Grade 7 College Vocabulary, Week 27

Definition: fatherly; having to do with a father, or showing a father's kindness and care.

From the reading: "...his look of impatience softened down into a pleasant and paternal smile as his eyes fell upon his visitor."

KJV link: Moses was "nourished up in his father’s house three months" (Acts 7:20). A biographer starts with the father's house, because that is where a life begins.

Synonyms:

fatherly, protective, kindly

Antonyms:

unfatherly, cold, neglectful

Root:Latin paternus, "fatherly," from pater, "father" (as in patriarch and patron).

Definition: something left to another person by a will, such as money, land or an instruction.

From the reading: "At the end of a year he would be free to return to the cloisters, for such had been his father's bequest."

Synonyms:

legacy, inheritance, endowment

Antonyms:

(none exact) disinheritance

Root:Middle English biqueste, related to Old English becwethan, "to declare, leave by will" (be- + cwethan, "to say").

Definition: The act of supplying what is needed, or the supplies themselves; an arrangement made ahead of time; a condition written into a will or law.

From the reading: "Already he had learned to bless his father for that wise provision which had made him seek to know the world ere he had ventured to renounce it."

KJV: "I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread" (Psalm 132:15).

Synonyms:

preparation, arrangement, stipulation; (supplies) stores, rations

Antonyms:

neglect, improvidence, lack

Root:Latin provisio, "foresight," from providere, "to see ahead" (pro- "before" + videre "to see"). Providence comes from the same root.

Definition: able to do many different things well; useful in many ways.

Context: Alleyne left Beaulieu a versatile young man: he could carve wood and ivory, paint on vellum and glass, play the citole and read the schoolmen. Like Moses, he had been trained in all the learning of the house that raised him.

Synonyms:

many-sided, adaptable, all-round

Antonyms:

limited, one-dimensional, inflexible

Root:Latin versatilis, "turning easily," from versare, "to keep turning."

Definition: eager to please; easygoing and willing to go along with others. (Do not confuse it with complacent, "smugly self-satisfied.")

From the reading: "...said the Abbot complaisantly." (The Abbot pleasantly offers to teach Alleyne about the lands beyond the sea.)

Synonyms:

obliging, accommodating, agreeable

Antonyms:

obstinate, disobliging, contrary

Root:French complaisant, "pleasing," from Latin complacere, "to please greatly" (com- intensive + placere "to please").

Definition: The state of being important or widely known; something that sticks out from a surface.

From the reading: "Yet there was a set of the mouth and a prominence of the chin..." Doyle lets a small feature of the face hint at the firmness under Alleyne's gentle ways, as Plutarch's portrait painter studies "the lines and features of the face."

Synonyms:

eminence, distinction, renown; (sense 2) projection, bulge

Antonyms:

obscurity, insignificance

Root:Latin prominere, "to jut out" (pro- "forward" + -minere "to project").

Definition: to put in danger.

From the reading: "...the Abbot Berghersh was a man of too firm a grain to allow one bold outbreak to imperil the settled order of his great household."

Synonyms:

endanger, jeopardize, threaten

Antonyms:

safeguard, protect, secure

Root:im- (in, into) + peril, from Latin periculum, "danger, trial."

Definition: (noun) serious talk or writing on a subject; (verb) to speak or write at length on a subject.

From the reading: "...who stopped twice at Beaulieu on his way to and from Southampton, and discoursed to us concerning what he had seen..."

Context: The Abbot believed every one of Mandeville's tales of dwarfs and Amazons. A good biographer weighs his sources before passing on such a discourse, as Plutarch did.

Synonyms:

(verb) lecture, expound, hold forth; (noun) treatise, address, conversation

Antonyms:

silence, reticence

Root:Latin discursus, "a running to and fro," from dis- "apart" + currere "to run." The mind runs from point to point.

Definition: a particular point in time, especially an important or critical one; (also) a place where things join.

Context (KJV): Stephen marks the great juncture in Moses's life: "And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel" (Acts 7:23). For Alleyne, the juncture came at twenty, when he left the abbey.

Synonyms:

turning point, crossroads, moment

Antonyms:

(none exact) routine, the ordinary course

Root:Latin junctura, "a joining," from jungere, "to join" (as in junction and conjunction).

Definition: To turn something aside from its course; to draw away someone's attention; to amuse.

From the reading: "...to turn the whole current of his life, to divert it ... and to guide it into freer and more sunlit channels."

KJV link: Solomon warns against being diverted from the right way: "Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil" (Proverbs 4:27).

Synonyms:

deflect, redirect, sidetrack; (sense 3) entertain, amuse

Antonyms:

keep on course, direct; (sense 3) bore

Root:Latin divertere, "to turn aside" (di- "aside" + vertere "to turn").

Definition: to drive, push or strongly urge someone to act.

From the reading: "So complex is the human spirit that it can itself scarce discern the deep springs which impel it to action."

Synonyms:

drive, compel, prompt, spur

Antonyms:

deter, restrain, discourage

Root:Latin impellere, "to push against" (in- "against" + pellere "to drive"). Compel and propel share the root.

Definition: combative and ready to fight, especially for a cause; engaged in warfare.

From the reading: "...yet in those days of martial orders and militant brotherhoods there was no gulf fixed betwixt the priest and the soldier."

KJV link: Paul uses the soldier's life as a picture of the Christian's: "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ" (2 Timothy 2:3). The old phrase "the Church militant" means believers still fighting the good fight on earth.

Synonyms:

combative, aggressive, warlike

Antonyms:

peaceable, passive, conciliatory

Root:Latin militare, "to serve as a soldier," from miles, militis, "soldier."

Definition: most noticeable or important; standing out; (also) jutting outward.

Context: A biographical sketch keeps only the salient facts of a life. Stephen did not tell everything about Moses; he named his birth, his upbringing, his learning and the turning point at forty.

Synonyms:

prominent, striking, chief

Antonyms:

minor, inconspicuous, trivial

Root:Latin salire, "to leap." A salient point leaps out at the reader.

Definition: not belonging to the matter at hand; irrelevant or unnecessary.

Context: Grandpa Earl's love of fishing was pleasant to hear about, but it was extraneous to the student's controlling idea, so it got one sentence or none at all.

Synonyms:

irrelevant, unrelated, superfluous

Antonyms:

essential, pertinent, relevant

Root:Latin extraneus, "from outside," from extra, "outside." (Strange comes from the same word.)

Definition: directly related to the matter at hand; relevant.

Context: Every story in a sketch should be pertinent to the controlling idea. A fact that fits its place is a fine thing: "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver" (Proverbs 25:11).

Synonyms:

relevant, apposite, germane

Antonyms:

irrelevant, extraneous, beside the point

Root:Latin pertinere, "to reach to, belong to" (per- "through" + tenere "to hold").

Definition: to describe or portray something exactly; to trace the outline of.

Context: In four paintings Thomas Cole delineated the stages of a human life, from childhood to old age. A good outline does the same for a biographical sketch.

Synonyms:

outline, depict, portray

Antonyms:

obscure, blur, muddle

Root:Latin delineare, "to sketch out," from de- + linea, "line." To delineate is to draw the lines.

Definition: Having to do with time; belonging to this passing world rather than to eternity; earthly.

KJV: "...for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Context: Thomas Cole ends The Voyage of Life with an old man looking past temporal things toward the light of heaven. A sketch can end the same way, pointing beyond the facts.

Synonyms:

earthly, worldly, transitory

Antonyms:

eternal, spiritual, everlasting

Root:Latin temporalis, from tempus, temporis, "time" (as in temporary and contemporary).

Definition: without injury or harm.

From the reading: "Unscathed they fought their way to the door of the keep..."

Synonyms:

unharmed, unhurt, intact

Antonyms:

wounded, injured, harmed

Root:un- + scathe, "harm," from Old Norse skaða, "to injure."

Definition: Elegant, polished and well-mannered; made pure by removing what is coarse or unwanted.

From the reading: "...a long seam upon his brow and a scar upon his temple gave a manly grace to his refined and delicate countenance."

Context: In the last chapter Doyle returns to Hampshire, where the story began. The abbey boy comes home a knight, and his scars show what his year in the world has made of him. Doyle has closed his own frame.

Synonyms:

cultivated, polished, gracious; (sense 2) purified

Antonyms:

coarse, crude, vulgar

Root:re- "again" + fine, from Latin finis, "end, finish": brought again and again to a fine finish.

Definition: Arranged by subject rather than by time (in writing, topical order); of current interest, about matters in the news. Test passages often use the second sense.

Context: A grandmother whose garden, teaching and church work ran side by side for fifty years may be best shown in topical order, as Suetonius arranged his lives of the Caesars.

Synonyms:

thematic; (sense 2) current, timely

Antonyms:

chronological (sense 1); dated, out of date (sense 2)

Root:Greek topos, "place, commonplace." The ancient topoi were the "places" a speaker went to find material.