College Vocabulary · Grade 12 · Week 15
20 words for the week · pairs with Composition lesson 4.3.
Reading: the Composition lesson 4.3, "Drafting the Chapter: Voice, Scene and the First Page," and this week's literature book, The House of Christmas (Chesterton) - Christmas, the section for Week 15 (public-domain text, Project Gutenberg).
Theme of the week: Drafting is daily, wholehearted work; the chapter gets written by doing the day’s quota with all your might. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." (Ecclesiastes 9:10).
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: verb
Definition: To be extremely and uncritically fond of someone.
From the reading: "But time has made you dote, and vainly tell Of arms imagin’d in your lonely cell." (The Aeneid)
Root:Middle English doten, to be foolish.
Part of speech: noun
Definition: A widow with a title or property from her late husband; a dignified elderly woman.
From the reading: "But the three most distinguished—partly, perhaps, because the tallest figures of the band—were the Dowager Lady Ingram and her daughters, Blanche and Mary." (Jane Eyre)
Root:Old French douagiere, from douage, dower.
Part of speech: adjective (also a noun)
Definition: Lacking brightness or interest; dull and dreary.
Context (original sentence): The prisoners wore drab gray uniforms.
Root:French drap, cloth (undyed cloth).
Part of speech: adjective
Definition: Dull, bleak, and lifeless; depressing.
From the reading: "Obscure they went thro’ dreary shades, that led Along the waste dominions of the dead." (The Aeneid)
Root:Old English dreorig, gory, sad.
Part of speech: verb
Definition: To spread a report or rumor widely.
From the reading: "Quickly will the bruit go forth with the rising sun, the bruit concerning the wooers, whom I slew in the halls." (The Odyssey)
Root:Old French bruit, noise.
Part of speech: noun
Definition: An embarrassing blunder in a social situation.
Context (original sentence): The ambassador's gaffe at the state dinner offended the queen.
Root:French gaffe, boat hook; a clumsy act.
Part of speech: verb
Definition: To sharpen with a whetstone; to refine or perfect over time.
Context (original sentence): She honed her Latin by translating a page of Caesar each morning.
Root:Old English han, stone.
Part of speech: verb
Definition: To extend out, over, or beyond the main body or line of something.
From the reading: "So I kept well back at the corner, and laid one cheek to the rock face, and kept my outer eye round the jut, in the wariest mode I could compass, watching my opportunity: and this is what I saw." (Lorna Doone)
Root:variant of jet, from French jeter, to throw.
Part of speech: adjective (also a noun)
Definition: Subject to debate; of no practical significance because already decided.
From the reading: "First: The uncertain, unsettled condition of this science of Cetology is in the very vestibule attested by the fact, that in some quarters it still remains a moot point whether a whale be a fish." (Moby-Dick)
Root:Old English mot, meeting, assembly.
Part of speech: noun
Definition: The scope of the influence or concerns of something.
Context (original sentence): Questions of doctrine fall outside the purview of the town council.
Root:Anglo-Norman purveu, provided (opening of a statute).
Part of speech: adjective
Definition: Derogatory or mocking in an indirect way.
Context (original sentence): He made a snide remark about the new teacher's accent.
Root:19th-century slang, counterfeit.
Part of speech: verb
Definition: To cause to lose enthusiasm or initiative by tedious routine; to make appear foolish.
From the reading: "What’s that stultifying saying about chowder-headed people?" (Moby-Dick)
Root:Latin stultus, foolish + facere, to make.
Part of speech: verb
Definition: To occur as an interruption or change to an existing situation.
From the reading: "Valdemar should be suffered to remain undisturbed in his present apparently tranquil condition, until death should supervene—and this, it was generally agreed, must now take place within a few minutes." (The Works of Edgar Allan Poe)
Root:Latin supervenire, to come upon.
Part of speech: verb
Definition: To deprive of freedom of action; to hamper.
From the reading: "She woman in her natural grace, Less trammelled she by lore of school, Courteous by nature not by rule, Warm-hearted and of cordial face." (Poems of Christina Rossetti)
Root:Old French tramail, a net with three layers.
Part of speech: noun
Definition: Vigor and spirit or enthusiasm.
Context (original sentence): The choir sang the old hymn with verve and joy.
Root:French verve, vigor, from Latin verba, words.
Part of speech: noun
Definition: A level or rank in an organization or society.
Context (original sentence): Only the highest echelons of the army knew the date of the attack.
Root:French échelon, rung of a ladder.
Part of speech: noun
Definition: Brilliant display or effect; social distinction or conspicuous success.
From the reading: "So saying, Hawkeye laid aside his rifle; and, crawling through the bushes until within hearing of David, he attempted to repeat the musical effort, which had conducted himself, with so much safety and eclat, through the Huron encampment." (The Last of the Mohicans)
Root:French éclat, splinter, burst.
Part of speech: adjective
Definition: Given to eating; greedy; devouring.
Context (original sentence): The edacious locusts stripped the fields bare in a single day.
Root:Latin edax, devouring, from edere, to eat.
Part of speech: adjective
Definition: Relating to or characteristic of heaven or paradise; blissful.
From the reading: "The Trojan chief, whose lineage is from Jove, Much fam’d for arms, and more for filial love, Is sent to seek his sire in your Elysian grove." (The Aeneid)
Root:Greek Elysion, the fields of the blessed in myth.
Part of speech: verb
Definition: To give intense pleasure or joy to.
From the reading: "Those two that sit above there most enrapture As being very near unto Augusta, Are as it were the two roots of this Rose." (The Divine Comedy)
Root:en- + rapture, from Latin raptus, seized.
Part A. Words in context (2 points each). Choose the meaning of the word as used in the sentence.
1. "Those two that sit above there most enrapture As being very near unto Augusta, Are as it were the two roots of this Rose." Here enrapture most nearly means
A) To give intense pleasure or joy to B) Brilliant display or effect C) Subject to debate D) Given to eating
2. "Quickly will the bruit go forth with the rising sun, the bruit concerning the wooers, whom I slew in the halls." Here bruit most nearly means
A) To give intense pleasure or joy to B) Given to eating C) To spread a report or rumor widely D) To extend out, over, or beyond the main body or line of something
3. "The prisoners wore drab gray uniforms." Here drab most nearly means
A) To deprive of freedom of action B) Lacking brightness or interest C) To extend out, over, or beyond the main body or line of something D) To sharpen with a whetstone
4. "But the three most distinguished—partly, perhaps, because the tallest figures of the band—were the Dowager Lady Ingram and her daughters, Blanche and Mary." Here dowager most nearly means
A) A widow with a title or property from her late husband B) Dull, bleak, and lifeless C) To spread a report or rumor widely D) To extend out, over, or beyond the main body or line of something
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: moot, purview, hone, elysian, jut, trammel, stultify, dote, gaffe, echelon
5. Questions of doctrine fall outside the ______ of the town council.
6. "So I kept well back at the corner, and laid one cheek to the rock face, and kept my outer eye round the ______, in the wariest mode I could compass, watching my opportunity: and this is what I saw."
7. "The Trojan chief, whose lineage is from Jove, Much fam’d for arms, and more for filial love, Is sent to seek his sire in your ______ grove."
8. The ambassador's ______ at the state dinner offended the queen.
9. "She woman in her natural grace, Less ______ she by lore of school, Courteous by nature not by rule, Warm-hearted and of cordial face."
10. Only the highest ______ of the army knew the date of the attack.
11. She ______ her Latin by translating a page of Caesar each morning.
12. "First: The uncertain, unsettled condition of this science of Cetology is in the very vestibule attested by the fact, that in some quarters it still remains a ______ point whether a whale be a fish."
Part C. Synonyms and antonyms (1 point each).
13. Synonym of edacious: (dote / snide / voracious)
14. Antonym of snide: (kind / moot / dote)
15. Synonym of dreary: (eclat / gloomy / trammel)
16. Synonym of supervene: (follow / trammel / verve)
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: dote, stultify, eclat.
1. A 2. C 3. B 4. A
5. purview 6. jut 7. Elysian 8. gaffe 9. trammelled 10. echelons 11. honed 12. moot (distractors: dote, stultify)
13. voracious 14. kind 15. gloomy 16. follow
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.)