Grade 7 College Vocabulary, Week 1

Definition: to be full of, to swarm with (usually "teem with"); in older English, to bring forth or produce.

From the reading: "What’s the newest grief? ... That of an hour’s age doth hiss the speaker; Each minute teems a new one"

Context: In Ross's Scotland every minute brings forth a fresh sorrow, so a grief only an hour old is already stale news. Today we would say the country teems with griefs.

Synonyms:

swarm, abound, overflow; (old sense) breed, produce

Antonyms:

lack, be empty, be scarce

Root:Old English tieman, "to bring forth, give birth," from team, "offspring."

Definition: hardened so that one no longer feels pity for others' suffering; insensitive.

Context: Under Macbeth, cries of pain are so common that they are made, not mark'd. The whole country has grown callous, and no one even asks whose funeral bell is ringing.

Synonyms:

unfeeling, hardhearted, indifferent

Antonyms:

compassionate, tender, sympathetic

Root:Latin callosus, "thick-skinned," from callum, "hard skin" (the same root as callus). A callous heart is like a callused hand.

Definition: producing clear, strong, lifelike pictures in the mind; bright and intense.

From the reading: "The part of a commonplace that sets the deed itself before the hearers’ eyes, told plainly and vividly."

Synonyms:

graphic, striking, lifelike

Antonyms:

dull, vague, colorless

Root:Latin vividus, "lively," from vivere, "to live" (as in revive, survive).

Definition: to keep people down by cruel or unjust use of power; (also) to weigh heavily on the mind or spirit.

KJV: "The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor: but he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days" (Proverbs 28:16). "He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker" (Proverbs 14:31).

Context: Solomon joins the tyrant and the thief in one verse: the oppressor is a ruler who covets what belongs to his people.

Synonyms:

persecute, tyrannize, subjugate

Antonyms:

liberate, free, relieve

Root:Latin opprimere, "to press down," from ob- (against) + premere (to press).

Definition: to steal, especially quietly or by a breach of trust (as a servant or clerk who takes from his master).

KJV: "Not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity" (Titus 2:10).

Context: The clerk who purloins from the till does not break a lock; he breaks the trust that put the key in his hand.

Synonyms:

pilfer, embezzle, filch

Antonyms:

restore, return, give

Root:Old French purloigner, "to put far away," from pur- (forth) + loin (far). To purloin is to carry a thing away out of sight.

Definition: getting money or goods from someone by force, threats or abuse of power.

KJV: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess" (Matthew 23:25).

Synonyms:

blackmail, coercion, exaction

Antonyms:

fair dealing, generosity

Root:Latin extorquere, "to twist out," from ex- (out) + torquere (to twist), as in torture. Extortion wrings money out of a man.

Definition: greedy and grasping; taking by force whatever one can seize.

Context: In the lesson's worked example, a rapacious thief sweeps the farmer's barn floor bare in a single night and takes the family's winter food along with the seed for spring.

KJV link: Christ warns of false prophets "which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves" (Matthew 7:15). Ravening is the old word; rapacious is its learned cousin.

Synonyms:

grasping, predatory, avaricious

Antonyms:

generous, content, unselfish

Root:Latin rapax, "grasping," from rapere, "to seize" (as in rapture, ravenous).

Definition: the act of giving back what was taken, or paying for loss or damage done.

KJV: "...for he should make full restitution; if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft" (Exodus 22:3).

Context: Zacchaeus showed true repentance by restitution, restoring fourfold to anyone he had wronged (Luke 19:8).

Synonyms:

repayment, compensation, amends

Antonyms:

theft, seizure, forfeiture

Root:Latin restituere, "to set up again, restore," from re- (again) + statuere (to set up).

Definition: done in secret, usually because it is forbidden or dangerous.

Context: Behind a false wall in Corrie's bedroom at the top of the Beje, workmen built a narrow secret room. There the family carried on its clandestine work of sheltering Jews under the noses of the occupying army.

Synonyms:

secret, covert, surreptitious

Antonyms:

open, public, aboveboard

Root:Latin clandestinus, from clam, "secretly."

Definition: a place or condition of safety from danger or trouble; shelter.

KJV: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" (Psalm 46:1).

Context: For hunted men and women, the ten Boom house became a refuge. For the ten Booms themselves, the refuge was God, and they trusted Him even after their hiding place was found.

Synonyms:

shelter, sanctuary, haven

Antonyms:

danger, exposure, peril

Root:Latin refugium, from re- (back) + fugere (to flee): a place one flees back to.

Definition: always watchful and alert for danger.

KJV: "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8).

Context: The household had to stay vigilant at every hour. They kept a warning signal in the window, practiced drills to reach the secret room in seconds, and watched every stranger who came to the door.

Synonyms:

watchful, alert, wary

Antonyms:

careless, negligent, heedless

Root:Latin vigilare, "to keep awake, watch," from vigil, "awake."

Definition: strength of mind that lets a person endure pain, danger or hardship with courage. It is one of the four cardinal virtues in the classical Christian tradition.

Context: An old watchmaker and his grown daughters showed fortitude. They knew the price of hiding the hunted, and they did it anyway, day after day.

Synonyms:

courage, endurance, resolve

Antonyms:

cowardice, faintheartedness, weakness

Root:Latin fortitudo, "strength," from fortis, "strong, brave" (as in fort, fortify).

Definition: firm and unwavering in purpose, loyalty or faith.

KJV: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 15:58). The KJV spells it stedfast.

Context: Betsie remained steadfast in prayer and kindness even in the harshest days of their imprisonment.

Synonyms:

constant, resolute, unwavering

Antonyms:

fickle, wavering, faithless

Root:Old English stedefæst, from stede (place) + fæst (firm): standing firm in one's place.

Definition: firm honesty and moral uprightness; also, the state of being whole and undivided.

KJV: "The integrity of the upright shall guide them: but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them" (Proverbs 11:3).

Context: Under the occupation the ten Booms wrestled with a hard question: how could they protect the innocent without giving up their integrity before God?

Synonyms:

honesty, uprightness, probity

Antonyms:

dishonesty, corruption, duplicity

Root:Latin integritas, "wholeness," from integer, "whole, untouched" (as in integer, a whole number).

Definition: comfort in a time of sorrow or distress.

Context: In the crowded prison barracks, the sisters' solace was the little Bible they had kept hidden, and they read it aloud to the women around them.

Synonyms:

comfort, consolation, relief

Antonyms:

distress, affliction, misery

Root:Latin solacium, "comfort," from solari, "to console" (as in console, consolation).

Definition: generous in forgiving; rising above resentment or revenge.

Context: After the war, Corrie met a man who had been a guard at the camp where Betsie died. By God's grace she took his hand and forgave him. It was a magnanimous act, and she said she could not have done it in her own strength.

KJV link: "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you" (Matthew 5:44).

Synonyms:

forgiving, generous, noble

Antonyms:

petty, vindictive, spiteful

Root:Latin magnanimus, from magnus (great) + animus (soul): great-souled.

Definition: In rhetoric, a speech that amplifies a wrong or good deed everyone already admits; (the usual test sense) ordinary, unremarkable, met with every day.

From the reading: "A speech against the thief fits every thief; a speech against the tyrant fits every tyrant."

Context (sense 2): In Ross's Scotland, grief had become so commonplace that no one stopped to notice it.

Synonyms:

(sense 2) ordinary, routine, mundane

Antonyms:

(sense 2) extraordinary, remarkable, rare

Root:a translation of Latin locus communis and Greek koinos topos, "common place."

Definition: to enlarge or increase; in rhetoric, to make the true size of a good or a wrong felt by its effects, pictures and details.

From the reading: "Amplification makes a true thing look as large as it really is; it never adds false facts."

Synonyms:

enlarge, magnify, expand

Antonyms:

diminish, reduce, understate

Root:Latin amplificare, from amplus (large) + facere (to make).

Definition: a clear, detailed setting-out of facts or ideas; in a commonplace, the head that sets the deed itself before the hearers' eyes.

From the reading: "Write an exposition of one or two paragraphs. Tell the deed itself plainly and vividly, step by step"

Synonyms:

explanation, account, description

Antonyms:

concealment, obscurity

Root:Latin expositio, from exponere, "to set out, explain," from ex- (out) + ponere (to put).

Definition: a false spoken statement that damages a person's good name; to make such a statement.

From the reading: "A commonplace that lies is no longer rhetoric. It is slander."

KJV: "Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off" (Psalm 101:5).

Synonyms:

defamation, calumny, smear

Antonyms:

praise, commendation, vindication

Root:Old French esclandre, "scandal," from Latin scandalum, "stumbling block."