Definition: A thought, opinion or idea, especially the main idea a sentence expresses; a feeling or attitude (the common test sense, as in public sentiment).

From the reading: "...making short hints of the sentiment in each sentence, laid them by a few days..."

Synonyms:

idea, view, opinion; (second sense) feeling, attitude

Antonyms:

(none exact) indifference; (for a feeling) detachment

Root:Latin sentire, "to feel, perceive, think." Related: sense, sentence, sentient.

Definition: meaning or significance; what a word or statement really signifies. (College tests often use this sense, not the trade sense.)

From the reading: "...since the continual occasion for words of the same import, but of different length, to suit the measure..."

Synonyms:

meaning, sense, significance, purport

Antonyms:

insignificance, triviality, unimportance

Root:Latin importare, "to bring in" (in- + portare, "to carry"): what a word carries into the mind.

Definition: happening again and again, repeated often over a long time. (Careful: continual means "recurring"; continuous means "without any break.")

From the reading: "...since the continual occasion for words of the same import, but of different length, to suit the measure..."

Synonyms:

recurrent, frequent, repeated, persistent

Antonyms:

occasional, rare, sporadic

Root:Latin continuus, "joined together, unbroken," from continere, "to hold together."

Definition: to gain or come to have something, especially a skill or knowledge, by one's own effort.

From the reading: "But I found I wanted a stock of words, or a readiness in recollecting and using them, which I thought I should have acquired before that time if I had gone on making verses..."

Synonyms:

gain, obtain, attain, gather

Antonyms:

lose, forfeit, relinquish

Root:Latin acquirere, "to get in addition" (ad- "to" + quaerere "to seek"). Related: inquire, query.

Definition: To gather information from several sources and arrange it in order; to compare texts carefully to note where they differ.

Context: After a week of reading, a student following Franklin's method collates her note cards, sorting them into piles by heading so that each pile can become a paragraph.

Synonyms:

assemble, arrange, compare, sort

Antonyms:

scatter, disperse, jumble

Root:Latin collatus, "brought together," past participle of conferre (con- "together" + ferre "to bring").

Definition: to shorten a book, speech or passage while keeping its main sense.

Context: A summary note card abridges a long page of a Kepler biography into one sentence, but it still gets a source number and a page.

Synonyms:

shorten, condense, abbreviate, truncate

Antonyms:

lengthen, expand, amplify

Root:Old French abregier, from Latin abbreviare, "to shorten" (brevis, "short"). Related: brief, brevity.

Definition: to make or become smaller, fewer or less important.

KJV: "Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it" (Deuteronomy 4:2). An honest quotation neither adds to nor diminishes the words it borrows.

Synonyms:

lessen, reduce, decrease, curtail

Antonyms:

increase, enlarge, augment

Root:Latin deminuere, "to lessen" (de- + minuere, "to make small"). Related: minute, diminutive.

Definition: To pull or seize something away by force; to twist words out of their true meaning.

KJV: Peter warns that some things in Paul's letters are "hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction" (2 Peter 3:16).

Context: A quotation torn from its setting can be wrested to say the opposite of what its author meant; that is why a note card records the page, so the reader can check.

Synonyms:

wrench, twist, distort, seize

Antonyms:

release, relinquish; (second sense) preserve, represent faithfully

Root:Old English wræstan, "to twist." Related: wrestle, wrist.

Definition: A decree or law set by an authority; a settled rule or order, such as the order God has set in nature.

KJV: "Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?" (Job 38:33).

Context: Kepler believed the planets moved by ordinances God had set, so careful study could discover them; he saw his astronomy as reverent work, not as a rival to faith.

Synonyms:

decree, law, statute, rule

Antonyms:

disorder, lawlessness, chaos

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

Definition: Rule, control or authority over something; the land or realm a ruler governs.

KJV: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea" (Genesis 1:26).

Context: Because God gave man dominion over the earth, Christian scientists like Kepler held that studying and measuring creation was part of man's calling.

Synonyms:

rule, sovereignty, authority, command

Antonyms:

subjection, powerlessness, servitude

Root:Latin dominium, "ownership," from dominus, "lord, master." Related: dominate, domain.

Definition: to put forward an idea as true or as a basis for reasoning, so that it can then be tested.

Context: Copernicus posited that the earth circles the sun; Kepler took up that idea and then posited that some force from the sun drove the planets in their paths.

Synonyms:

propose, postulate, suppose, assume

Antonyms:

deny, reject, disprove

Root:Latin positus, "placed," from ponere, "to put." Related: position, propose.

Definition: Shaped like an ellipse, a flattened circle; (of speech or writing) so brief that words are left out, making the meaning hard to follow.

Context: After years of calculation, Kepler showed that the orbit of Mars is elliptical, not a perfect circle, with the sun at one focus of the ellipse.

Synonyms:

oval; (second sense) terse, cryptic, obscure

Antonyms:

circular; (second sense) clear, explicit, full

Root:Greek elleipsis, "a falling short," from elleipein, "to leave out." An ellipse falls short of a circle; an elliptical sentence leaves words out, as the ellipsis (...) does in a quotation.

Definition: not regular or predictable; wandering from a steady course.

Context: Seen from the earth, Mars seems to move erratically, sometimes even looping backward against the stars, and that was the puzzle Kepler set himself to solve.

Synonyms:

irregular, unpredictable, inconsistent, wayward

Antonyms:

regular, steady, consistent

Root:Latin erraticus, "wandering," from errare, "to wander, stray." Related: err, error. (The Greek word behind planet also means "wanderer.")

Definition: to turn aside from an expected path, rule or standard.

Context: Kepler's circular orbit for Mars deviated from Tycho Brahe's careful observations by about eight minutes of arc, a tiny angle, and Kepler would not ignore it.

Synonyms:

diverge, stray, depart, veer

Antonyms:

conform, adhere, follow

Root:Latin deviare, "to turn out of the way" (de- "from" + via "road").

Definition: so small or unimportant that it can safely be disregarded.

Context: Many astronomers would have called an error of eight minutes negligible, but Kepler trusted Tycho's measurements and threw out his own theory instead.

Synonyms:

trivial, insignificant, slight, minor

Antonyms:

significant, substantial, considerable

Root:Latin neglegere, "to disregard" (nec- "not" + legere "to pick up, choose"). Related: neglect, negligent.

Definition: to measure something and express it as a number or amount.

Context: Tycho Brahe spent decades quantifying the positions of the planets, and those numbers became the raw material from which Kepler worked out his laws.

Synonyms:

measure, gauge, calculate, count

Antonyms:

estimate loosely, guess

Root:Medieval Latin quantificare, from quantus, "how much" + facere, "to make." Related: quantity.

Definition: to take the place of something or someone, often by being better or stronger, or by trickery.

KJV link: Esau said of Jacob, "for he hath supplanted me these two times" (Genesis 27:36).

Context: Kepler's simple ellipses supplanted the tangled circles upon circles that astronomers had used for centuries to explain the planets.

Synonyms:

replace, displace, supersede, oust

Antonyms:

retain, preserve, maintain

Root:Latin supplantare, "to trip up" (sub- "under" + planta "sole of the foot"). Jacob, who was born holding his brother's heel, tripped up Esau twice.

Definition: no longer in use or no longer useful, because something newer has replaced it.

Context: Kepler's Rudolphine Tables (1627) predicted planetary positions so much better than the old tables that the older ones soon became obsolete.

Synonyms:

outdated, outmoded, antiquated, superseded

Antonyms:

current, modern, up-to-date

Root:Latin obsoletus, "worn out," from obsolescere, "to fall into disuse."

Definition: showing skill or understanding at an unusually early age.

Context: Though he was a sickly boy from a poor family, Kepler was a precocious student, and scholarships carried him to the university at Tübingen, where he first studied to become a minister.

Synonyms:

gifted, advanced, quick, forward

Antonyms:

slow, backward, late-blooming

Root:Latin praecox, "ripened early" (prae- "before" + coquere "to cook, ripen").

Definition: Nearsighted, unable to see far things clearly; lacking foresight; looking only at what is near at hand (the common test sense).

Context: A childhood illness left Kepler's eyesight weak, so he depended on Tycho's observations; yet in the second sense he was the least myopic of thinkers, looking past the old models to the true order of the heavens.

Synonyms:

nearsighted; (second sense) shortsighted, narrow, unimaginative

Antonyms:

farsighted; (second sense) visionary, far-seeing, prescient

Root:Greek myops, from myein, "to shut" + ops, "eye": one who squints to see.