Grade 8 College Vocabulary, Week 20

Definition: an official order that has the force of law; a ruling that settles a matter.

From the reading: "He hath also stablished them for ever and ever: he hath made a decree which shall not pass." (Psalm 148:6, the lesson's model)

KJV link: The sun, moon and stars keep their courses because their Maker has fixed them by His decree. This is the reason the psalm gives for praise.

Synonyms:

edict, ordinance, mandate

Antonyms:

request, suggestion, repeal

Root:Latin decretum, "a thing decided," from decernere, "to decide" (de- "off" + cernere "to sift, separate").

Definition: To order or establish by authority; to appoint someone to a sacred office.

KJV: "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained" (Psalm 8:3).

Context: An ode to the night sky might begin where David begins: with the moon and stars God ordained, each kept in its place.

Synonyms:

decree, establish, appoint

Antonyms:

abolish, revoke, annul

Root:Latin ordinare, "to set in order," from ordo, "row, rank, order."

Definition: greater than all others in importance or rank; supreme.

From the reading: "...the King, doing nothing at all (as became his dignity), was liege-lord, and paramount owner; with everybody to thank him kindly for accepting tribute."

KJV link: Christ names what must come first: "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness" (Matthew 6:33).

Synonyms:

supreme, foremost, chief

Antonyms:

minor, secondary, subordinate

Root:Anglo-French paramont, "above," from par "by" + amont "upward" (Latin ad montem, "to the mountain").

Definition: a special right or power that belongs to one person, office or rank alone.

From the reading: "...methinks, would often lead us to let alone God's prerogative--judgment..." (John Ridd, thinking about Tom Faggus the highwayman)

KJV: "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord" (Romans 12:19). Final judgment is God's prerogative, not ours.

Synonyms:

right, privilege of office, entitlement

Antonyms:

duty, obligation, liability

Root:Latin praerogativa, the voting group that was "asked first" in Rome, from prae- "before" + rogare "to ask."

Definition: friendship and goodwill, especially between people or nations.

From the reading: "...to keep things in amity..." (John Ridd, keeping the peace at home while Tom Faggus examines Lorna's necklace)

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

Synonyms:

friendship, harmony, goodwill

Antonyms:

enmity, hostility, animosity

Root:Old French amitie, from Latin amicus, "friend," from amare, "to love."

Definition: a willingness to please others or to go along with what they want; easy obligingness. (Do not confuse it with complacence, self-satisfaction.)

From the reading: "...outweighing all light complaisance; to wit, the inborn love of justice, and the power of abiding."

Context: John Ridd judges that a sense of justice and the strength to endure weigh more than smooth, pleasing manners.

Synonyms:

obligingness, agreeableness, compliance

Antonyms:

obstinacy, contrariness, defiance

Root:French complaisance, from complaire, "to please," from Latin complacere (com- "thoroughly" + placere "to please").

Definition: quick, witty conversation; a clever, ready reply.

From the reading: "Not being good at repartee, I made no answer to Lizzie..."

KJV: "Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man" (Colossians 4:6).

Synonyms:

banter, wit, retort

Antonyms:

dullness, silence, slowness

Root:French repartie, "a reply," from repartir, "to reply quickly," originally a fencer's quick return thrust.

Definition: Oily or greasy; smooth, flattering and insincere in speech (the common test sense).

From the reading: "This he said in a way so dry, and yet so richly unctuous, that being gifted somehow by God, with a kind of sense of queerness, I fell back in my chair, and laughed..."

Context: The Londoner promises John "the beauty" and "the love" while he takes the money. His smooth words hide a grasping heart.

Synonyms:

oily, smarmy, ingratiating

Antonyms:

sincere, blunt, forthright

Root:Medieval Latin unctuosus, "greasy," from Latin unctus, "an anointing," from ungere, "to anoint."

Definition: a person who behaves wickedly or breaks the law; a villain.

From the reading: "...the Counsellor, being well-born, although such a heartless miscreant, beckoned to me to come away..."

Synonyms:

villain, scoundrel, wrongdoer

Antonyms:

hero, saint, benefactor

Root:Old French mescreant, "unbeliever," from mes- "wrongly" + creant "believing" (Latin credere). The word first meant a heretic, then any villain.

Definition: extremely bad; deserving to be cursed or hated.

From the reading: "...doings (which were too manifold), reputation (which was execrable)..." (Jeremy Stickles's orders about the Doones)

Synonyms:

abominable, atrocious, detestable

Antonyms:

admirable, excellent, praiseworthy

Root:Latin exsecrabilis, from exsecrari, "to curse," from ex- + sacer, "sacred": to put something outside the holy.

Definition: easily angered and hard to control; quarrelsome, unruly.

From the reading: "...the very least of all these things would have been enough to make some people cross, and rude, and fractious."

KJV: "A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger" (Proverbs 15:1). John answers fractious people with patience.

Synonyms:

irritable, cantankerous, unruly

Antonyms:

docile, good-natured, agreeable

Root:From fraction in its old sense of "brawling, breaking apart," from Latin frangere, "to break."

Definition: lacking strength, purpose or ability; weak and irresponsible.

From the reading: "He knows that young Alan always was what he calls a 'feckless ne'er-do-weel'..."

Context: The old nobleman loves his son even though he thinks him feckless, and he still keeps a bedroom ready for his return.

Synonyms:

ineffectual, shiftless, incompetent

Antonyms:

capable, responsible, energetic

Root:Scots feck, "effect, value" (short for effect) + -less: without effect.

Definition: Perfectly clear, as water or air; of writing, clear and easy to understand.

From the reading: "A long way down that limpid water, chill and bright as an iceberg, went my little self that day..."

KJV: "And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb" (Revelation 22:1).

Synonyms:

clear, transparent, lucid

Antonyms:

turbid, murky, cloudy

Root:Latin limpidus, "clear," probably related to lympha, "water."

Definition: Cloudy or muddy because of stirred-up sediment; confused or disordered.

From the reading: "...he kept her straight in the turbid rush, by the pressure of his knee on her." (Tom Faggus riding his mare Winnie through the flood)

Synonyms:

muddy, murky, roiled

Antonyms:

limpid, clear, transparent

Root:Latin turbidus, "disturbed," from turba, "crowd, uproar" (as in turbulent).

Definition: harmful or offensive, especially foul-smelling. It has nothing to do with noise.

From the reading: "...where the ground was less noisome, he had observed a felled tree lying over a great hole in the earth..." (near the Wizard's Slough, a deadly bog)

Synonyms:

foul, putrid, noxious

Antonyms:

wholesome, fragrant, pleasant

Root:Middle English noy, "harm" (short for annoy) + -some.

Definition: Spreading or growing without check; in heraldry, standing on the hind legs, as a lion on a coat of arms.

From the reading: "...pigs point-blank and pigs across, pigs courant and pigs rampant, but all alike prepared to eat..."

Context: Blackmore makes a joke here by describing hungry pigs in the terms of heraldry, as if they were lions on a knight's shield. On college tests the word usually means "unchecked," as in rampant weeds.

Synonyms:

unchecked, rife, widespread; (heraldry) rearing

Antonyms:

controlled, restrained, contained

Root:Old French rampant, "climbing, rearing up," from ramper, "to climb."

Definition: (noun) a line or phrase repeated at the ends of stanzas or sections of a poem or song; (verb) to stop oneself from doing something.

Context: The words Praise ye him work like a refrain in Psalm 148, and a refrain can bind your own ode together.

KJV (verb sense): "For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile" (1 Peter 3:10).

Synonyms:

(noun) chorus, burden, repetend; (verb) abstain, forbear, desist

Antonyms:

(verb) indulge, persist, continue

Root:two roots meet in one spelling. The noun comes from Old French refrain, from refraindre, "to break off." The verb comes from Latin refrenare, "to bridle" (re- "back" + frenum "bridle").

Definition: (noun) the general meaning or substance of something said or written; (verb) to claim to be, often falsely.

From the reading: "Ruth, however, would not hear a single word to that purport; and seeing that she knew more about it, I left her to manage it."

Synonyms:

(noun) gist, drift, import; (verb) profess, claim

Antonyms:

(noun) irrelevance, triviality

Root:Anglo-French purporter, "to contain, convey," from pur- "forth" + porter "to carry."

Definition: To order or urge someone to do something; in law, to forbid by a court order.

From the reading: "...does the law enjoin or forbid this thing?" (the Counsellor's speech about English law)

KJV: "This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you" (Hebrews 9:20).

Synonyms:

command, charge, direct

Antonyms:

permit, allow, release

Root:Old French enjoindre, from Latin injungere, "to fasten on, impose" (in- "on" + jungere "to join").

Definition: a long, loud or forceful speech, often a scolding one.

From the reading: "Mother was standing by the door, making curtseys now and then, and listening to a long harangue upon the rights of state and land..."

KJV: "In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise" (Proverbs 10:19).

Synonyms:

tirade, diatribe, lecture

Antonyms:

whisper, aside, brief remark

Root:Old French arenge, from Medieval Latin harenga, "a speech to an assembly," probably from a Germanic word meaning "ring" (the circle of listeners).