Canterbury tales vocab quiz

Zephyrus

greek god of the west wind and the god of spring, “When Zephyrus eke with his swoote breath”

Sundry

various kinds/several

“To distant shrines well known in sundry lands”

“Of sundry persons who had chanced to fall”

“For news of sundry realms, to learn, by word,”

“For I will preach and beg in sundry lands”

Yeomen

servant, cultivating a small landed estate

“A yeoman had he, nor more servants, no,”

“Yeoman, and peasants with short staves were out,”

“Or yet for any good yeoman to wed.”

Counterfeit

fraudulent copy of something valuable

“I will none of the apostles counterfeit;”

Wanton

deliberate and unprovoked./sexually unrestrained

“He lisped a little, out of wantonness,”

“

cuckold

A man whose wife has committed adultery.

“The man who has no wife is no cuckold.”

“And deemed himself as like to be cuckold.”

“That's made her husband into a cuckold,”

“Then fear you not to be made a cuckold;”

churl

an impolite and mean-spirited person.

“The miller was a stout churl, be it known,”

“But told his churlish tale in his own way:”

“The miller was a churl, you well know this;”

“

codger

an elderly man, especially one who is old-fashioned or eccentric.

""Some time ago there was a rich old codger / Who lived in Oxford and who took a lodger"“

geomancy

the art of placing or arranging buildings or other sites auspiciously

“"A poure scoler, that had lerned art, / But al his fantasye was turned to geomancie"“

gallant

brave; heroic.

bull

“That has, by bull, been granted unto me.'“

“Bow down your heads before this holy bull”

shrive

hear the confession of, assign penance to, and absolve

“Dare not, for shame, of that sin shriven be,”

kirk

“Then fell it thus, that to the parish kirk,”

“I saw, today, the corpse being borne to kirk”

a church or place of worship

avarice 

extreme greed for wealth or material gain, especially the desire to hoard and keep wealth

“Of avarice and of all such wickedness”

“Which I indulge, and that is avarice.”

“From avarice and really to repent.”

absolution

the remission or forgiveness of sins and their associated punishment

“(For curse can kill, as absolution save),”

“You'll get my absolution while you kneel.”

“To give you absolution as you ride,”

vices

immoral or sinful character traits, particularly avarice (greed)

“"'You say that all we wives our vices hide”

“I hate one that my vices tells to me,”

wenching 

associate with lower-class or sexually promiscuous women

“Or such a wench, there's no man can conceive.”

\”And have a pretty wench in every town.”

“"With wenches would I charge him, by this hand,”

“

lecherous

someone with excessive sexual desire

“

gentility

defined not by noble birth or social rank but by moral virtue, grace, and noble deeds

“Of stories touching on gentility”

“"But since you speak of such gentility”

“Christ wills we claim from Him gentility,”

“That made men say they had gentility,”

pestilence

Black Death

“He kept the gold he gained from pestilence.”

“He's slain a thousand with this pestilence;”

“And send them soon a mortal pestilence!”

“