AP Lit. vocabulary Unit 4

Aficionado

An enthusiastic and usually expert follower or fan.

Browbeat

To intimidate by a stern or overbearing manner; to bully.

Commensurate

Equal in size, extent, duration, or importance; proportionate.

Diaphanous

Very sheer and light; almost completely transparent.

Emolument

Profit derived from an office or position or from employment; a fee or salary.

Foray

A quick raid, especially for plunder; a venture into some field of endeavor.

Genre

A type, class, or variety, especially a distinctive category of literary composition.

Homily

A sermon stressing moral principles; a tedious moralizing lecture or discourse.

Immure

To enclose or confine within walls; to imprison; to seclude or isolate.

Insouciant

Blithely indifferent or unconcerned; carefree; happy-go-lucky.

Matrix

A mold; the surrounding situation or environment.

Obsequies

Funeral rites or ceremonies.

Panache

A confident and stylish manner; dash; a strikingly elaborate or colorful display.

Persona

A character in a novel or play; the outward character or role that a person assumes.

Philippic

A bitter verbal attack.

Prurient

Having lustful desires or interests; tending to arouse sexual desires.

Sacrosanct

Very holy or sacred; inviolable; set apart or immune from questioning or attack.

Systemic

Of or pertaining to the entire body; relating to a system or systems.

Tendentious

Intended to promote a particular point of view, doctrine or cause; biased or partisan.

Vicissitude

A change, variation, or alteration; successive or changing phases or conditions.