Vocabulary Harvest #1, for Monday, Sept. 15, 2014

accolade(s) – honor, awards, kudos, acclaim.  (often in the plural)

Her performance on the field was so strong that she earned accolades from her opponents and their coaches.

jaundiced – (literally:  yellow)  Most often:  cynical, envying, or hostile.

He had heard his boss contradict herself many times, and as a consequence, he had a jaundiced view about her latest announcement to the staff.

equivocate – to go back and forth; to “flip-flop.”

She tried to pin him down about their relationship, but all he could do was equivocate -- he couldn't commit!

fastidious – according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, there are three “layers” to this definition:

a : having high and often capricious standards : difficult to please.b : showing or demanding excessive delicacy or care.
c : reflecting a meticulous, sensitive, or demanding attitude.

For purposes of Friday's quiz, I suggest that you focus on definition c:  “reflecting a meticulous, sensitive, or demanding attitude.” 

The piano teacher favored students who were fastidious in their rehearsal of scales and arpeggios.

ostracize – to reject; to leave out; to spurn.

Dan, Fred, Ian, and Charlie had been friends throughout eighth grade, but in ninth grade Ian was ostracized by the other three for reasons that never became public.

Spartan – evincing qualities of exceptional self-discipline and courage.

She adopted a Spartan diet after her doctor warned her that she could suffer heart disease as a consequence of being overweight.

vile – abhorrent, obnoxious, distasteful, disgusting,

1.    a vile and cowardly act

2.    What is that vile odor?

3.    His comments were positively vile.

4.    She has a vile temper.         ~  Merriam-Webster Dictionary online.

analogy – a comparison that stresses the similarities of two distinct processes or entities; often, a comparison between two comparisons.

He made an effective analogy when he compared the hard-working men of our church with the fighting American Marines in World War II.  

                3 / 6 ~ = ~ 4 / 8 

Bargain hunters congregate around the main doorway to the mall in much the same way that bees gather at the entrance of a bee-hive.

evince – to reveal; to display; to show outward evidence of.

She evinced a strong interest in piano music at an early age.

The teenager caught shoplifting seemed to evince no remorse.  (Merriam-Webster)

poignant – painfully or powerfully affecting the feelings; touching; moving.

The final movement of the symphony, with its folksongs and dance themes, creates a poignant reminder of the composer’s home in Czechoslovakia.  

(P.S.  Poignant can also mean “pungently pervasive” as in the case of a strong perfume or odor.  ~  Merriam-Webster)

Glossary of Definitions for Vocabulary Harvest #7

hyperbole (n.) – deliberate exaggeration designed to achieve a rhetorical effect

anaphora (n.) – repetition of the same word or words at the beginnings of sentences.  [King makes regular anaphora “In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted on the Negro… In the midst of a mighty struggle…” (p. 271)]  or [“I doubt that you would have so warmly commended the police… I doubt that you would so quickly commend the policemen… (pp. 272-273]   Look for other examples of anaphora in King’s “Letter.”

antimetabole (n.)  -- a “mirror-image” sentence such as JFK's famous “Ask not what your country can do for you; instead ask what you can do for your country.”

pernicious (adj.)  -- harmful or injurious in a way that is not easily noticed;  subtly or secretly harmful

paternalistic (adj.) – from a father’s perspective, often condescendingly

precipitate (v.) – to cause, to incite, to trigger

elegy (n.) – a song or poem expressing sorrow or lamentation when someone has died.  (...not to be confused with 'eulogy', which is a speech delivered when someone dies.)

repudiate (v.) – to reject, to spurn, to refuse to accept.  “Dr. King publicly repudiated the values and principles espoused by city officials of Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963.”

pious (adj.) – devoutly observant of religious principles; sanctimonious

infanticide (n.) – the murder of children

sublime (adj.) – extraordinarily beautiful or profound

scintillating (participial adj.) – fascinating, sparkling, brightly shining.

Glossary for Vocabulary #6: Words pertaining to the law, fairness, argument, and knowledge.

arbiter (n.) – one who is selected to judge in settling a dispute; a referee.  “David’s father was a perfect arbiter for our disagreement, because David himself had not been a party to the dispute in the Scrabble game.”

biased (adj.) – characterized by prejudice, favoritism, or predisposition.  ‘bias’ is often used in connection with the pronouns ‘toward’ or ‘against’, as in “The coach showed his bias against female referees by refusing to hire any for the coming season.”

exculpate (v.), and exculpatory (adj.)  -- to exculpate means to clear someone, making him free of a charge of guilt or shame.  “By establishing that Tom Robinson’s right arm was lame, Atticus brought exculpatory evidence:  clear proof that Tom was innocent of wrongdoing.”  “Video cameras can sometimes exculpate people, but they can also incriminate people.”

impartial (adj.) – unbiased, neutral, objective, fair.  “It’s very important that the moderator at the speech contest remain impartial, allowing the judges to come to their own conclusions.”

incontrovertible (adj.) – absolute, final, unable to be changed.  (Often used with the words ‘evidence’ or ‘knowledge’.)  “Despite the incontrovertible facts that Atticus had raised throughout the case, the jury declared Tom guilty.”

integrity (n.) –  adherence to ethical values; honesty; soundness of moral character.  “The young man’s well-documented personal integrity made him seem like a good candidate to train for the ministry.”   

(The word ‘integrity’ can also refer to the wholeness or soundness of a structure – e.g., “the integrity of the ship’s hull.” or "the integrity of the space capsule's infrastructure.")

objectivity (n.) – fairness; impartiality; the condition of being unbiased.

plausible (adj.) – believable, credible, especially in connection with hypothetical or unconfirmed circumstances.  “His alibi seemed plausible, especially because eye-witnesses could confirm that he was miles away when the crime was committed.”  “The fact that weather professionals had predicted twenty-two-degree-below-zero temperatures was a plausible reason for district officials to cancel school.”

substantiate (v.) – to prove a claim using facts and evidence.  (An unsubstantiated claim is a claim that has yet to be proved true using facts and evidence.)

vindicate(-d) – to establish, against opposition, that a claim or a cause is correct and justifiable.  “The outcome of the American Revolution vindicated the rights set forth in the Declaration of Independence.”

acquired (participial adj., as in ‘an acquired tasted’) – ‘acquired’, in this sense, means learned deliberately (as opposed to learned automatically, by nature or intuition).  “His taste for cigars was an acquired taste – as a child he had hated the smell.”  “His understanding of chess openings wasn’t intuitive, it was an acquired skill:  he had studied the moves for years.”

conviction (n.) -- in this context:  heartfelt belief; certainty.  "Mormon evangelists are well known for their friendly and unshakable conviction regarding Mormon history and values."

dogmatic (adj.) -- adhering to strict principle or dogma; "by the books."  "I wish you wouldn't be so dogmatic about the rules & procedures when we play tennis -- it's just a friendly game!"

enlightening (participial adj.) -- educational, inspiring, enlivening.  "The jury found the expert witness's testimony to be enlightening."  "My philosophy professor gave an enlightening lecture on Neitsche last week."

impression (n.) -- an intuitive or incomplete sense about a concrete experience.  "I had the impression that it was you behind the wheel, but I couldn't tell for sure." (impression can also mean a memorable example, as in "You made a good impression on my mother."  In show business, an 'impression' is an impersonation, as in "Tina Fey does a funny impression of Sarah Palin.")

misconception (n.) -- the wrong idea; a view that is incorrect based on faulty reasoning.  "Leonid Fridman flaunts the misconception that young American intellectuals are nerds and geeks, rising above anti-intellectual prejudice in 1990, bravely reminding New York Times readers that in our brightest students reside the highest hopes of our nation to compete and thrive in the international marketplace."

On Monday, Dec. 16 -- Beethoven's Birthday and Noel Coward's Birthday

I will lead off with magic.  You can hold me to this.  It's on the Class Blog - a promise of record; an international IOU on the Internet.

We will score today’s essay, so please show up INFORMED FOR SCORING because you have read (1) the AP scoring guidelines for 2006 (FRQ #3), (2) the three student essays on public expression, and (3) the AP Scoring Commentary on those three essays.

Please bring both your two poems for Poetry Out Loud.  We’ll rehearse.

Also, we’ll rehearse our AP English Holiday Choir Repertoire for Dec. 19 & 20.

Vocabulary Group #5 -- words to support argumentative writing and logic -- QUIZ on Tuesday, December 17

syllogism (n.)

A syllogism is a logical model or formula designed to express the relationships between interrelated values or ideas.  (See the example, under ‘premise’, below.)

premise (n.)

In logic,one of two conditions -- major or minor premises -- that lead to the conclusion of a syllogism. 

     If a deciduous tree loses its leaves every year (major premise),

     And if the oak tree outside my house is deciduous,  (minor premise)

     Then our oak tree is likely to lose its leaves this year.  (conclusion)

In general usage, premise means a precondition for an argument or an opinion to be true.

The premise for your opinion about JFK’s foreign policy is that he hated all Russians.  But he didn’t!

presume (v.)  presumption,(n.)

“: to think that something is true without knowing that it is true”  (Merriam-Webster online)

We presumed it would be OK to pick apples from the tree in her yard.  (It wasn’t.)

“: to accept legally or officially that something is true until it is proved not true” 

The law presumes an accused person to be innocent until or unless he is proved guilty.

implicit (adj.)

Understood, even though not fully revealed or expressed. 

The implicit basis for his opposition to abortion was political conservatism. 

There is an implicit sense of moral duty in Eleanor Roosevelt’s letters and essays.

proposition (n.)

Similar to an argumentative claim or thesis statement, a proposition is an offer or proposal that something is true.  The formation of American democracy hinged on the proposition that “all men were created equal.”

axiom (n.),

A widely accepted rule or principle -- a fundamental law.

In mathematics or logic, an unprovable rule or first principle accepted as true because it is self-evident or particularly useful (e.g., “Nothing can both be and not be at the same time and in the same respect”).  ~ Merriam-Webster

axiomatic (adj.) means taken for granted or self-evident. 

As a rebel, you might try to bend certain rules that others take to be axiomatic.

exclude (v.)  to leave out, or, in social situations, to force out.  In set theory – in mathematics and logic – to exclude is to leave something out of a class or set.

inductive (adj.)  reasoning that leads from examples or details to a principle or a conclusion.

Sherlock Holmes’s inductive brilliance allowed him to look at everything in a room and reconstruct the crime.

deductive (adj.)  reasoning that uses a principle in order to validate one or more examples or details.

disprove (v.) (antonym: prove!)

To show that something previously taken to be true is actually false or wrong.

Angus entertained fellow physicists by trying to disprove Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.

Vocabulary Harvest #4 -- and please remember that Friday's Quiz will cover ALL FOUR Groups of Words

magnanimity (n.)  [adjectival form:  magnanimous]

greatness; largesse; willingness to be generous and kind.
The magnanimity of Bill and Melinda Gates has resulted in a valiant struggle against infectious disease, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

analogy (n.)  [adjectival form:  analogous]
A comparison more layered than a metaphor or simile, analogy usually involves a comparison of two relationships or processes.

• Life is like a race. The one who keeps running wins the race, and the one who stops to catch a breath loses.
• Just as a sword is the weapon of a warrior, so the pen is the weapon of a writer.
• The way a doctor investigates disease is closely akin to the way a detective investigates crime.
• Just as a caterpillar comes out of its cocoon, so we must come out of our comfort zone.
• Your cloying squeals are almost as annoying as nails on a chalkboard.

unrequited (participial adj.)
unreturned; unrewarded
Shakespeare's unrequited love for two contemporaries -- an anonymous young man and a dark-haired woman -- inspired him to compose several of the greatest sonnets in the English language.

reiterate (v.)
restate; review; revisit
I hasten to reiterate my friendly warning about Friday's vocabulary quiz on the words in All Four Lists.

dyspeptic (adj.)
grouchy, sour, or unpleasant in a person's attitude or disposition.
Among politicians John Quincy Adams was notorious for his displays of dyspeptic irritation.  Yet among literary scholars, he was appreciated for his shrewd insight, and among civil rights workers he was praised for his Abolitionist stance against slavery.

insulate (v.)
protect, shield, cover up, isolate.
Home schooling had insulated James -- not only from certain questionable aspects of public education but also from the inherent challenges of socialization.

tautology (n.)
A tautology is a self-fulfilling proposition -- usually an eliptical or unintended redundancy.  "All men are males who belong to the human race" is a tautology.  "My dog consistently shows all the signs of membership in the canine species" is a tautology.  A tautology needlessly restates the obvious.

vernacular (n. // adj.)
As a noun:  vernacular is terminology used by people who belong to a specified group or who engage in a specialized activity.  (Oxford Dictionaries)

Expressions like 'icing' and 'the blue line' were part of the hockey vernacular my friends used and understood, but that I had no clue about!

As an adjective:  to describe words spoken or written in one's mother tongue (Oxford dictionaries).

For many years, the Catholic Church forbid vernacular translations of the Bible:  to satisfy the Vatican it had to be printed in Latin.

tumult (n.)
chaos, uproar
When the Minnesota Twins won the World Series in 1991, the tumult could be heard on both sides of the Mississippi.

patronize (v.)
To be a loyal customer of an establishment or an individual -- often with a connotation of garnering favors.
"I think you  patronize your boss, secretly hoping that she'll give you a higher salary."

Words for Friday, Oct. 11

Eminent is an adjective that nearly always goes ahead of its noun – “an eminent statesman” is a prominent statesman. Eminent is nearly always used to convey something positive or valued, often with a connotation of fame or high regard.

If I had known that my science professor was an eminent biologist, soon to be nominated for a Nobel Prize, I would have asked for his autograph before the course ended.

“Her eminent good sense made her a godsend to our project.” (adapted from Wiktionary)

Imminent is an adjective used for describing a moment when something is about to happen.  (If you can use the word 'impending', then you already know how to use 'imminent'.)

The greedy heirs awaited the imminent death of their wealthy old uncle.

An imminent fire drill kept the teacher from giving a vocabulary quiz that day.

To assuage is to soothe, to comfort, to lessen the pain. Writers often use ‘assuage’ in the emotional sense.  (Pronounced:  'us-WAGE'.)

Kennedy sensed that there would be a diplomatic way to assuage Russia’s concerns.

Tom had been dumped by his girlfriend; it was impossible to assuage his feelings of grief and loss.

Apostrophe is a literary device that pertains to addressing someone or something that is absent, usually in the sense of something above and beyond the realm of human beings.

“Judge, oh you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him” is a good example of apostrophe in Shakespeare’s plays.  (Caesar addresses the gods.)

John Donne invokes death in the apostrophe “Oh, Death, be not proud,” almost as if Death were a character in a play -- one who could hear Donne's plea.

In the following apostrophe, Hamlet bitterly complains about the women in his life: “Frailty, thy name is woman!”  (Here Hamlet addresses Frailty as if it were a person who could hear, speak, respond, etc.)

Allusion – an indirect reference to something that many readers or listeners are likely to know.  Verb form:  to allude.

With his line about storming the beach-heads and pushing back the jungle, Kennedy alludes to Pacific-island warfare during World War II .

The girl's allusions to hip-hop lyrics went straight over her teacher’s head.

Credulity is a near-perfect synonym for ‘gullibility’. It refers to people’s willingness to believe things, often naively.  (adjectival form:  credulous.)

Her credulity made her a good candidate for the stage performer who claimed that he could hypnotize people.

The credulous farmers bought phony medicine from the shady traveling salesman.

The greedy real estate agent played on the credulity of prospective buyers, showing them pictures of a lavish mansion when all he really had to sell was a cheap trailer-home.

Invective is a formal reference to cursing or foul language. In this sense, ‘invective’ is a collective adjective – it doesn’t really have a plural form (i.e., don’t say ‘invectives’). Also, in this sense, it is not used with an article (don’t use ‘the’ or ‘an’ with 'invective').

The coach’s foul invective along the sidelines got him kicked out of the game.

The jury interpreted the woman's cruel invective on the witness not only as hostility but also as failed objectivity about the facts of the case.

Invective can also mean a rant. In this case, it’s OK to use ‘the’ or ‘an’.

A fine string of invective in Shakespeare occurs in King Lear, when Kent calls Oswald “A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, super-serviceable, finical rogue; (etc.)" (King Lear, Act II, sc. 2)

A cistern is a large barrel or metal tank of liquid – most often, water. The word is nearly always used in connection with water supply, irrigation, drainage, or the engineering of water.

“The city water line feeds into a rain-water cistern.” (rainwater.sustainablesources.com)

“Some people use rain-water collected in cisterns to water their gardens.” (earthsystemsnw.com)

Cistern could also be used metaphorically, to denote a supply or a repository of something.

"He postponed acting on the plan, patiently siphoning it into a cistern of ideas to be used another time."

 Nostalgia is a yearning for the past.

The Park H.S. coach expressed his nostalgia for the days when he had a winning team.

reverie is a good synonym for day-dreaming.

The teacher interrupted Danielle's reverie with a question about the algebra problem.

I sometimes get lost in reverie about my days as a wilderness canoe guide.