Grade 8 College Vocabulary, Week 26

Definition: done by one's own free choice, not by force or duty.

From the reading: "I voluntarily offered and gave all my money for one." (Franklin). Bacon uses the word too: "for voluntary undoing, may be as well for a man's country, as for the kingdom of heaven."

Synonyms:

willing, deliberate, unforced

Antonyms:

compulsory, forced, involuntary

Root:Latin voluntarius, from voluntas, "will," from velle, "to wish."

Definition: far beyond what is fair or reasonable, especially in price.

Context: Franklin's family told him he had paid four times what the whistle was worth. That was an exorbitant price for a toy.

KJV link: The buyer always haggles so he will not pay too much: "It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth" (Proverbs 20:14).

Synonyms:

excessive, extortionate, inflated

Antonyms:

reasonable, modest, fair

Root:Latin exorbitare, "to go out of the track," from ex- (out of) + orbita (wheel track). An exorbitant price has left the road.

Definition: a sudden wish or change of mind, without much reason behind it.

Context: Charmed by the sound of another boy's whistle, seven-year-old Franklin spent all his coppers on a whim.

Synonyms:

impulse, fancy, notion

Antonyms:

plan, purpose, resolve

Root:short for whim-wham, an old English word for a trifle or a fanciful toy.

Definition: to waste money, time or opportunities carelessly.

Context: Franklin's brothers and sisters reminded him of the good things he might have bought if he had not squandered his holiday money on one whistle.

Synonyms:

waste, fritter away, dissipate

Antonyms:

save, conserve, hoard

Root:origin uncertain. It first appears in English in the 1590s, in Shakespeare's day, meaning "to scatter."

Definition: understanding of an event that comes only after it has happened.

Context: In hindsight, the older Franklin saw that the foolish bargain had taught him a rule for life.

KJV link: In hindsight, Joseph saw God's hand in his brothers' wickedness: "ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good" (Genesis 50:20).

Synonyms:

retrospect, afterthought, reflection

Antonyms:

foresight, forethought

Root:English hind (behind) + sight: seeing what lies behind you.

Definition: looking back on or dealing with past events.

Context: A reflective essay is retrospective: the older self looks back on what the younger self lived through.

KJV link: "I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old" (Psalm 77:11).

Synonyms:

backward-looking, reflective, reminiscent

Antonyms:

prospective, forward-looking

Root:Latin retro (backward) + specere (to look).

Definition: a short, well-known saying that expresses a general truth.

From the reading: "The Latin adage meeteth with it a little: Magna civitas, magna solitudo" (Bacon, Of Friendship; the Latin means a great city, a great loneliness).

Context: Franklin turned his childhood mistake into an adage of his own: Don't give too much for the whistle.

Synonyms:

proverb, maxim, saying

Antonyms:

(none exact) ramble, digression

Root:Latin adagium, "a saying," from ad- (to) + aio (I say).

Definition: a remark that is true but so stale and obvious that it says nothing fresh; a dull moral.

Context: The lesson warns against the tacked-on moral, such as "And that is how I learned that honesty is the best policy." When a true saying is stuck onto a story that did not earn it, it sounds like a platitude.

Synonyms:

cliché, commonplace, truism

Antonyms:

insight, original remark, epigram

Root:French platitude, "flatness," from plat, "flat": a remark with no life in it.

Definition: the state of thriving and doing well, especially in wealth and comfort.

From the reading: "Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes."

KJV: "And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved" (Psalm 30:6). David learned that prosperity tempts a man to forget God.

Synonyms:

wealth, success, affluence

Antonyms:

adversity, poverty, hardship

Root:Latin prosperitas, from prosperus, "favorable, going according to hope."

Definition: extreme carefulness with money; stinginess.

From the reading: "Parsimony is one of the best, and yet is not innocent; for it withholdeth men from works of liberality and charity."

Synonyms:

stinginess, miserliness, tightfistedness

Antonyms:

generosity, liberality, extravagance

Root:Latin parsimonia, from parcere, "to spare."

Definition: to go back to a former state, habit or belief.

From the reading: "...for finding himself out of straits, he will revert to his custom: but he that cleareth by degrees, induceth a habit of frugality..." (Bacon, Of Expense, on paying off debts).

Synonyms:

return, regress, lapse

Antonyms:

advance, progress, reform

Root:Latin revertere, from re- (back) + vertere (to turn).

Definition: to fall back into an old sin, bad habit or illness after seeming to get better.

From the reading: "Besides, he that clears at once will relapse..."

KJV link: "As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly" (Proverbs 26:11).

Synonyms:

backslide, regress, lapse

Antonyms:

recover, improve, persevere

Root:Latin relabi, "to slip back," from re- (back) + labi (to slip).

Definition: Having to do with a servant's labor; too eager to please or obey; fawning (the usual test sense).

From the reading: "...when they are gotten by flattery, feeding humors, and other servile conditions, they may be placed amongst the worst."

KJV: "In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein" (Leviticus 23:7). Here the word has its first sense, ordinary labor.

Synonyms:

fawning, obsequious, slavish

Antonyms:

independent, dignified, self-respecting

Root:Latin servilis, from servus, "slave, servant."

Definition: Not relevant to the matter at hand (Bacon's sense, and one tests check); rude and lacking proper respect.

From the reading: "Some, whatsoever is beyond their reach, will seem to despise, or make light of it, as impertinent or curious; and so would have their ignorance seem judgment." (Bacon, Of Seeming Wise)

Synonyms:

irrelevant, beside the point; (second sense) insolent, cheeky

Antonyms:

relevant, pertinent; (second sense) respectful, courteous

Root:Latin in- (not) + pertinere (to belong to, concern).

Definition: the state of having had as much as one wants, or more; fullness that turns into weariness.

From the reading: "He that is too much in anything, so that he giveth another occasion of satiety, maketh himself cheap."

KJV link: "Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it" (Proverbs 25:16).

Synonyms:

fullness, surfeit, glut

Antonyms:

hunger, want, appetite

Root:Latin satietas, from satis, "enough."

Definition: The state of being only ordinary or second-rate (the modern sense); in older English, a middle state between too much and too little.

From the reading: "Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success."

KJV link: Agur prays for a happy middle estate: "give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me" (Proverbs 30:8).

Synonyms:

ordinariness, averageness, inferiority

Antonyms:

excellence, distinction, superiority

Root:Latin mediocritas, from mediocris, "middling," from medius, "middle."

Definition: weakness of body or of moral character.

From the reading: "It is true greatness, to have in one the frailty of a man, and the security of a God." (Bacon is quoting the Stoic Seneca, and he adds that the saying is "much too high for a heathen.")

KJV link: "LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am" (Psalm 39:4).

Synonyms:

weakness, feebleness, fallibility

Antonyms:

strength, robustness, vigor

Root:Latin fragilitas, from frangere, "to break." Frail and fragile are twins.

Definition: a blessing, especially one spoken at the close of a worship service.

From the reading: "Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New; which carrieth the greater benediction, and the clearer revelation of God's favor."

KJV link: The priestly benediction: "The LORD bless thee, and keep thee" (Numbers 6:24).

Synonyms:

blessing, invocation, grace

Antonyms:

curse, malediction, condemnation

Root:Latin benedictio, from bene (well) + dicere (to speak): to speak well of.

Definition: to take back a statement, promise or accusation; (also) to draw something back in.

From the reading: "...that which doubleth all errors, will not acknowledge or retract them; like an unready horse, that will neither stop nor turn." (Bacon on young men, Of Youth and Age)

Synonyms:

withdraw, recant, take back

Antonyms:

affirm, maintain, reassert

Root:Latin retractare, "to draw back," from re- (back) + trahere (to draw).

Definition: ordinary and everyday; dull; (also, older) of this world rather than heavenly.

Context: Franklin's whole essay rests on a mundane purchase, a penny whistle, and yet he draws from it a rule for a lifetime.

KJV link: "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much" (Luke 16:10). Character is formed in small, mundane things.

Synonyms:

ordinary, commonplace, routine

Antonyms:

extraordinary, remarkable, heavenly

Root:Latin mundanus, from mundus, "the world."