Grade 8 College Vocabulary, Week 17

Definition: to call on God or a higher power for help; (also) to cite or appeal to something as an authority ("to invoke a law").

From the reading: "Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song"

KJV link: "And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me" (Psalm 50:15). Milton's invocation is this kind of calling upon God.

Synonyms:

call upon, summon, appeal to

Antonyms:

dismiss, renounce

Root:Latin invocare, from in- "upon" + vocare "to call."

Definition: complete disorder and confusion; in older writers, the formless matter before God gave the world its shape.

From the reading: "In the beginning how the heavens and earth ... Rose out of Chaos"

KJV link: "And the earth was without form, and void" (Genesis 1:2). Milton names that formless state "Chaos," and God brings order out of it.

Synonyms:

disorder, turmoil, confusion

Antonyms:

order, harmony, system

Root:Greek khaos, "a yawning gap, an empty void."

Definition: a bottomless or immeasurably deep pit or gulf; (also) anything too vast to measure, such as "an abyss of despair."

From the reading: "Dove-like sat’st brooding on the vast Abyss"

KJV link: "darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" (Genesis 1:2). Milton's "vast Abyss" is that deep.

Synonyms:

chasm, gulf, void

Antonyms:

summit, peak, height

Root:Greek abyssos, "bottomless," from a- "without" + byssos "bottom."

Definition: Full of life that is about to come forth; full of meaning or significance (the sense tests check: "a pregnant pause").

From the reading: "And mad’st it pregnant"

Context (sense 2): When the judge looked up from the letter, there was a pregnant silence in the courtroom.

Synonyms:

(sense 2) meaningful, significant, charged, weighty

Antonyms:

(sense 2) empty, meaningless, trivial

Root:Latin praegnans, from prae- "before" + gnasci "to be born."

Definition: Subject to death; causing death, deadly ("a mortal wound"); extreme or grave ("mortal danger," "a mortal enemy").

From the reading: "Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste"

KJV link: "for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:17). The fruit's taste was mortal: it brought death.

Synonyms:

deadly, fatal, lethal; (sense 1) perishable, human

Antonyms:

immortal, everlasting; harmless

Root:Latin mortalis, from mors, mortis, "death."

Definition: stubbornly set on doing what is wrong or unreasonable; turned away from what is right or expected.

KJV: "Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee" (Proverbs 4:24).

Context: In Lorna Doone, the outlaw Doones keep to their perverse life of plunder long after honest neighbors have begged them to stop.

Synonyms:

contrary, wayward, wrongheaded

Antonyms:

reasonable, upright, obliging

Root:Latin perversus, "turned the wrong way," from per- "thoroughly" + vertere "to turn."

Definition: an unprincipled person with no regard for what is right; (as adjective) morally corrupt, or rejected as worthless.

From the reading: "being himself such a reprobate--God forgive her for saying so--he could never rest till he got poor Johnny" (John Ridd's mother, fretting about the court of King Charles II).

KJV: "Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD hath rejected them" (Jeremiah 6:30).

Synonyms:

scoundrel, rogue, wretch

Antonyms:

saint, paragon, upright man

Root:Latin reprobare, "to disapprove," from re- "back, against" + probare "to test, approve." Like bad silver, a reprobate has failed the test.

Definition: given over to immoral pleasures such as drunkenness and idle excess; lacking self-control.

From the reading: "...and made him as dissolute as himself."

KJV link: "be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess" (Ephesians 5:18).

Synonyms:

debauched, profligate, wanton

Antonyms:

sober, disciplined, temperate

Root:Latin dissolutus, "loosened," from dis- "apart" + solvere "to loosen": a life with its moral bands untied.

Definition: bad-tempered, rude and unfriendly.

From the reading: "Kickums was a horse of morose and surly order; harbouring up revenge, and leading a rider to false confidence."

Synonyms:

sullen, gruff, churlish

Antonyms:

genial, gracious, affable

Root:earlier sirly, "lordly, haughty," from sir: one who acts too high and mighty to be pleasant.

Definition: Rudeness, a lack of proper respect; in an older sense, irrelevance to the matter at hand.

From the reading: "I was taken so aback with this, and the extreme impertinence of it, from a mere young girl like Annie"

Synonyms:

insolence, cheek, disrespect

Antonyms:

respect, courtesy, deference

Root:Latin in- "not" + pertinere "to concern, belong to." The impertinent person meddles in what is not his business.

Definition: small and worthless; petty or trivial.

From the reading: "girding at me with paltry jokes whose wit was good only to stay at home"

Synonyms:

trifling, petty, meager

Antonyms:

significant, substantial, considerable

Root:Low German palte, "a rag": something as worthless as rags.

Definition: irritating or tiresome; annoying because it wears on one's patience.

From the reading: "Not being good at repartee, I made no answer to Lizzie, having found this course more irksome to her than the very best invective"

Synonyms:

tedious, vexing, tiresome

Antonyms:

pleasing, agreeable, delightful

Root:Middle English irken, "to grow weary, be disgusted."

Definition: changing one's mind or loyalties often and without good reason; unreliable.

From the reading: "...the fickle sky which suits our England, though abused by foreign folk."

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

Synonyms:

capricious, inconstant, changeable

Antonyms:

steadfast, loyal, constant

Root:Old English ficol, "deceitful, crafty."

Definition: unwilling; reluctant to do something.

From the reading: "John was by no means loath to be there, instead of holding the plough-tail."

Synonyms:

reluctant, unwilling, averse

Antonyms:

eager, willing, keen

Root:Old English lath, "hateful, hostile." What is hateful to us we are loath to do.

Definition: Wild, disorderly and hard to control; of air or water, moving violently and unevenly.

From the reading: "And the turbulent youths, being long restrained from their wonted outlet for vehemence, by the troopers in the neighbourhood, were only too glad to rush forth upon any promise of blows and excitement."

KJV link: "But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt" (Isaiah 57:20). A turbulent heart is like that restless sea.

Synonyms:

unruly, tumultuous, stormy

Antonyms:

calm, peaceful, orderly

Root:Latin turbulentus, "full of commotion," from turba, "a crowd, uproar."

Definition: Overtaken by night; in a state of ignorance, lacking knowledge or understanding.

From the reading: "However, Master Stickles said that I was quite benighted, and knew nothing of the Constitution; which was the very thing I knew, beyond any man in our parish!"

Synonyms:

ignorant, unenlightened, uninformed

Antonyms:

enlightened, informed, learned

Root:be- (thoroughly) + night: covered by darkness. Compare Milton's prayer: "what in me is dark / Illumine."

Definition: Very heavy and slow-moving because of great weight; of speech or writing, dull and labored.

From the reading: "...and with all my power descending delivered the ponderous onset."

Synonyms:

heavy, weighty, cumbersome; (sense 2) plodding, labored

Antonyms:

light, nimble; (sense 2) lively, graceful

Root:Latin ponderosus, from pondus, ponderis, "weight." Compare ponder, to weigh in the mind.

Definition: eager to argue or fight; combative.

From the reading: "...and they kept our soldiers' spirits up with some of the most pugnacious Psalms."

Synonyms:

combative, belligerent, quarrelsome

Antonyms:

peaceable, conciliatory, meek

Root:Latin pugnax, from pugnare, "to fight," from pugnus, "fist."

Definition: a difficult, unpleasant or embarrassing situation that is hard to get out of.

From the reading: "...this fine fellow, and pillar of the state, was now in a sad predicament, yet quacking very stoutly." (an old drake caught in the flooded brook)

Synonyms:

plight, dilemma, quandary

Antonyms:

advantage, comfort, ease

Root:Late Latin praedicamentum, "a thing asserted, a category," from praedicare, "to declare." The meaning slid from "a class or condition" to "a bad condition."

Definition: Unconscious, without feeling; unaware of or indifferent to something ("insensible to danger").

From the reading: "All this while my darling lay insensible, and white as death"

Synonyms:

unconscious, senseless; (sense 2) unaware, oblivious

Antonyms:

conscious, awake; (sense 2) aware, alert, sensitive

Root:Latin in- "not" + sensibilis "able to feel," from sentire, "to feel."