Grade 8 College Vocabulary, Week 21

Definition: right or suitable for the occasion; proper.

From the reading: "It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this."

Synonyms:

appropriate, apt, seemly

Antonyms:

unsuitable, improper, inappropriate

Root:Middle English fitten, "to be suitable," of uncertain origin (perhaps related to Old Norse fitja, "to knit together").

Definition: still in existence; surviving (used especially of old documents, buildings or works of art).

Context: Five copies of the Gettysburg Address in Lincoln's own hand are extant, and a careful researcher compares them before trusting any later printing.

Synonyms:

surviving, existing, remaining

Antonyms:

lost, destroyed, extinct

Root:Latin exstans, from exstare, "to stand out, to exist" (ex- "out" + stare "to stand").

Definition: First in time or origin, coming straight from the source; first in importance, chief (tests often check this second sense).

From the reading: "A source is primary for a question only if it comes from the time and place you are studying."

KJV link: Peter claims to be a primary witness: "For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty" (2 Peter 1:16).

Synonyms:

original, firsthand; (second sense) chief, principal

Antonyms:

secondary, derivative; (second sense) minor, subordinate

Root:Latin primarius, "of the first rank," from primus, "first."

Definition: existing or happening at the same time as something else.

Context: A newspaper printed the morning after Gettysburg gives a contemporaneous account; a textbook written a century later does not.

KJV link: Luke drew on men "which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word" (Luke 1:2), whose testimony came from the time of the events themselves.

Synonyms:

simultaneous, coexisting, concurrent

Antonyms:

later, subsequent, after the fact

Root:Latin contemporaneus, from con- "together" + tempus, temporis "time."

Definition: the origin of an object or document and the record of who has owned or kept it since.

Context: Each of Lincoln's handwritten copies is named for the man who received it, so its name tells part of its provenance.

Synonyms:

origin, source, pedigree

Antonyms:

(none exact) obscurity of origin

Root:French provenance, from provenir, "to come forth," from Latin pro- "forth" + venire "to come."

Definition: taken or copied from another source; not original. In criticism, it often means unoriginal and imitative.

Context: The Gutenberg e-text is derivative: someone copied it from older printings and added rows of dots that Lincoln never wrote.

Synonyms:

borrowed, secondhand, imitative

Antonyms:

original, primary, innovative

Root:Latin derivare, "to draw off (water) from a stream," from de- "from" + rivus "stream."

Definition: Reliable because it comes from the best or most official source; commanding, confident in manner.

Context: The Bliss copy, the last one Lincoln wrote out, is often treated as the authoritative text, which is why it is carved in the Lincoln Memorial.

Synonyms:

reliable, definitive, trustworthy; (second sense) commanding, assured

Antonyms:

unreliable, doubtful, questionable

Root:Latin auctoritas, "authority," from auctor, "author, originator."

Definition: to cause people to doubt or stop trusting something or someone.

Context: The added dots in the e-text do not discredit the speech. They only show why a researcher checks a copy against the original.

KJV: "He that is first in his own cause seemeth just; but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him" (Proverbs 18:17). A second witness can confirm a claim or discredit it.

Synonyms:

refute, disprove, undermine

Antonyms:

confirm, verify, support

Root:dis- "not, the reverse of" + credit, from Latin credere, "to believe."

Definition: based on observation, measurement and experiment rather than on theory alone.

Context: Kepler loved elegant theories, but he insisted that each one pass an empirical test against Tycho Brahe's careful observations of the planets.

KJV: "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

Synonyms:

observational, experimental, factual

Antonyms:

theoretical, speculative, hypothetical

Root:Greek empeirikos, "experienced," from empeiria, "experience" (en- "in" + peira "trial, attempt").

Definition: something that departs from the normal or expected pattern.

Context: Mars did not appear where a circular orbit said it should. The gap was only eight minutes of arc, but Kepler would not ignore the anomaly, and it led him to the truth.

Synonyms:

irregularity, oddity, deviation

Antonyms:

norm, rule, regularity

Root:Greek anomalia, "unevenness," from an- "not" + homalos "even." Astronomers of Kepler's day used anomaly as a technical word for a planet's position in its orbit.

Definition: extremely thorough, exact and careful; strict.

Context: Kepler's rigorous calculations filled hundreds of pages, and he worked through them again and again before trusting any result.

Synonyms:

exacting, meticulous, thorough

Antonyms:

careless, sloppy, lax

Root:Latin rigor, "stiffness," from rigere, "to be stiff."

Definition: to work together with others on a shared task.

Context: In Prague in 1600, the young mathematician Kepler and the proud nobleman Tycho Brahe began to collaborate. Their partnership was often uneasy, yet each needed what the other had.

KJV: "Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend" (Proverbs 27:17).

Synonyms:

cooperate, partner, join forces

Antonyms:

compete, oppose, work alone

Root:Latin com- "together" + laborare "to work."

Definition: a calling; a person's life's work, especially one for which he or she is well suited or feels summoned.

Context: Kepler studied at Tübingen to become a minister. When he was sent instead to teach mathematics, he came to see astronomy as a true vocation, a way to honor the Creator by studying His works.

KJV: "...that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called" (Ephesians 4:1).

Synonyms:

calling, career, mission

Antonyms:

(none exact) idleness, a mere pastime

Root:Latin vocatio, "a calling, summons," from vocare, "to call."

Definition: keen insight and quickness in understanding and judging, especially in a particular field.

Context: Tycho had the instruments and the records, but he needed Kepler's mathematical acumen to find the laws hidden in all those numbers.

Synonyms:

shrewdness, insight, sharpness

Antonyms:

dullness, obtuseness, ineptitude

Root:Latin acumen, "a point, sharpness," from acuere, "to sharpen."

Definition: stating opinions as certainly true and refusing to consider the evidence or other views.

Context: A dogmatic astronomer would have forced the data to fit perfect circles. Kepler was humble enough to give up his favorite idea when the observations disagreed with it.

Synonyms:

opinionated, rigid, closed-minded

Antonyms:

open-minded, teachable, undogmatic

Root:Greek dogma, "opinion, decree," from dokein, "to seem, to think." (A dogma, a settled teaching, is a good thing; being dogmatic about mere opinions is not.)

Definition: a sudden, violent change or disruption.

Context: War and the religious conflicts of his day brought upheaval again and again to the lands where Kepler lived, and he moved his family more than once in search of safety and steady pay.

Synonyms:

turmoil, disruption, convulsion

Antonyms:

stability, calm, order

Root:English up + heave, from Old English hebban, "to lift": a lifting up of the ground, as in an earthquake.

Definition: A new device or method made for the first time; in classical rhetoric, the finding of matter to write about, the first of the five canons.

From the reading: "...an invention, a new method or a new idea that changed things..."

Context (sense 2): For a history paper, invention is not making facts up. It means finding them in the sources.

KJV: "Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions" (Ecclesiastes 7:29). Here inventions means man's own schemes and devices, a warning that not every new thing is good.

Synonyms:

creation, device, contrivance; (sense 2) discovery

Antonyms:

imitation, copy

Root:Latin invenire, "to come upon, find" (in- "upon" + venire "to come"). An inventor first finds.

Definition: a new method, idea or product, or the act of introducing one.

From the reading: "Innovation in History: Impact, Influence, Change"

Context: Kepler's improved telescope design and his Rudolphine Tables (1627) were innovations that later astronomers relied on for generations.

KJV link: Solomon reminds us that "there is no new thing under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Even true innovation builds on what God has already made and what others have already learned.

Synonyms:

novelty, advance, breakthrough

Antonyms:

tradition, custom, stagnation

Root:Latin innovare, "to renew," from in- "into" + novus "new."

Definition: never done or known before; without an earlier example.

Context: Astronomers from Ptolemy to Copernicus had assumed that the planets moved in circles. Kepler's claim that their orbits are ellipses was unprecedented.

Synonyms:

unheard-of, novel, unparalleled

Antonyms:

common, customary, familiar

Root:un- "not" + precedent, from Latin praecedere, "to go before."

Definition: a force or motive that drives something forward; a stimulus.

Context: Kepler's laws of planetary motion gave Isaac Newton the impetus to explain why the planets move as they do.

Synonyms:

stimulus, spur, momentum

Antonyms:

hindrance, obstacle, deterrent

Root:Latin impetus, "attack, force," from impetere, "to rush upon" (in- "upon" + petere "to seek, aim at").