AP Lang Vocab

truculent

adj: aggressively hostile

n: truculence

adv: truculently

impertinent

adj: rude

n: impertinence

adv: impertinently

unassailable

adj: not open to denial or attack

allusion

n: a brief reference to a person, event, place, or work of art

exigence

n: the urgency, importance, and timeliness of the subject

extrinsic: when the exigence is obvious and doesn’t need to be explained

intrinsic: when the exigence is established in the text by the speaker

conceit

n: an extended metaphor in which a speaker compares two unlike things and elaborates on this comparison over multiple sentences or paragraphs

antecedent

n: the noun or noun phrase to which a pronoun refers

parallelism

n: similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses

menace

v: to threaten to cause harm

matron

(n) a married woman who is dignified

manifest

v: to take form

implacable

(adj)not capable of being pleased, quieted, or comforted “It is hard to say exactly how this was conveyed: something implacable in the set of the lips, something farseeing (seeing what?) in the eyes, some and crushing determination in the walk, something peremptory in the voice” (Baldwin 17-18). n: implacability

peremptory

(adj) dictatorial in speech or manner

gratuitous

(adj): without reason, cause, or justification; unnecessary; groundless



“. . . one did not have to be abnormally sensitive to be worn down to a cutting edge by the incessant and gratuitous humiliation and danger one encountered every working day, all day long” (Baldwin 19)



n: gratuitousness adv: gratuitously

assuage

(v): to make milder or less severe; to soothe or calm

“Negro servants have been smuggling odds and ends out of white homes for generations, and white people have been delighted to let them do it, because it has assuaged a dim guilt and testified to the intrinsic superiority of white people” (Baldwin 22).

n: assuagement

tenuous

adj: lacking sound basis

pagan

(n): a nonreligious person

visceral

(adj): characterized by or proceeding from instinct rather than intellect; instinctive

“It took a long time for me to disengage myself from this excitement, and on the blindest, most visceral level, I never really have, and never will” (Baldwin 33).

adv: viscerally

tangible

(adj): capable of being touched

pulverize

(v): (1) to reduce to dust or powder, as by pounding or grinding

(2) to demolish or crush completely

“I date it–the slow crumbling of my faith, the pulverization of my fortress . . .” (Baldwin 34)

n: pulverizat

benighted

(adj): unenlightened

fatuous

(adj): foolish

 

elucidate

(v): to clarify

conundrum

 (n): an intricate and difficult problem; a riddle

 

“. . . this inability to renew themselves at the fountain of their own lives, that makes the discussion, let alone elucidation, of any conundrum–that is, any reality–so supremely difficult” (Baldwin 43)

 

interpose

 (v): to come between two people or things; to place between; to intervene

 

“Such a person interposes between himself and reality nothing less than a labyrinth of attitudes” (Baldwin 43)

 

         n: interposition        adj: interposable

 

inexorable

 (adj): (1) unyielding; unalterable

                            (2) not to be persuaded, moved, or stopped

 

“Therefore, whatever white people do not know about Negroes reveals, precisely and inexorably, what they do not know about themselves” (Baldwin 44).

adv: inexorably

 

dormant

(adj): inactive; asleep

 

“But in order to deal with the untapped and dormant force of the previously subjugated, in order to survive as a human, moving, moral weight in the world . . .” (Baldwin 44)

 

         n: dormancy

 

unmitigated

(adj): (1) not softened or lessened; (2) unqualified or absolute

 

“In the realm of power, Christianity has operated with an unmitigated arrogance and cruelty . . .” (Baldwin 45)

 

         adv: unmitigatedly

virulent

 (adj): (1) actively poisonous

demagogue

 (n): a person who gains power and popularity by arousing the emotions, passions, and prejudices of people

 

“. . . so it may not mean anything to say that this sense of integrity, after what Harlem, especially, has been through in the way of demagogues, was a very startling change” (Baldwin 49)

 

         n: demagoguery      adj: demagogic

serenity

(n): the state or quality of being calm and peaceful; calmness; peacefulness

 

“. . . and to invest both the male and the female with a pride and a serenity that hang about them like an unfailing light” (Baldwin 51)

 

rend

 (v): to split or tear apart with force

 

“Time catches up with kingdoms and crushes them, gets its teeth into doctrines and rends them . . .” (Baldwin 51)

 

         adj: rendible

 

obsolete

 (adj): no longer in use or no longer useful; out of date

 

“From my own point of view, the fact of the Third Reich alone makes obsolete forever any question of Christian superiority, except in technological terms” (Baldwin 52).

 

         n: obsoleteness        adv: obsoletely

diabolical

l (adj): characteristic of or having the qualities of a devil; devilish; wicked

 

“The very word begins to have a despairing and diabolical ring” (Baldwin 54)

 

         adv: diabolically

 

abysmal

(adj): (1) immeasurably deep, like an abyss; (2) extremely or hopelessly bad

 

“In a way, I owe the invitation to the incredible, abysmal, and really cowardly obtuseness of white liberals” (Baldwin 58).

 

         adv: abysmally

obtuse

 (adj): (1) not quick or alert in perception, feeling, or intellect

         (2) not sharp, acute, or pointed; blunt in form

 

“In a way, I owe the invitation to the incredible, abysmal, and really cowardly obtuseness of white liberals” (Baldwin 58).

 

n: obtuseness           adv: obtusely

 

unctuous

(adj): (1) marked by a false and pretentious religious devotion or moralism

                            (2) having an oily or soapy feel; oily; greasy

 

“He teased the women, like a father, with no hint of that ugly and unctuous flirtatiousness I knew so well from other churches . . .” (Baldwin 63)

 

         n: unctuousness       adv: unctuously

infernal

(adj): of or relating to hell; hellish

 

“Allah allowed the Devil, though his scientists, to carry on infernal experiments . . .” (Baldwin 67)

irreducible

 (adj): incapable of being simplified, diminished, or otherwise made smaller

 

“No doubt I am guilty of some injustice here, but it is irreducible since I cannot risk assuming that the humanity of these people is more real to them than their uniforms” (Baldwin 68).

 

         n: irreducibility       adv: irreducibly

 

stifling

(adj): (1) suffocating

galling

 (adj): extremely annoying or irritating

 

“It is galling indeed to have stood so long, hat in hand, waiting for Americans to grow up enough to realize that you do not threaten them” (Baldwin 73-4).

 

         v: gall          adv: gallingly

 

imminent

 (adj): likely to occur at any moment; impending

 

“All this is not, to my mind, the most imminent of possibilities . . .” (Baldwin 75)

 

         adv: imminently

inculcate

(v): to fix or implant beliefs or ideas in someone’s mind by repeating them often

 

“Yet I could have hoped that the Muslim movement had been able to inculcate in the demoralized Negro population a truer and more individual sense of its own worth . . .” (Baldwin 81)

 

         n: inculcation; inculcator

sepulchre

(n): a small room or monument, cut in rock or built of stone, in which a dead person is buried

“Our age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchres of the fathers” (2)

inexplicable

(adj): unable to be explained or accounted for

“Now many are thought not only unexplained but inexplicable . . .” (2)

adj: explicable adv: inexplicably

enumerate

(v): to list or mention one by one

“In enumerating the values of nature and casting up their sum . . .” (2)

n: enumeration

sublime

 (adj): of such beauty, excellence, or grandeur as to inspire great admiration, awe, and/or fear

“One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime” (3)

adv: sublimely

envoy

(n): someone who is sent as a representative from one government to another

“But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile” (3)

admonish

 (v): to tell someone that they have done something wrong

“But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile” (3)

n: admonishment adj: admonishing

manifold

(adj): many and of several different types

“We mean the integrity of impression made by manifold natural objects” (3)

indubitable

(adj): without doubt or question

“The charming landscape which I saw this morning, is indubitably made up of some twenty or thirty farms” (3)

n: indubitability adv: indubitably

occult

 (adj): relating to magical powers and activities, such as witchcraft and astrology

“The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister, is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable” (4).

n: occult

anomaly

 (n): a person or thing that is different from what is usual; someone or something that is unusual enough to be noticeable or seem strange

“. . . it goes on tying things together, diminishing anomalies . . .” (2)

adj: anomalous

inscribe

(v): to write words in a book or carve them into an object

“The next great influence into the spirit of the scholar, is, the mind of the Past, –in whatever form, whether of literature, of art, of institutions, that mind is inscribed” (3)

n: inscription

noxious

 (adj): harmful, poisonous, toxic

“Instantly, the book becomes noxious. The guide is a tyrant” (4)

n: noxiousness adv: noxiously

prudence

 (n): behavior that is careful and avoids risks

“Authors we have, in numbers, who have written out their vein, and who, moved by a commendable prudence, sail for Greece or Palestine . . .” (7)

adj: prudent adv: prudently

satiety

(n): the feeling or state of being sated, of reaching complete satisfaction

“That great principle of Undulation in nature, that shows itself in the inspiring and expiring of the breath; in desire and satiety . . .” (8)

seemly

 (adj): conforming to accepted standards of decorum and taste

“What is lost in seemliness is gained in strength” (8)

n: seemliness antonym: unseemly

Lethe

(plural proper noun): Greek for “oblivion” or “forgetfulness; the name of the Greek spirit of oblivion and forgetfulness; Lethe, one of the five rivers of the underworld of Hades, brought complete forgetfulness to those who drank from it

“There is no Lethe for this” (3)

adj: Lethean

importune

 (v): to harass someone persistently for or to do something

“I remember an answer which when quite young I was prompted to make to a valued adviser who was wont to importune me with the dear old doctrines of the church” (4)

n: importuner adj: importunate

ephemeral

 (adj): lasting for a very short time

“A man is to carry himself in the presence of all opposition as if every thing were titular and ephemeral but he” (4)

adv: ephemerally

expiate

 (v): to atone for guilt or sin

“I do not wish to expiate but to live. My life is not an apology, but a life” (5)

n: expiation; expiator adj: expiable

mendicant

(adj): given to begging; engaged in begging

“Our reading is mendicant and sycophantic” (9)

n: mendicant

sycophant

 (n): a person who flatters someone important in order to gain advantage

“Our reading is mendicant and sycophantic” (9)

adj: sychophantic adv: sychophantically

proto-

 (combining form): first in time; giving rise to

“. . . to choose from among the many possible Thoreaus, the proto-environmentalist or the antislavery activist or the philosopher . . .” (viii)

dejection

 (n): a sad and depressed state; low spirits

“I do not propose to write an ode to dejection, but to brag as lustily as chanticleer in the morning, standing on his roost, if only to wake my neighbors up” - Thoreau (viii)

adj: dejected v: deject

chanticleer

 (n): a name given to a rooster, especially in fairy tales

“I do not propose to write an ode to dejection, but to brag as lustily as chanticleer in the morning, standing on his roost, if only to wake my neighbors up” - Thoreau (viii)

invoke

 (v):to call forth

stark

(adj): (1) rigid as if in death; (2) rigidly conforming (as to a doctrine); absolute; (3) taken to the highest degree; utter; sheer; (4) sharply delineated or outlined

“This protest is answered by the stark picture Thoreau presents in the following sentences . . .” (xii)

comportment

(n): personal bearing and conduct 

“Read this way, the ‘civil’ of the title reflects less on the comportment of resistor than on the resistor’s status as citizen” (xiii)

v: comport

dexterity

 (n): skill in performing tasks, especially with the hands

“ . . . the dexterity with which Thoreau contrasts the rhetorical promise of America with its contemporary political reality is perhaps an equally important part of the essay’s legacy” (xiii)

adj: dexterous

pastoral

(adj): of or relating to the countryside; not urban

“. . . a pastoral escape, a retreat from thinking about slavery and war” (xiv)

n: pasture

inextricably

(adv): in a way that is impossible to disentangle or separate

“Those who deny that nature and culture, landscape and politics, the city and the country are inextricably interfused have undermined the connections for all of us” (xiv)

adj: inextricable

sojourner

 (n): someone who travels to and stays somewhere temporarily; a temporary resident

“At present I am a sojourner in civilized life again” (3)

v: sojourn n: sojourn

obtrude

 (v): (1) to impose or force something on someone in an intrusive way; (2) to thrust out

“I should not obtrude my affairs so much on the notice of my readers if very particular inquiries had not been made by my townsmen concerning my mode of life . . .” (3)

n: obtrusion

fain

(adv): with pleasure; gladly

      (adj): (1) willing; (2) happy; pleased

“I would fain say something . . .” (4)

trifling

 (adj): insignificant

tillage

 (n): the cultivation and preparation of land for growing crops

“. . . and one hundred acres of land, tillage, mowing, pasture, and wood-lot!” (5)

v: till

encumbrance

 (n): a burden or impediment 

“The portionless, who struggle with no such unnecessary inherited encumbrances, find it labor enough to subdue and cultivate a few cubic feet of flesh” (5)

v: encumber

sonorous

(adj): (1) producing sound; (2) full or loud in sound

“Or, as Raleigh rhymes it in his sonorous way . . .” (5)

adv: sonorously

factitious

(adj): artificial

superflous

 (adj): unnecessary; extra 

whet

(v):to sharpen

slough

(n): (1) a place of deep mud; (2) a state of moral degradation or spiritual dejection

“. . . always on the limits, trying to get into business and trying to get out of debt, a very ancient slough . . .” (6)

curry

(v): to seek or gain by flattery or attention

“. . . always promising to pay, promising to pay, to-morrow, and dying to-day, insolvent; seeking to curry favor, to get custom . . .” (6)

vaporous

(adj): lacking in substance or clarity; insubstantial

“. . . or dilating into an atmosphere of thin and vaporous generosity, that you may persuade your neighbor to let you make his shoes . . .” (6)

belie

 (v): to disguise

ennui

 (n): a feeling of tiredness and dissatisfaction

“Undoubtedly the very tedium and ennui which presume to have exhausted the variety and the joys of life are as old as Adam” (8)

impunity

(n): exemption or freedom from punishment, harm, or loss

“So, we are told, the New Hollander goes naked with impunity, while the European shivers in his clothes” (11)

v: impune

confound

 (v): (1) to baffle or frustrate; to throw into confusion; (2) to refute

“Of course the vital heat is not to be confounded with fire . . .” (11)

wont

(adj): inclined; apt; having a tendency toward

“The poor man is wont to complain that this is a cold world . . .” (11)

v: wont

progenitor

 (n): a person or thing from which a person, plant, or animal is descended; an ancestor or parent

“They make shift to live merely by conformity, practically as their fathers did, and are in no sense the progenitors of a nobler race of men” (12)

n: progeny

enervate

 (v): to reduce the physical, mental, or moral strength or vigor of someone or something

“What is the nature of the luxury which enervates and destroys nations?” (12)

n: enervation

improvident

 (adj): not foreseeing and providing for the future

“But even if the rent is not mended, perhaps the worst vice betrayed is improvidence” (18)

n: providence adj: improvidence adj: providential adj: provident

equipage

(n): (1) a horse-drawn carriage with its servants; retinue; (2) material or articles used in equipment

“Even in our democratic New England towns the accidental possession of wealth, and its manifestation in dress and equipage alone, obtain for the possessor almost universal respect” (18-9)

consanguineous

 (adj): of the same blood or origin

“. . . that I may find out by what degree of consanguinity They are related to me . . .” (20)

adj: consanguinity n: sanguinity

grotesque

 (adj): bizarre

consecrate

 (v): (1) to make or declare someone or something sacred

whimsical

(adj): subject to erratic behavior or unpredictable change

“The manufacturers have learned that this taste is merely whimsical” (21)

n: whim n: whimsy 

vex

 (v): to irritate or annoy