): The barons deposed the cruel king and crowned his brother.
Root:Old French deposer, from Latin deponere, to put down.
Part of speech: verb
Definition: To appoint someone to act on one's behalf.
Context (original sentence): The sheriff deputized three farmers to help track the outlaws.
Root:from deputy, Old French depute, appointed.
Part of speech: verb
Definition: To tear up by the roots; to uproot from one's native environment.
Context (original sentence): War deracinated whole villages and scattered their people across the continent.
Root:French déraciner (dé- + racine, root).
Part of speech: verb
Definition: To detract from; to disparage; to deviate from a rule.
Context (original sentence): Nothing in the new statute derogates from the ancient rights of the town.
Root:Latin derogare, to repeal part of a law.
Part of speech: verb
Definition: To leave the main subject temporarily in speech or writing.
From the reading: "But since we have digressed abundantly, Turn back thine eyes forthwith to the right path, So that the way be shortened with the time." (The Divine Comedy)
Root:Latin digredi, to step aside.
Part of speech: noun
Definition: The state of being in disrepair through neglect or age.
From the reading: "Yet all this was apart from any extraordinary dilapidation." (The Works of Edgar Allan Poe)
Root:Latin dilapidare, to scatter like stones (lapis, stone).
Part of speech: adjective
Definition: Extremely serious or urgent; dreadful.
From the reading: "Dismay’d, and fearful of some dire event, Eurypylus t’ enquire their fate was sent." (The Aeneid)
Root:Latin dirus, fearful.
Part of speech: adjective (also a verb)
Definition: Dissatisfied with those in authority and no longer willing to support them.
Context (original sentence): Disaffected soldiers deserted the army by the hundreds.
Root:dis- + affect, from Latin afficere, to influence.
Part of speech: noun (also a verb)
Definition: A state of disorganization or untidiness.
From the reading: "By the Indian’s side, and evidently sustaining a companionship with him, stood a white man, clad in a strange disarray of civilized and savage costume." (The Scarlet Letter)
Root:Old French desareer, to put out of order.
Part of speech: verb
Definition: To pay out money from a fund.
Context (original sentence): The treasurer disbursed the relief money to every family in the parish.
Root:Old French desbourser (des- + bourse, purse).
Part of speech: adjective
Definition: Harsh and jarring because of a lack of harmony; disagreeing.
From the reading: "I remember with chagrin how perverse is popular report, how various and discordant men's judgments." (The Consolation of Philosophy)
Root:Latin discordare, to be at variance (dis- + cor, heart).
Part of speech: verb
Definition: To refuse to approve of; to disturb the composure of.
From the reading: "He was supposed from his youth upwards to have been trained under a miserly parent, who encouraged the saving appetites in him, but discountenanced the unnecessary, which aim only at amusement and ornament?" (The Republic)
Root:dis- + countenance, from Old French contenance, bearing.
Part of speech: verb
Definition: To free from illusion; to make someone disappointed with something.
From the reading: "I tell thee that, for this fortnight past, I have been under a strange spell, and I would I were disenchanted." (The Talisman)
Root:French désenchanter, to free from a spell.
Part of speech: adjective (also a verb)
Definition: Unwilling; reluctant.
From the reading: "Luzhin, a rupture to which I believe she is herself not disinclined, if she could see the way to it.”" (Crime and Punishment)
Root:dis- + incline, from Latin inclinare, to bend.
Part of speech: noun
Definition: The state of being held in low esteem by the public.
From the reading: "And when ye come to marriageable years, Where’s the bold wooers who will jeopardize To take unto himself such disrepute As to my children’s children still must cling, For what of infamy is lacking here?" (The Oedipus Trilogy)
Root:dis- + repute, from Latin reputare, to reckon.
Part of speech: adjective (also a verb)
Definition: Shaky or feeble, especially from old age.
From the reading: "He made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided into a doddering, loose-lipped senility." (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes)
Root:from dodder, to tremble, Middle English.
Part of speech: noun
Definition: A state of stagnation or depression; a calm region of the ocean near the equator.
Context (original sentence): The sailing ship lay becalmed in the doldrums for three weeks.
Root:perhaps from dull, with -drum as in tantrum.
Part A. Words in context (2 points each). Choose the meaning of the word as used in the sentence.
1. "And when ye come to marriageable years, Where’s the bold wooers who will jeopardize To take unto himself such disrepute As to my children’s children still must cling, For what of infamy is lacking here?" Here disrepute most nearly means
A) To tear up by the roots B) A state of disorganization or untidiness C) Shaky or feeble, especially from old age D) The state of being held in low esteem by the public
2. "The demise of the old newspaper left the town without a voice." Here demise most nearly means
A) Harsh and jarring because of a lack of harmony B) To pay out money from a fund C) A person's death D) Shaky or feeble, especially from old age
3. "Luzhin, a rupture to which I believe she is herself not disinclined, if she could see the way to it." Here disinclined most nearly means
A) The state of being in disrepair through neglect or age B) Unwilling C) Shaky or feeble, especially from old age D) To tear up by the roots
4. "Dismay’d, and fearful of some dire event, Eurypylus t’ enquire their fate was sent." Here dire most nearly means
A) Extremely serious or urgent B) To refuse to approve of C) Harsh and jarring because of a lack of harmony D) To use up the supply or resources of
Part B. Sentence completion (1 point each). Each sentence comes from this week's entries; supply the word in the form used there. Word bank: disaffected, disenchant, doddering, digress, deracinate, decadent, deputize, disarray, doldrums, discountenance
5. "He was supposed from his youth upwards to have been trained under a miserly parent, who encouraged the saving appetites in him, but ______ the unnecessary, which aim only at amusement and ornament?"
6. The sheriff ______ three farmers to help track the outlaws.
7. "He made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided into a ______, loose-lipped senility."
8. "It only appears at the end of ______ ages like our own: and already Mr."
9. "By the Indian’s side, and evidently sustaining a companionship with him, stood a white man, clad in a strange ______ of civilized and savage costume."
10. War ______ whole villages and scattered their people across the continent.
11. "But since we have ______ abundantly, Turn back thine eyes forthwith to the right path, So that the way be shortened with the time."
12. The sailing ship lay becalmed in the ______ for three weeks.
Part C. Synonyms and antonyms (1 point each).
13. Synonym of derogate: (disrepute / disburse / detract)
14. Antonym of discordant: (harmonious / disaffected / doldrums)
15. Synonym of disburse: (pay out / derogate / disarray)
16. Antonym of deplete: (dire / replenish / derogate)
Part D. Analytical sentence (6 points). In two or three sentences, make a claim about this week's reading, quote it once, and use at least three of these words correctly: disenchant, disaffected, depose.
1. D 2. C 3. B 4. A
5. discountenanced 6. deputized 7. doddering 8. decadent 9. disarray 10. deracinated 11. digressed 12. doldrums (distractors: disenchant, disaffected)
13. detract 14. harmonious 15. pay out 16. replenish
Part D scoring: 2 for a clear claim, 2 for an accurate quotation, 2 for three week words used correctly. (8 + 8 + 4 + 6 = 26.)