Grade 12 College Vocabulary, Week 31

Definition: The settling of a dispute by an arbiter; a decisive judgment or contest that settles a matter.

From the reading: "The arbitrement is like to be bloody." (King Lear)

Synonyms:

arbitration, decision, judgment

Antonyms:

deadlock, stalemate

Root:Latin arbitrari, "to judge," from arbiter, "a witness, judge."

Definition: A vain or conceited person, especially one who dresses or behaves extravagantly.

From the reading: "The two who were on either side of Alleyne bent their bows as calmly as though they were shooting at the popinjay at the village fair." (The White Company)

Synonyms:

fop, dandy, coxcomb

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Old French papingay, parrot.

Definition: Dutiful; obedient and ready to serve.

From the reading: "A serviceable villain, As duteous to the vices of thy mistress As badness would desire." (King Lear)

Synonyms:

dutiful, obedient, submissive

Antonyms:

disobedient, rebellious, negligent

Root:Old French deu, "owed, due," from Latin debere, "to owe."

Definition: A self-righteously moralistic person who behaves as if superior to others.

From the reading: "If I had time, and was not in mortal dread of some prating prig of a servant passing, I would know what all this means." (Jane Eyre)

Synonyms:

prude, puritan, goody-goody

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:16th-century slang, of uncertain origin.

Definition: Dishonest or rascally; (in a lighter sense) playfully mischievous.

From the reading: "Let’s follow the old Earl, and get the bedlam To lead him where he would: his roguish madness Allows itself to anything." (King Lear)

Synonyms:

rascally, knavish, mischievous

Antonyms:

honest, upright, sober

Root:English rogue, sixteenth-century cant for a vagabond, of uncertain origin.

Definition: To remedy or set right; (Shakespeare uses it as an adjective) healing.

From the reading: "Be aidant and remediate In the good man’s distress!" (King Lear)

KJV link: "Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?" (Jeremiah 8:22)

Synonyms:

remedy, correct, cure

Antonyms:

worsen, aggravate, neglect

Root:Latin remediare, "to heal," from remedium, "cure" (re- + mederi, "to heal").

Definition: That once was; former.

Context (original sentence): The quondam schoolmaster now kept a bookshop in the village.

Synonyms:

former, erstwhile, onetime

Antonyms:

current

Root:Latin quondam, formerly.

Definition: A lack of proper seriousness; glib disrespect toward something that deserves respect.

From the reading: "About the same time I read a solemn flippancy by some free thinker: he said that a suicide was only the same as a martyr." (Orthodoxy)

Synonyms:

levity, glibness, irreverence

Antonyms:

seriousness, gravity, earnestness

Root:Perhaps from English flip, "to toss lightly": talk tossed off without weight.

Definition: A forcefully reproachful protest.

From the reading: "And withal not a groan, or cry, or word of remonstrance from the sufferer: nothing at which an enemy could laugh; nothing a lover could regret." (Ben-Hur)

Synonyms:

protest, objection, complaint

Antonyms:

approval

Root:Latin remonstrare, to demonstrate.

Definition: Rose-colored; optimistic, especially excessively so.

Context (original sentence): The travelers watched the roseate glow of dawn on the snowy peaks.

Synonyms:

rosy, pink; optimistic

Antonyms:

gloomy

Root:Latin roseus, rosy.

Definition: Allowing wide freedom of belief and practice, especially in religion; loose about doctrine.

From the reading: "It is commonly the loose and latitudinarian Christians who pay quite indefensible compliments to Christianity." (Orthodoxy)

Synonyms:

broad-minded, permissive, lax

Antonyms:

strict, orthodox, dogmatic

Root:Latin latitudo, "breadth," from latus, "wide."

Definition: The capacity of being made perfect; in philosophy, the idea that man can perfect himself by his own efforts.

From the reading: "If we wish to pull down the prosperous oppressor we cannot do it with the new doctrine of human perfectibility; we can do it with the old doctrine of Original Sin." (Orthodoxy)

KJV link: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:48)

Synonyms:

improvability, capacity for perfection

Antonyms:

incorrigibility, depravity

Root:Latin perficere, "to finish, complete," from per- "through" + facere "to make."

Definition: Excessive, unreasoning zeal, especially in religion or politics.

From the reading: "The Church in its early days went fierce and fast with any warhorse; yet it is utterly unhistoric to say that she merely went mad along one idea, like a vulgar fanaticism." (Orthodoxy)

Synonyms:

zealotry, extremism, bigotry

Antonyms:

moderation, tolerance, temperance

Root:Latin fanaticus, "inspired by a god, frenzied," from fanum, "temple."

Definition: A clerk, scribe, or notary.

From the reading: "If, on the other hand, he should have hardened his heart against him, he could only go on his way and do the best he might by his skill as a craftsman and a scrivener." (The White Company)

Synonyms:

clerk, scribe, copyist

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Old French escrivein, from Latin scriba.

Definition: The use of dexterity or cunning, especially so as to deceive.

From the reading: "Haste is most needful; but without sleight and caution all is naught." (The Black Arrow)

Synonyms:

dexterity, deftness, trickery

Antonyms:

clumsiness

Root:Old Norse slaegth, slyness.

Definition: Relating to or denoting laws that limit private expenditure on food and personal items.

From the reading: "In those days there was a law, known as a sumptuary law, which regulated by statute the clothes that each class of people were privileged to wear." (Men of Iron)

Synonyms:

restrictive, regulatory

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin sumptus, expense.

Definition: Relating to the sky or the heavens; celestial.

From the reading: "But on this, God's harp supernal, stretched but to be stricken once." (Poems of Chesterton)

Synonyms:

celestial, heavenly, divine

Antonyms:

infernal, earthly

Root:Latin supernus, above.

Definition: Whispering, murmuring, or rustling.

From the reading: "Aloft, through the intricate arches Of its aerial roof, arose the chant of their vespers, Mingling its notes with the soft susurrus and sighs of the branches." (Poems of Longfellow)

Synonyms:

murmur, whisper, rustle

Antonyms:

clamor

Root:Latin susurrus, whisper.

Definition: A country youth; a young lover or suitor.

From the reading: "For that maketh the common subject, grow to be a peasant and base swain, driven out of heart, and in effect but the gentleman's laborer." (Essays of Bacon)

Synonyms:

suitor, admirer; rustic

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Old Norse sveinn, boy, servant.

Definition: Oddness of behavior or opinion; a departure from the usual center or norm.

From the reading: "If I leave a man in my will ten talking elephants and a hundred winged horses, he cannot complain if the conditions partake of the slight eccentricity of the gift." (Orthodoxy)

Synonyms:

oddity, peculiarity, quirk

Antonyms:

conformity, normality, conventionality

Root:Greek ekkentros, "out of center," from ek- "out" + kentron "center."