AP Lit--vocab lesson 6

aegis backstory

zeus, the most powerful of the Greek gods, was nursed as an infant by a goat. since the adult Zeus covered his shield with this goat’s skin (aigis), which made the shield invulnerable, zeus’s shield was known as aegis. Zeus entrusted this shield to his favorite daughter, Athena. when either of the mshook the aegis, panic would overcome their enemies. whereas the aegis protected Zeus and Athena, nowadays “aegis” refers to protection in general

aegis—pt of speech/meaning

noun/protection, sponsorship, guardianship, support

auspicious backstory

the word derives from the Latin avis (bird) and specio (see). ancient Romans believed that the flight, feeding habits, and songs of the birds foretold the future. the Romans even dissected birds because they thought their organs predicted events. the priests who observed the birds were called auspices.

auspicious—pt of speech/meaning

adjective/favorable, promising a good outcome, promising

jaded backstory

a line from an old song goes, “the old gray mare, she ain’t what she used to be", the old female horse must have looked jaded. in fact, the word jaded derives from tired, worn out horses. Norse jalda means mare. English sailors visiting Iceland (where old Norse was spoken) were dismayed by the sight of overworked, underfed horses. jalda entered English as jade and the adjective jaded was extended to have the general meaning of overused and exhausted.

jaded—pt of speech/meaning

adjective/wearied, dulled, worn-out

atone backstory

originally, atonement meant at-one-ment with god, in other words to be in peaceful harmony with god. from this came the verb atone, which at first meant to be in agreement. For centuries ago “one” was pronounced like our word own, so atone is pronounced “uh-tone.” today, when you atone, you are sorry and try to make up for an error.

atone—pt of speech/meaning

verb/to make up (for a wrong), make amends

lewd backstory

lewd comes from old English laewede, meaning “lay” of “not of the church.” since a thousand years ago, learning was almost entirely associated with the church, anyone who was lewd was thus not of the clergy and most likely ignorant and illiterate. thus lewd acquired the meaning of unlearned. the upper class haughtily used lewd to refer to what they regarded as the ill-mannered and wicked ways of the ignorant masses. by the time of Chaucer in the 14th century, lewd had degenerated to its present meaning of obscene.

lewd—pt of speech/meaning

adjective/obscene, indecent, lustful, vulgar

succinct backstory

the ancient Romans wore a loose garment, somewhat like a long shirt, called a tunic. this garment was held in place by a girdle or sash (cinctura in Latin). when the Romans wanted to shorten these in order to move more freely, they would tuck up the tunic under the cinctura. thus, succinct comes from suc (under) and cinctura (girdle).

today this word no longer means tucking in our garments but tucking in our words to make our statements short and precise.

succinct—pt of speech/meaning

adjective/brief, clearly expressed, concise

prevaricate backstory

“don’t give me crooked answers” is a way of saying “don’t prevaricate.” prevaricate derives from the Latin varicus (straddling) which came from varus (bent), a term applied to a crooked legged person who did not walk straight. the Romans metaphorically extended this concept to their word praevaricator for a lawyer who secretly agreed with his client’s opponent to betray his own client’s count. hence the modern meaning is to “straddle” or “deceive” or “lie". this usually suggests evasion/avoidance of the truth than a direct lie.

prevaricate—pt of speech/meaning

verb/to stray from the truth, mislead, misinform

aloof backstory

aloof individuals keep their distance, as if they were steering away from the concerns of others. aloof comes from a (towards) and loef (to windward), aloof thus derives from the nautical term meaning to head the ship into the wind so as to keep distance from the shore. therefore, it follows that aloof individuals steer away from others.

aloof—pt of speech/meaning

adjective/reserved, detached, unconcerned, removed, uninvolved

jovial/saturnine backstory

the first Greek gods were the titans. foremost among these titans was Cronus, whose Romans name was Saturn. Saturn ruled uneasily because he learned of a prophecy that he would soon be dethroned by one of his children. in order to prevent this catastrophe, he swallowed his first five children as soon as they were born. however, his wife tricked him with the sixth child, called zues by the Greeks or Jupiter/jove by the romans. instead of giving him the child, she handed him a large stone wrapped in infant’s clothing, which he swallowed. jove grew up and forced Saturn to vomit the other children, who all remarkably emerged unharmed. with the help of his siblings, jove overthrew Saturn and made himself king of the gods. having come to a sad end, saturn later gave his name to the planet, because it’s so far away from the sun it was thought to be gloomy and cold and astrologers stated that those born under the sign of saturn were disposed to gloom. today we refer to a sour, gloomy character as saturnine. jove, on the other hand, went on to joyfully lord the heavens, and those born under the sign of jupiter (the planet named after jove) were presumed to be joyful, hence our adjective jovial

jovial—pt of speech/meaning

adjective/full of hearty humor and fun, jolly, cheerful

saturnine—pt of speech/meaning

adjective/gloomy, grave, sulky, moody

what does the root “EU” mean?

well, good

eulogy—pt of speech/meaning

noun/a speech or writing in praise of someone of something, especially if one who has died

euphemism—pt of speech/meaning

noun/a pleasant, mild, or inoffensive expression substituted for an unpleasant or offensive one

eugenics—pt of speech/meaning

noun/the science of improving a breed or species (especially human beings) through selection of parents

euphoria—pt of speech/meaning

noun/a feeling of complete well-being, great happiness, bliss

euthanasia—pt of speech/meaning

noun/mercy killing, painless putting to death someone suffering

despotic backstory

in ancient Greece, despotes meant the family head, based on domos (house) and posis (husband/master). the Greek despotes had powers far greater than the modern husband. these Greek household heads could even legally kill their wives and children, although such things rarely occurred. the Greeks also used despotes as a term foreign rulers who had absolute control over their subjects. despot then came to be the title of both emperors and high church officials in the byzantine empire. the modern negative and hostile sense of despot was reinforced by french revolutionaries, who applied the word to louis XVI

despotic—pt of speech/meaning

adjective/tyrannical, oppressive, overbearing

gullible backstory

a young flightless bird, sometimes called a gull, can be easily tricked and the common water bird, the gull, will swallow almost anything. perhaps these two types of gull helped form “gullible” for a gullible person swallows deceitful stories. another possible source is the Latin word for throat (gula), suggesting the gulping down of whatever is offered. although jonathan swift’s gulliver’s travels may not have been titled with gull in mind, gullible readers might have believed his tales of giants and tiny people

gullible—pt of speech/meaning

adjective/easily deceived, trustful, naive

guile backstory

In snow white, a beautiful but evil queen employs supernatural means to trick snow white into eating a poisoned apple. guile of trickery has long been associated with the supernatural, as in frisian wiglia ,meaning sorcery and witchcraft, and related to our word wile, meaning trickery, and its rhyming etymological cousin guile. however, human beings need no other-wordly assistance to generate crafty deception, as american poet Paul Laurence Dunbar shows in “we wear the mask:” we wear the mask that grins and lies

guile—pt of speech/meaning

noun/deceit, trickery, cunning, slyness

exonerate backstory

whereas today’s vessels can haul huge amounts of cargo, ancient ships with one or two sails struggled with much smaller loads. sailors on those ancient ships felt relieved when they could unload, and thus improve the performance of their crafts. the Latin word for this unloading is exonerate, from ex (off) and onus (burden). when exonerate entered English, it assumed the general meaning of relief of burden, whether discharging goods from a ship or removing a load from one’s shoulders. lawyers then applied exonerate to their removing the burden of suspicion from the accused. so often did the courts use exonerate that today we employ the word solely in relation to freeing someone from the burden of guilt, blame, or responsibility for an action

exonerate—pt of speech/meaning

verb/to free from blame, vindicate, absolve

cliche backstory

until about the middle of the 19th century, printers would drop a device into molten lead to produce type. the dropping would produce a clicking sound, and since french clicher means to click, the french called the metal plate that contained the impression of the type a cliche. they also referred to the plate as a stereotype because it had a stereo (Greek for solid, 3D) impression of the type. the cliche or stereotype would print the same thing over and over, and would often be refused for some well-liked expression.

cliche—pt of speech/meaning

noun/an expression or idea that is stale from overuse, overworked expression

trite backstory

a new car, new shoes, even a newly minted penny attracts us with their sparkling freshness. how different appearance of a battered automobile, old shoes, and much handled coin. from Latin tritus (worn out), we get trite that aptly describes worn out phrases, overused plots, and dull ideas. hackneyed (a synonym of trite) comes from hackney, a town near London once famous for its horses and carriages, both of which came to be called hackneys. because horses often did laborious, repetitive work, hackney acquired the meaning overwork. finally, hackneyed assumed its present sense of worn-out, stale, overworked

trite—pt of speech/meaning

adjective/lacking originality, overused, stale, commonplace

melancholy/choleric/phlegmatic/sanguine backstory

our ancestors strove for harmony with the universe. traditional Oriental philosophy, psychology, and medicine stressed a proper balance between the passive/feminine principle called yin and the active/male principle called yang. similarily, for about 2,000 years, the western world, from the ancient Greeks to the Renaissance, thought that health and personality were determined by the relation of four vital liquids called “humors” (Latin=fluid). these humors were blood, phlegm, choler (yellow bile), and melancholy (black bile). excess blood=a cheerful disposition, too much phlegm=unemotional, an abundance of bile=angry/quick tempered, and a surplus of black bile=brooding/depressed. whereas a proper balance of the humors made one “humorous”, hence comical or laughable, resulting in the modern meaning of humor.

melancholy—pt of speech/meaning

adjective/sad, gloomy, depressed

noun/sadness, gloom, depression

choleric—pt of speech/meaning

adjective/easily angered, grouchy, quick-tempered

phlegmatic—pt of speech/meaning

adjective/sluggish, not easily excited, unemotional

sanguine—pt of speech/meaning

adjective/cheerful, confident, positive

what does the root sens mean?

feel, think

consensus—pt of speech/meaning

noun/a general agreement, majority opinion, harmony

dissension—pt of speech/meaning

noun/strong disagreement, quarreling

sensual—pt of speech/meaning

adjective/enjoying bodily pleasure

insensible—pt of speech/meaning

adjective/unable to feel, unaware, unconscious

insensitivity—pt of speech/meaning

noun/ the inability to be affected by, lack of sensitivity