Grade 8 College Vocabulary, Week 16

Definition: the act of buying back or setting free by paying a price; in Scripture, deliverance from sin by the death of Christ; (general) the act of saving or making up for a fault.

From the reading: "Our full redemption from above did bring;"

KJV: "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace" (Ephesians 1:7).

Synonyms:

deliverance, rescue, ransom

Antonyms:

bondage, condemnation, perdition

Root:Latin redemptio, from redimere, "to buy back" (red- "back" + emere "to buy").

Definition: a person of deep wisdom, often an elder whose judgment is trusted; (adjective) wise and sound in judgment.

From the reading: "For so the holy sages once did sing," (Milton means the prophets who foretold the Child's coming).

KJV link: "There came wise men from the east to Jerusalem" (Matthew 2:1). Milton calls the Magi "star-led wizards"; we would call them sages.

Synonyms:

wise man, savant, philosopher; (adjective) wise, judicious

Antonyms:

fool, dunce; (adjective) foolish, rash

Root:Old French sage, from Latin sapere, "to taste, to be wise." The same root gives sapient and Homo sapiens.

Definition: made holy; set apart and honored as sacred.

From the reading: "From out his secret altar touched with hallowed fire." Milton remembers the live coal from the altar that touched Isaiah's lips (Isaiah 6:6–7).

KJV: "Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name" (Matthew 6:9).

Synonyms:

sacred, consecrated, revered

Antonyms:

profane, desecrated, unholy

Root:Old English halgian, "to make holy," from halig, "holy." Halloween is All Hallows' Eve, the night before All Saints' Day.

Definition: (modern) to keep something from happening; (older sense, common in Milton and the KJV) to come before, to get somewhere first, to anticipate.

From the reading: "Oh! run, prevent them with thy humble ode," The poet urges his Muse to reach the manger before the Magi do.

KJV: "I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried: I hoped in thy word" (Psalm 119:147). "We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep" (1 Thessalonians 4:15), that is, shall not go before them.

Synonyms:

(modern) hinder, avert, stop; (older) precede, anticipate

Antonyms:

(modern) allow, permit; (older) follow

Root:Latin praevenire, "to come before" (prae- "before" + venire "to come"). The old meaning is the literal one.

Definition: (today) very bad; (older, literal sense) full of awe; showing or inspiring reverent fear and wonder.

From the reading: "And kings sat still with awful eye, ... As if they surely knew their sovereign Lord was by."

Synonyms:

awestruck, reverent; awe-inspiring, solemn

Antonyms:

irreverent, unimpressed, flippant

Root:Old English ege, "fear, dread" + -ful. Tests often check a familiar word used in an older or unusual sense; awful is a fine example.

Definition: (verb) to set in order, as troops for battle; to dress in fine clothing; (noun) an orderly or impressive display; a wide range (an array of choices).

From the reading: "That with long beams the shame-faced Night arrayed;" Right after, the angels "Are seen in glittering ranks with wings displayed," an army arrayed in light.

KJV: "Even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these" (Matthew 6:29).

Synonyms:

arrange, marshal; clothe, adorn; (noun) range, assortment

Antonyms:

disarrange, scatter; strip

Root:Old French areer, "to put in order," from Latin ad- ("to") + a Germanic word meaning "ready."

Definition: (verb) to keep company with, to associate with (often used of bad company); (noun) a companion or partner, especially the spouse of a king or queen; (older) a group of musicians, or voices in harmony.

From the reading: "Make up full consort to the angelic symphony." Milton asks the heavenly spheres to join the angels' music.

KJV: "And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas" (Acts 17:4).

Synonyms:

associate, keep company, fraternize; (noun) companion, partner

Antonyms:

avoid, shun, part from

Root:Latin consors, "partner, sharer," from con- ("with") + sors ("lot, share"): one who shares your lot.

Definition: (older, literary sense) the imagination, the mind's power to form pictures; (also) a passing liking or whim.

From the reading: "For if such holy song ... Enwrap our fancy long, ... Time will run back, and fetch the age of gold;" Then Milton checks his fancy: "This must not yet be so," for the Babe must first go to "the bitter cross."

Synonyms:

imagination, fantasy; whim, notion

Antonyms:

reality, fact; (for the liking) aversion, dislike

Root:shortened from fantasy, from Greek phantasia, "appearance, imagination."

Definition: (verb) to discover or guess by insight, without being told; (older) to foretell the future by supposed supernatural means.

From the reading: "Apollo from his shrine ... Can no more divine," At the coming of Christ, Milton says, the pagan oracles fall silent.

KJV: "Wot ye not that such a man as I can certainly divine?" (Genesis 44:15). Joseph says this while testing his brothers in disguise; the Law forbids anyone who "useth divination" (Deuteronomy 18:10).

Context (test sense): From Eli's silence at the window, Mr. Abbott divined that the boy had already made up his mind.

Synonyms:

intuit, perceive, guess; foretell, prophesy

Antonyms:

misread, overlook, miss

Root:Latin divinare, "to foresee, to be inspired by a god," from divus, "god."

Definition: (common) strange or odd; (older and test-favored sense) belonging to one person, people or place alone; particular; special.

From the reading: "While each peculiar Power forgoes his wonted seat." Each local idol had its own shrine, and each one flees.

KJV: "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people" (1 Peter 2:9): not an odd people, but God's own treasured possession.

Synonyms:

distinctive, particular, characteristic; (common) odd, unusual

Antonyms:

common, general, shared

Root:Latin peculium, "private property," from pecus, "cattle," once a man's chief private wealth.

Definition: to give up or go without something, usually by choice.

From the reading: "While each peculiar Power forgoes his wonted seat." The false gods are driven out; Christ chose His humbling freely: "He laid aside; and, here with us to be, ... Forsook the courts of everlasting day,"

KJV link: "But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant" (Philippians 2:7).

Synonyms:

relinquish, renounce, waive

Antonyms:

claim, retain, indulge in

Root:Old English forgan, "to pass over," from for- ("away") + gan ("go"). Do not confuse with forego, "to go before" (a foregone conclusion).

Definition: (noun) a chain or shackle for the feet; anything that restrains; (verb) to chain; to hold back or restrict.

From the reading: "Each fettered ghost slips to his several grave;" When the Child is born, the powers of darkness are driven back to their prison.

KJV: "Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron" (Psalm 105:18), of Joseph in Egypt.

Synonyms:

shackle, manacle; restrain, hamper

Antonyms:

free, liberate, unfetter

Root:Old English feter, related to fot, "foot."

Definition: to persuade someone not to do something; to talk someone out of a plan.

From the reading: "The creek road is under two feet of snow. You won’t see the ditch." Mr. Abbott tries to dissuade Eli, but the boy has given his word.

Synonyms:

discourage, deter, talk out of

Antonyms:

persuade, urge, encourage

Root:Latin dissuadere, from dis- ("against") + suadere ("to urge"). Its twin is persuade, "to urge thoroughly."

Definition: brief and to the point; using few words, sometimes to the point of seeming abrupt.

From the reading: "Three by the creek road." That is Eli's whole answer when Mr. Abbott warns him of the distance. A moment later: "Eli did not answer."

KJV link: "But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay" (Matthew 5:37). A man of his word need not say much.

Synonyms:

succinct, concise, curt

Antonyms:

verbose, wordy, rambling

Root:Latin tersus, "wiped clean, polished," from tergere, "to wipe": speech with the extra words wiped away.

Definition: to travel across or through; to cross from one side to the other.

From the reading: "He walked with one mitten on the top wire, post to post, counting." Eli traverses three miles of drifted country by following the fence.

Synonyms:

cross, journey over, span

Antonyms:

skirt, avoid, circumvent

Root:Latin transversus, "turned across," from trans- ("across") + vertere ("to turn").

Definition: tireless; not weakening, slowing or losing strength.

From the reading: "At post two hundred the wind took his breath; at post four hundred he stopped counting and only walked."

KJV: "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not" (Galatians 6:9).

Synonyms:

tireless, untiring, steady

Antonyms:

flagging, weary, faltering

Root:un- + flag, an old verb meaning "to droop, hang limp" (as a sail or a plant does when it lacks wind or water).

Definition: an ancestor; one who came before in a family, a people or a tradition.

From the reading: "His grandfather had set every one of them, and he had told Eli once that a good fence will lead a man home when nothing else will." In the last line, Eli's father rests his hand on "the last one the old man had set."

KJV: "Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set" (Proverbs 22:28). "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight" (Hebrews 12:1).

Synonyms:

ancestor, forefather, progenitor

Antonyms:

descendant, heir, offspring

Root:fore ("before") + be-er ("one who is"): one who was here before. Spelling trap: forbear (no e after for) is a verb meaning "to hold back."

Definition: suggested or understood without being stated outright; (also) complete and unquestioning, as in implicit trust.

From the reading: "The theme (a promise kept, and the help of those who went before) is never stated. The ending image carries it." The theme of "The Fence Line" is implicit.

Synonyms:

implied, unspoken, tacit

Antonyms:

explicit, stated, overt

Root:Latin implicitus, "folded in," from in- + plicare ("to fold"): the meaning is folded inside the story, waiting to be opened.

Definition: the state of being one; oneness; (in writing) the quality of a work whose every part serves one whole. Unity of effect is this lesson's term.

From the reading: "Poe’s rule that every part of a short story should work toward one main impression on the reader." Milton uses the word of God Himself: "To sit the midst of Trinal Unity,"

KJV: "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" (Psalm 133:1).

Synonyms:

oneness, cohesion, wholeness

Antonyms:

disunity, fragmentation, division

Root:Latin unitas, from unus, "one."

Definition: glad laughter and merriment; joyful high spirits.

From the reading: "Of music, and ethereal mirth ... Wherewith the stage of Air and Earth did ring," (Milton's lines printed at the close of this edition).

KJV: "And all the people went their way to eat, and to drink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth, because they had understood the words that were declared unto them" (Nehemiah 8:12).

Synonyms:

merriment, glee, gaiety

Antonyms:

gloom, sorrow, melancholy

Root:Old English myrgth, from myrge, "merry."