Lit Terms Test 1

Camaraderie

: rapport and goodwill 

-syn: friendship; amity 

Frangible

: fragile; easy to break 

- syn: delicate; breakable 

Litany

a long, repetitive, or dull account 

Moratorium

: a suspension of activity; an authorized delay

- syn: cessation; postponement 

Zealous

: fervent; fanatical

- syn: passionate; enthusiastic 

Desiccate

: to dry out; to remove moisture 

- syn: dehydrate 

Wrenching

: causing mental or physical pain 

- syn: distressing; agonizing 

Replete

: full; abundant 

- syn: abounding; rife 

Interminable

: tiresome and long; seemingly endless

- syn: tedious 

Arable

: suitable for cultivation of land 

- syn: fertile; fecund 

Lugubrious

: mournful; gloomy 

- syn: somber; depressing 

Truncate

: to shorten

- syn: abridge; abbreviate 

Ubiquitous

: occurring or seeming to occur everwhere; omnipresent

-syn: universal 

Vernacular

everyday language 

Equanimity

: composure; calmness

- syn: poise; sangfroid 

Achilles' Heel

: a person's area of particular vunerability; a weakness 

- origin: When his mother dipped him in the river of immortality she held him by the heel so that was the only place not touched by the water; therefore, Achilles' heel is his one area of vulnerability. 

Pound of Flesh

: used to describe someone's insistence on being repaid, even if the repayment will destroy or harm the debtor.

- origin: In Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice in the contract, shylock demands a pound of Antonio's flesh as repayment should anything happen to the ship. 

Sacred Cow

: something that cannot be interfered with or harmed in any way. 

- origins: In Hinduism cows are considered to be sacred; thus, they cannot be harmed at all, especially not for food. 

Crossing the Rubicon

: taking an irreversible step that often involves some danger. 

- origins: Julius Caesar was ordered home by enemies, The Rubicon was the river forming the northern boundary of Italy; this crossing of the river would make civil war inevitable. 

Pearls before Swine

: to offer something precious to someone, or a group of people, unable to appreciate its value.  - origin: In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus admonished his followers to " cast not your pearls before swine." (his followers were to deliver their message to those who would appreciate it)

Once in a blue moon

: something that rarely occurs.

- origin: a second full moon within the same calendar month, a phenomenon that occurs approximately every three years.

Mrs. Grundy/ Grundyism

: narrow-minded, conventional, prudish person.  - origin: In Speed the Plough Mrs. Grundy is a person that never appears on stage, but other characters frequently refer to her. 

Crocodile tears

: show false sympathy for someone. 

-origins: Crocodiles were once thought to shed large tears before devouring their prey. 

Sirens

: anything that tempts a person away from safety and toward a destructive path. 

- origins: In Greek mythology, Sirens are beautiful sea creatures who lured sailors to their deaths on the rocky shores.

Read the Riot Act

: issue a stern warning that if unacceptable behavior does not cease, severe consequences will follow. 

- origins: Under English Common Law, an unruly crowd had to read the Riot Act before the action could be taken to force them to disperse. 

abstract

unable to be touched; not concrete

allegory

story or poem in which characters, settings, and events stand for other people or events or for abstract ideas or qualities

alliteration

sound device; repetition of initial (beginning) consonant sounds

allusion

figure of speech, which makes brief reference to an historical or literary figure, event, or object; a reference in one literary work to a character or theme found in another literary work.

ambiguity

the expression of an idea in language which gives more than one meaning and leave uncertainty as to the meaning

analogy

the comparison of two things, which are alike in several respects, for the purpose of explaining or clarifying some unfamiliar or difficult idea or object by showing how the idea or object is similar to some familiar one.

anaphora

the repetition of a word or expression at the beginning of successive phrases for rhetorical or poetic effect

antagonist

the character in a narrative or play who is in conflict with the main character; an antagonist may not even be a person -- or may be the same person as the main character

antithesis

balancing words, phrases, or ideas that are strongly contrasted, often by means of grammatical structure

apostrophe

addressing someone or something, usually not present, as though present. A figure of speech wherein the speaker speaks directly to something non-human. Often, apostrophe is to a god, ghost, or some supernatural thing, like Death, Night, or Fate. It may also be to a person, if the person isn't there, or if the speaker doesn't think the person is there.

archetype

 a detail, image, or character type that occurs frequently in literature and myth and is thought to appeal in a universal way to the unconscious and to evoke a response