Grade 7 College Vocabulary, Week 7

Definition: power or strength, especially the power to have an effect.

From the reading: "For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are"

Synonyms:

power, force, strength

Antonyms:

weakness, feebleness, impotence

Root:Latin potentia, "power," from posse, "to be able."

Definition: offspring or descendants; (also) anything that comes from a source, such as the works of a mind.

From the reading: "...to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are"

Synonyms:

offspring, descendants, issue

Antonyms:

ancestors, forebears, progenitors

Root:Latin progenies, from pro- (forth) + gignere (to beget). Milton calls books the children of their authors' souls.

Definition: the power to produce the intended result; effectiveness.

From the reading: "...they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them."

Synonyms:

effectiveness, power, usefulness

Antonyms:

uselessness, futility, ineffectiveness

Root:Latin efficax, "effective," from efficere, "to accomplish" (ex- "out" + facere "to do, make").

Definition: strong, healthy, and full of energy; done with force.

From the reading: "I know they are as lively, and as vigorously productive, as those fabulous dragon's teeth"

Synonyms:

energetic, robust, lively

Antonyms:

feeble, listless, torpid

Root:Latin vigor, "liveliness," from vigere, "to be lively, thrive."

Definition: the habit of keeping one's thoughts and feelings to oneself; reserve in speaking.

From the reading: "...this little item of testimony, wrung from them by Joan’s wise reticence"

KJV link: "let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath" (James 1:19).

Synonyms:

reserve, restraint, taciturnity

Antonyms:

talkativeness, garrulousness, openness

Root:Latin reticentia, from reticere, "to keep silent" (re- "back" + tacere "to be silent").

Definition: Natural and sincere, without pretense or showing off; not changed or influenced by something.

From the reading: "...the manner of the telling was so unaffected, and so earnest and sincere"

Synonyms:

natural, genuine, artless

Antonyms:

affected, pretentious, artificial

Root:un- (not) + affected, from Latin affectare, "to strive after, put on a pose."

Definition: calm and peaceful; free from disturbance.

From the reading: "Joan was as sweetly self-possessed and tranquil before this grim tribunal"

KJV link: "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee" (Isaiah 26:3).

Synonyms:

serene, placid, composed

Antonyms:

agitated, turbulent, anxious

Root:Latin tranquillus, "calm, quiet."

Definition: A firmly held belief; a court's finding that someone is guilty.

From the reading: "...her manifest sincerity and the rocklike steadfastness of her convictions were forces which cowed levity"

Synonyms:

belief, certainty, principle

Antonyms:

doubt, uncertainty, hesitancy

Root:Latin convincere, "to overcome, prove" (con- "thoroughly" + vincere "to conquer").

Definition: sluggish and inactive; dull, as if asleep or numb.

From the reading: "...its soldiers disheartened and dispersed, all spirit torpid, all courage dead in the hearts of the people"

Synonyms:

sluggish, lethargic, listless

Antonyms:

vigorous, energetic, lively

Root:Latin torpere, "to be numb, stiff."

Definition: remarkably great in size, force, or degree; amazing.

From the reading: "When I was five years old the prodigious disaster of Agincourt fell upon France"

Synonyms:

enormous, colossal, extraordinary

Antonyms:

tiny, ordinary, negligible

Root:Latin prodigium, "an omen, a wonder." Anything prodigious seemed a sign from heaven.

Definition: too much eagerness to obey or please others; slavish, flattering submission.

From the reading: "...she maintained her personal dignity unimpaired in an age of fawnings and servilities"

Synonyms:

subservience, obsequiousness, fawning

Antonyms:

dignity, independence, self-respect

Root:Latin servilis, "of a slave," from servus, "slave."

Definition: a trace or small remaining sign of something that is gone or nearly absent.

From the reading: "No vestige or suggestion of self-seeking can be found in any word or deed of hers."

Synonyms:

trace, remnant, hint

Antonyms:

entirety, whole, abundance

Root:Latin vestigium, "a footprint, track."

Definition: of farmland: plowed but left unplanted for a season; (by extension) inactive, unused.

KJV: "Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns" (Jeremiah 4:3).

Context: In an encomium of the plow, the student might praise the share that turns fallow ground into a field ready for seed.

Synonyms:

unplanted, dormant, idle

Antonyms:

cultivated, planted, productive

Root:Old English fealh, "plowed land."

Definition: Farming, the careful raising of crops and animals; careful management of resources.

KJV: "for he loved husbandry" (2 Chronicles 26:10). "ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building" (1 Corinthians 3:9).

Synonyms:

agriculture, cultivation; (second sense) stewardship, thrift

Antonyms:

neglect, mismanagement, waste

Root:Old Norse husbondi, "master of a house," from hus (house) + bondi (dweller, tiller of the soil).

Definition: Generous in giving; large in quantity, plentiful.

KJV: "He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed; for he giveth of his bread to the poor" (Proverbs 22:9).

Context: The farmer's plowing in spring makes a bountiful harvest in autumn possible.

Synonyms:

generous, plentiful, abundant

Antonyms:

stingy, meager, scant

Root:Old French bonte, "goodness," from Latin bonitas, from bonus, "good."

Definition: able to last a long time without wearing out.

KJV: "Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness" (Proverbs 8:18).

Context: The stone arches of the Pons Fabricius, built in 62 B.C., have proved so durable that people still cross the Tiber on them.

Synonyms:

lasting, enduring, sturdy

Antonyms:

fragile, flimsy, ephemeral

Root:Latin durabilis, from durare, "to last, harden," from durus, "hard."

Definition: speaking of a thing, animal, or idea as though it were a person, with human actions or feelings.

From the reading: "The bridge asks nothing and gives everything."

Synonyms:

embodiment, anthropomorphism, prosopopoeia

Antonyms:

literal description

Root:Latin persona, "a mask, a character" + facere, "to make": to make something into a person.

Definition: a rule or principle meant to guide conduct or thought.

KJV: "For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little" (Isaiah 28:10).

Context: A good book hands down the precepts of wise men long dead to readers who never met them.

Synonyms:

rule, principle, maxim

Antonyms:

(none exact) whim, impulse

Root:Latin praeceptum, "instruction," from praecipere, "to teach, take beforehand."

Definition: to instruct and improve someone, especially in mind or morals; to build up.

KJV: "Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another" (Romans 14:19).

Synonyms:

instruct, enlighten, uplift

Antonyms:

corrupt, degrade, mislead

Root:Latin aedificare, "to build" (aedes "house" + facere "to make"). An edifying book builds up the reader as a mason builds a house.

Definition: so excellent, grand, or noble that it inspires awe.

From the reading: "Ah, whence could come a courage and conviction so sublime as this but from very God Himself!"

Synonyms:

exalted, majestic, lofty

Antonyms:

base, trivial, ridiculous

Root:Latin sublimis, "uplifted, high."