Grade 8 College Vocabulary, Week 24

Definition: The use of magic spells; sorcery; a feeling of great delight or charm.

From the reading: "Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel" (the verse Morse's first message came from).

KJV link: In Numbers 23:23 the word means sorcery. Balaam could not curse Israel, because no spell can stand against what God has blessed. Morse's message, "What hath God wrought!", comes from the end of the same verse.

Synonyms:

sorcery, spell; (second sense) delight, fascination

Antonyms:

(second sense) disenchantment, disillusionment, boredom

Root:Latin incantare, "to sing a spell over," from in- (upon) + cantare (to sing).

Definition: swiftness of movement or action; speed.

Context: Before 1844 news could go no faster than a horse, a ship or a train, but the telegraph gave it a celerity no rider could match.

Synonyms:

swiftness, rapidity, speed

Antonyms:

slowness, sluggishness, delay

Root:Latin celeritas, from celer, "swift." (The same root gives accelerate.)

Definition: to spread something, especially information or ideas, widely.

Context: Within a few years newspapers were using the telegraph to disseminate news from distant cities on the same day it happened.

KJV link: "As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country" (Proverbs 25:25). The telegraph let good news from far away reach people almost at once.

Synonyms:

spread, circulate, broadcast

Antonyms:

suppress, conceal, withhold

Root:Latin disseminare, "to scatter seed," from dis- (apart) + semen (seed).

Definition: a person or thing that causes or speeds up an important change; (in chemistry) a substance that speeds up a reaction without being used up itself.

Context: The thirty thousand dollars that Congress voted in 1843 was the catalyst that turned Morse's years of experiments into a working line.

Synonyms:

spur, stimulus, trigger

Antonyms:

hindrance, obstacle, deterrent

Root:Greek katalysis, "dissolving," from kata- (down) + lyein (to loosen).

Definition: importance; the meaning something has because of what it changed or caused.

From the reading: "Open with a scene or a striking primary-source quotation; end with significance, not a summary."

Synonyms:

importance, consequence, weight

Antonyms:

insignificance, triviality, unimportance

Root:Latin significare, "to show by a sign," from signum (sign) + facere (to make).

Definition: to add brief notes that explain or comment on a text or a source.

From the reading: "Annotate in two or three sentences: what it is and how you used it."

Synonyms:

gloss, comment on, footnote

Antonyms:

(none exact) leave unexplained

Root:Latin annotare, "to note down," from ad- (to) + nota (a mark).

Definition: of central importance; being the point on which everything else turns.

Context: In the model introduction, the Washington–Baltimore line of 1844 is the pivotal moment when the telegraph became more than an experiment.

Synonyms:

crucial, central, decisive

Antonyms:

minor, peripheral, incidental

Root:French pivot, "hinge pin": the pin on which a door turns.

Definition: a person or thing that comes before another and prepares the way for it.

Context: The towers of the French semaphore of the 1790s, which signaled with moving arms, were a precursor of Morse's electric telegraph.

Synonyms:

forerunner, predecessor, ancestor

Antonyms:

successor, descendant, follower

Root:Latin praecursor, "one who runs ahead," from prae- (before) + currere (to run).

Definition: to reject with contempt; to turn away scornfully.

Context: The King of Portugal's learned advisers spurned Columbus's plan to reach the Indies by sailing west, but he did not give up.

Synonyms:

reject, rebuff, scorn

Antonyms:

accept, welcome, embrace

Root:Old English spurnan, "to kick away," related to spur.

Definition: very large or ambitious in scope, often more than is reasonable or than one can deliver.

Context: Columbus asked to be named Admiral of the Ocean Sea and governor of every land he found, and many at court thought his demands grandiose for a sailor of humble birth.

Synonyms:

pretentious, overambitious, extravagant

Antonyms:

modest, humble, unassuming

Root:Italian grandioso, from grande, "great," from Latin grandis.

Definition: Official permission or approval; a penalty for breaking a rule. Tests like this word because its two meanings are nearly opposite.

Context: Only with the sanction of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492 could Columbus fit out his three ships at Palos.

Synonyms:

(sense 1) approval, authorization, consent; (sense 2) penalty, punishment

Antonyms:

(sense 1) prohibition, ban, veto

Root:Latin sanctio, "a decree that makes something sacred or binding," from sancire, "to make holy."

Definition: to delay or be slow in going; to stay longer than expected.

Context: For years the Spanish court made Columbus tarry while a royal committee weighed his plan, yet he kept waiting and asking.

KJV: "...though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry" (Habakkuk 2:3).

Synonyms:

linger, delay, dawdle

Antonyms:

hasten, hurry, depart

Root:Middle English tarien, "to delay," of uncertain origin.

Definition: to put an end to something, especially a disturbance; to calm or suppress.

Context: When the crews grew frightened after weeks without sight of land, Columbus worked to quell their grumbling before it could turn into open revolt.

KJV link: "He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still" (Psalm 107:29). A captain may quell his crew, but only the Lord commands the sea.

Synonyms:

suppress, subdue, put down

Antonyms:

provoke, incite, stir up

Root:Old English cwellan, "to kill"; the meaning later softened to "to subdue."

Definition: to make someone less angry or upset, often by giving them something or making a concession.

Context: To placate the anxious men of the Santa María, Columbus promised that they would turn back if land did not appear within a few days, and on October 12, 1492, it did.

Synonyms:

pacify, appease, mollify

Antonyms:

provoke, enrage, antagonize

Root:Latin placare, "to calm, soothe," related to placere, "to please."

Definition: easily made angry; quick-tempered.

Context: The admiral who was patient through years of waiting could be irascible when a captain disobeyed him, as Martín Alonso Pinzón did when he sailed off alone in the Pinta.

Synonyms:

hot-tempered, testy, touchy

Antonyms:

easygoing, calm, even-tempered

Root:Latin irascibilis, from irasci, "to grow angry," from ira, "anger" (as in ire).

Definition: The point in the sky directly overhead; the highest point of success or power.

Context: Columbus reached the zenith of his fame in 1493, when the king and queen received him with honor in Barcelona after his return.

KJV link: Sailors in a storm "mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths" (Psalm 107:26). Fortune rises and falls in the same way.

Synonyms:

peak, summit, pinnacle

Antonyms:

nadir, bottom, low point

Root:Arabic samt ar-ras, "the path over the head," which reached English through Old Spanish and medieval Latin. Arab and European sailors both used it in star navigation.

Definition: The point in the sky directly below the observer; the lowest point of a person's fortunes.

Context: The nadir of Columbus's life came in 1500, when a royal officer arrested him on Hispaniola and sent him home to Spain in chains.

Synonyms:

low point, bottom, depths

Antonyms:

zenith, peak, height

Root:Arabic nazir, "opposite," because the nadir is opposite the zenith.

Definition: strong public criticism or abuse; also the disgrace that comes from it.

Context: In his last years Columbus endured the obloquy of rivals who once flattered him, though the sovereigns released him and let him sail again.

KJV link: "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you" (Matthew 5:11). Obloquy is hard to bear, but it is not God's final judgment.

Synonyms:

censure, abuse, disgrace

Antonyms:

praise, acclaim, honor

Root:Late Latin obloquium, "contradiction," from ob- (against) + loqui (to speak).

Definition: to grow gradually smaller, weaker or less important. The word is first used of the moon after it is full.

Context: As other captains followed his route west, Columbus's favor at court waned, and he died at Valladolid in 1506 still asking for the rights he had been promised.

KJV link: Earthly fame wanes, "but the word of our God shall stand for ever" (Isaiah 40:8).

Synonyms:

decline, diminish, fade

Antonyms:

wax, grow, increase

Root:Old English wanian, "to lessen."

Definition: strongly influencing later events or works; containing the seeds of later development.

Context: Morison's book is a seminal study of Columbus as a seaman, because Morison sailed the admiral's routes himself before he wrote about them.

Synonyms:

influential, formative, groundbreaking

Antonyms:

derivative, unoriginal, minor

Root:Latin seminalis, from semen, "seed." It is the same root as disseminate (word 3).