Grade 7 College Vocabulary, Week 21

Definition: to show clearly; to reveal or prove a feeling, quality or purpose by one's actions.

From the reading: "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government"

Synonyms:

reveal, display, demonstrate

Antonyms:

conceal, hide, mask

Root:Latin evincere, to conquer completely, to prove (e- out + vincere to conquer). An argument that evinces something wins its point.

Definition: Patient endurance of pain or wrong; permission given only by not objecting, as in allowed to stay on sufferance.

From the reading: "Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies"

KJV link: Patience under wrong is a Christian virtue: "Charity suffereth long, and is kind" (1 Corinthians 13:4). The Declaration's claim is that the Colonies had shown such patience for years before they acted.

Synonyms:

endurance, forbearance, patience; (second sense) tolerance, leave

Antonyms:

impatience, rebellion; (second sense) prohibition

Root:Latin sufferentia, from sufferre, to hold up under (sub- under + ferre to carry).

Definition: to force or compel someone to act; also, to hold within tight limits.

From the reading: "such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government."

KJV: "For the love of Christ constraineth us" (2 Corinthians 5:14).

Synonyms:

compel, oblige, restrict

Antonyms:

free, release, permit

Root:Latin constringere, to bind tightly (con- together + stringere to draw tight).

Definition: always; without ever changing.

From the reading: "a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object"

Synonyms:

always, unfailingly, consistently

Antonyms:

rarely, occasionally, inconsistently

Root:Latin in- not + variare to change: not changing.

Definition: able to be defended or justified with reasons and evidence.

From the reading: "One sentence; a clear claim; arguable but defensible; a forecast of three reasons in order." (the lesson's four marks of a good thesis)

KJV link: Christians are told to "be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you" (1 Peter 3:15). A reason you can give is a defensible one.

Synonyms:

justifiable, sound, tenable

Antonyms:

indefensible, untenable, groundless

Root:Latin defendere, to ward off, protect + -ible able to be.

Definition: a prediction of what is coming; in writing, the part of a thesis that names your reasons in the order the body paragraphs will take them.

Context: In the thesis about the plow, the three reasons (it feeds the nation, rewards honest labor and teaches patience) are the forecast, a map of the whole essay.

KJV link: The lesson's verse: "For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?" (1 Corinthians 14:8). A clear forecast is a certain sound.

Synonyms:

prediction, outline, preview

Antonyms:

hindsight, review

Root:Middle English fore- before + casten to throw, contrive: to plan or throw one's thought ahead.

Definition: very obvious and done openly, without shame (usually of something bad); in older use, noisy and loud-mouthed.

From the reading: "an ignorant, blatant pedant." (Jekyll, scorning his old friend Dr. Lanyon)

Synonyms:

flagrant, glaring, brazen

Antonyms:

subtle, hidden, inconspicuous

Root:Probably coined by the poet Edmund Spenser, whose Faerie Queene (1596) names a slandering monster the Blatant Beast; perhaps from Latin blatire, to babble.

Definition: just beginning to appear or develop; in an early stage.

From the reading: "some resemblance to incipient rigour" (Dr. Lanyon describing the chill he felt on first meeting Hyde)

Synonyms:

beginning, budding, emerging

Antonyms:

full-blown, mature, developed

Root:Latin incipere, to begin (in- on + capere to take): to take something in hand.

Definition: impossible to explain or account for.

From the reading: "Small indeed was my appetite. This inexplicable incident, this reversal" (Jekyll, waking to find he has changed into Hyde without the drug)

Synonyms:

mysterious, baffling, unaccountable

Antonyms:

explainable, obvious, understandable

Root:Latin in- not + explicare to unfold, explain (ex- out + plicare to fold).

Definition: peculiar to one person; odd in a way that belongs to that individual alone.

From the reading: "At the time, I set it down to some idiosyncratic, ... personal distaste" (Lanyon, first thinking his loathing of Hyde was only his own quirk)

Synonyms:

peculiar, eccentric, distinctive

Antonyms:

ordinary, typical, common

Root:Greek idios, one's own + synkrasis, a mixing together: one's own personal mixture.

Definition: the state of being kept apart from other people; privacy or solitude.

From the reading: "I mean from henceforth to lead a life of extreme seclusion" (Jekyll's letter to Utterson)

Synonyms:

isolation, solitude, retirement

Antonyms:

company, society, publicity

Root:Latin secludere, to shut off (se- apart + claudere to shut).

Definition: showing steady, careful effort; diligent and persevering.

From the reading: "sedulously compared their contents." (Mr. Guest the clerk, comparing two handwriting samples)

Synonyms:

diligent, assiduous, painstaking

Antonyms:

careless, negligent, lazy

Root:Latin sedulus, zealous, careful; perhaps from se dolo, without guile: working honestly.

Definition: moral corruption; deep wickedness.

From the reading: "of wonder at my vicarious depravity." (Jekyll, describing how he watched Hyde's crimes)

KJV: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). Stevenson's story shows how much evil a respectable man can hide in his own heart.

Synonyms:

wickedness, corruption, vice

Antonyms:

virtue, goodness, righteousness

Root:Latin depravare, to make crooked (de- thoroughly + pravus crooked, bad).

Definition: Felt or experienced through another person rather than firsthand; done or suffered in place of another.

From the reading: "I was often plunged into a kind ... of wonder at my vicarious depravity."

KJV link: The second sense is used of Christ's death: "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18). Jekyll's sin was vicarious in a false sense: he blamed Hyde, but Hyde was himself.

Synonyms:

secondhand, indirect; (second sense) substitutionary

Antonyms:

firsthand, direct, personal

Root:Latin vicarius, a substitute, from vicis, a turn or place (also the root of vicar and vice president).

Definition: intense eagerness or greed for something.

From the reading: "drinking pleasure with bestial avidity from any degree of torture" (Jekyll on Hyde)

Synonyms:

eagerness, craving, greed

Antonyms:

indifference, apathy, reluctance

Root:Latin aviditas, from avidus, eager, greedy, from avere, to crave (related to avarice).

Definition: shameful wickedness; vile, base behavior. (The legal phrase moral turpitude means conduct that shocks the conscience.)

From the reading: "As for the moral turpitude that ... man unveiled to me, even with tears of penitence" (Lanyon, after Jekyll's confession)

Synonyms:

baseness, vileness, depravity

Antonyms:

honor, virtue, uprightness

Root:Latin turpitudo, from turpis, ugly, shameful.

Definition: of many different kinds; having great variety.

From the reading: "man will be ultimately known for a mere polity of ... multifarious, incongruous and independent denizens." (Jekyll's guess that a man holds many selves)

Synonyms:

diverse, manifold, varied

Antonyms:

uniform, single, homogeneous

Root:Latin multifarius, many-sided, from multus, many.

Definition: to destroy completely; to wipe out so that no trace is left.

From the reading: "But time began at last to ... obliterate the freshness of my alarm" (Jekyll, as his fear of Hyde faded and he grew careless)

KJV link: Only God can truly wipe out guilt: "according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions" (Psalm 51:1). Jekyll tried to wipe out his guilt by a drug.

Synonyms:

erase, efface, annihilate

Antonyms:

preserve, create, build

Root:Latin obliterare, to strike out letters (ob- against + littera letter): to erase writing.

Definition: impossible to change, undo or call back.

From the reading: "Hyde become irrevocably mine." (Jekyll's fear that he will no longer be able to change back)

Synonyms:

final, unalterable, permanent

Antonyms:

reversible, changeable, temporary

Root:Latin in- not + revocare to call back (re- back + vocare to call).

Definition: a sudden event that causes great loss or distress; a disaster.

From the reading: "a crushing anticipation of calamity." (Utterson, on the night Poole fetches him to Jekyll's house)

KJV: "They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay" (Psalm 18:18).

Synonyms:

disaster, catastrophe, misfortune

Antonyms:

blessing, boon, good fortune

Root:Latin calamitas, damage, disaster.