Grade 7 College Vocabulary, Week 20

Definition: to worry, complain or be restless and uneasy, especially about small things.

From the reading: "Nuns fret not at their convent's narrow room;"

KJV: "Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity" (Psalm 37:1).

Synonyms:

worry, chafe, agonize

Antonyms:

rest, relax, be at peace

Root:Old English fretan, "to devour, eat up" (for- + etan, "to eat"). Worry gnaws at a person.

Definition: a fortress that guards a city; (figuratively) a safe stronghold or place of retreat.

From the reading: "And students with their pensive citadels;"

Context: Wordsworth calls a scholar's small study a citadel: a quiet fortress where the mind can work in safety.

KJV link: A man without self-rule has no citadel at all: "He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls" (Proverbs 25:28).

Synonyms:

fortress, stronghold, bastion

Antonyms:

(none exact) open ground, ruin

Root:Italian cittadella, "little city," from Latin civitas, "city."

Definition: small or barely enough in amount or size; meager.

From the reading: "Within the Sonnet's scanty plot of ground;"

From the reading (Stevenson): Mr. Utterson was "cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse;"

Context: Fourteen lines is a scanty plot, yet Wordsworth found it roomy enough. Utterson's words were scanty, but his deeds were generous.

Synonyms:

meager, sparse, scant

Antonyms:

ample, abundant, plentiful

Root:Old Norse skamt, "short."

Definition: freedom from control or restraint; the power to choose and act.

From the reading: "Who have felt the weight of too much liberty,"

From the reading (Stevenson): Jekyll "bade a resolute farewell to the liberty, the comparative youth, the light step, leaping impulses and secret pleasures, that I had enjoyed in the disguise of Hyde."

Context: Wordsworth calls too much liberty a weight. Jekyll's "liberty" as Hyde turned out to be a kind of slavery.

KJV: "For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another" (Galatians 5:13).

Synonyms:

freedom, independence, latitude

Antonyms:

bondage, restraint, servitude

Root:Latin libertas, from liber, "free."

Definition: a strong hope or desire to reach something high or noble.

From the reading: "...the unjust might go his way, delivered from the aspirations and remorse of his more upright twin;"

Context: Jekyll wished to set his evil side free from the pull of his good aspirations. He wanted the war inside him to end without a victory.

KJV link: Paul felt the same pull: "For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do" (Romans 7:19). He did not split himself in two. He cried out for a Deliverer (Romans 7:24–25).

Synonyms:

ambition, longing, goal

Antonyms:

indifference, apathy, aimlessness

Root:Latin aspirare, "to breathe upon, to strive toward" (ad- "toward" + spirare "to breathe").

Definition: Very deep or intense; showing great insight or understanding.

From the reading: "...I stood already committed to a profound duplicity of life."

Context: Jekyll's double life was profound in the first sense: it ran to the very bottom of his character.

KJV link: "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways" (James 1:8).

Synonyms:

deep, intense, far-reaching; (second sense) wise, penetrating

Antonyms:

shallow, superficial, slight

Root:Latin profundus, "deep" (pro- "forward" + fundus "bottom").

Definition: the act of lowering someone or something in dignity, character or quality; a fall to a worse state.

From the reading: "It was thus rather the exacting nature of my aspirations than any particular degradation in my faults, that made me what I was,"

Context: Jekyll claims his faults were not very low. Yet the story shows each indulgence leading to a deeper degradation.

Synonyms:

debasement, decline, corruption

Antonyms:

elevation, improvement, ennoblement

Root:Latin de- "down" + gradus "step": stepping down.

Definition: The breaking up or coming apart of something; the official ending of a group or agreement.

From the reading: "...once more suffered the pangs of dissolution, and came to myself once more with the character, the stature and the face of Henry Jekyll."

Context: Each time Jekyll changed shape, he felt as if his body were coming apart.

Synonyms:

disintegration, breakup, decay; (second sense) termination

Antonyms:

formation, union, establishment

Root:Latin dissolvere, "to loosen apart" (dis- "apart" + solvere "to loosen").

Definition: intense dislike mixed with disgust.

From the reading: "I had taken a loathing to my gentleman at first sight."

Context: Mr. Enfield could not explain why he hated Hyde on sight. The loathing seemed to come from something in Hyde himself.

Synonyms:

disgust, revulsion, abhorrence

Antonyms:

affection, fondness, delight

Root:Old English lath, "hateful, hostile."

Definition: a part of the body or of a thing that is twisted out of its proper shape; (figuratively) a moral ugliness.

From the reading: "...he gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation,"

Context: No one could name what was wrong with Hyde's body. The deformity was in his soul, and it showed through.

Synonyms:

malformation, distortion, disfigurement

Antonyms:

soundness, symmetry, beauty

Root:Latin deformis, "misshapen" (de- "away from" + forma "shape").

Definition: Utterly miserable or hopeless; without pride or dignity (as in "an abject apology").

From the reading: "...an expression of such abject terror and despair, as froze the very blood of the two gentlemen below."

Context: Utterson and Enfield saw Jekyll's face at the window turn suddenly to abject terror.

Synonyms:

wretched, hopeless, pitiful; (second sense) servile, groveling

Antonyms:

proud, hopeful, dignified

Root:Latin abicere, "to throw away" (ab- "away" + iacere "to throw"): cast down and cast off.

Definition: far beyond proper or reasonable limits; excessive.

From the reading: "...a singularly strong, almost an inordinate, curiosity to behold the features of the real Mr. Hyde."

Context: Utterson's curiosity grew so strong that he haunted the door day and night until he met Hyde.

Synonyms:

excessive, immoderate, extreme

Antonyms:

moderate, reasonable, restrained

Root:Latin inordinatus, "disordered" (in- "not" + ordinare "to arrange"): out of its proper order.

Definition: a willingness to bear with the faults or opinions of others; (also) the ability to endure something.

From the reading: "But he had an approved tolerance for others;"

Context: Utterson was strict with himself but patient with his friends. Stevenson pictures a man who would help a fallen friend rather than scold him.

Synonyms:

forbearance, patience, indulgence

Antonyms:

intolerance, impatience, severity

Root:Latin tolerare, "to bear, endure."

Definition: The farthest point or end of something; a situation of great danger or need.

From the reading: "...in any extremity inclined to help rather than to reprove."

Context: When a friend was in an extremity, Utterson came to his aid.

Synonyms:

(second sense) crisis, emergency, desperation; (first sense) edge, limit

Antonyms:

(second sense) safety, ease; (first sense) center, middle

Root:Latin extremus, "outermost."

Definition: the way a person looks and behaves; outward manner.

From the reading: "...he never marked a shade of change in his demeanour."

Context: Utterson treated a friend who had fallen low just as he had treated him before.

Synonyms:

bearing, manner, conduct

Antonyms:

(none exact) inner self, hidden thoughts

Root:Old French demener, "to conduct, behave" (de- + mener "to lead").

Definition: Anxious fear that something bad will happen; understanding; arrest.

From the reading: "His past was fairly blameless; few men could read the rolls of their life with less apprehension;"

Context: Utterson searched his memory for old sins and found few, yet he was humbled rather than proud.

KJV link: "The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion" (Proverbs 28:1). A clear conscience leaves little room for apprehension.

Synonyms:

anxiety, dread, unease; (second sense) comprehension

Antonyms:

confidence, calm, assurance

Root:Latin apprehendere, "to seize, grasp" (ad- "to" + prehendere "to take"). Fear seizes the mind.

Definition: the choice to hold back from a pleasure or appetite, especially food, drink or sin.

From the reading: "...while Jekyll would suffer smartingly in the fires of abstinence, Hyde would be not even conscious of all that he had lost."

KJV: "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul" (1 Peter 2:11). "Abstain from all appearance of evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22).

Synonyms:

self-denial, restraint, temperance

Antonyms:

indulgence, excess, gluttony

Root:Latin abstinere, "to hold back" (abs- "away" + tenere "to hold").

Definition: a strong dislike, or a wish to turn away from something.

From the reading: "Even at that time, I had not conquered my aversion to the dryness of a life of study."

Context: Wordsworth's students were contented in their "pensive citadels." Jekyll felt the narrow room of study as a prison and went looking for a way out.

Synonyms:

dislike, distaste, reluctance

Antonyms:

liking, fondness, inclination

Root:Latin avertere, "to turn away" (a- "away" + vertere "to turn").

Definition: real, specific and able to be seen or touched; not abstract or vague.

From the reading: "Prefer active verbs to passive ones, and concrete pictures (oak, frost, plow) to vague words (nice, things, stuff)."

Context: A good sonnet praises a grandfather with concrete things: his weathered hands, his mended fence.

Synonyms:

specific, tangible, definite

Antonyms:

abstract, vague, general

Root:Latin concretus, "grown together, hardened" (con- "together" + crescere "to grow").

Definition: a copy, or the act of copying; (in classical writing) composing your own piece on the pattern of a model.

From the reading: "Writing your own piece on the pattern of a model, keeping its form but changing its content. The classical road to invention."

KJV link: "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1). The Christian life itself is learned by imitation.

Synonyms:

copy, emulation, reproduction

Antonyms:

original, invention, innovation

Root:Latin imitari, "to copy, portray."