Pride and Prejudice Selected Vocabulary

abhorrent • (adj)

detestable, disgusting and repugnant

acquiesce • (v)

to agree or consent to; to give in

acrimony • (n)

bitterness or ill feeling

“It was gratitude—gratitude, not merely for having once loved her, but for loving her still well enough to forgive all the petulance and acrimony of her manner in rejecting him”

affability • (n)

friendliness, openness, and approachability; amiable ease in a manner/conversation

“Lady Catherine was reckoned proud by many people he knew, but he had never seen anything but affability in her”.

agreeable • (adj)

enjoyable and pleasant

alacrity • (n)

willingness or readiness; with lively action,

“He carved, and ate, and praised with delighted alacrity; and every dish was commended”.

aloof • (adj)

conspicuously uninvolved and distant; cool, remote, and uninterested

apothecary • (n)

\[archaic] a person who prepared or sold medicines

approbation • (n)

official approval or commendation

archly • (adv)

deliberately or affectedly playful or teasing; in a mischievous or roguish way

"Are you consulting your own feelings in the present case, or do you imagine that you are gratifying mine?" "Both," replied Elizabeth archly; "for I have always seen a great similarity in the turn of our minds. We are each of an unsocial, taciturn disposition, unwilling to speak, unless we expect to say something that will amaze the whole room, and be handed down to posterity with all the éclat of a proverb."

ardently • (adv)

passionately

asperity • (n)

harshness of tone or manner

assiduously • (adv)

carried out with great care, perseverance, effort, and hard work

brook • (v)

to tolerate or allow

“You are to understand, Miss Bennet, that I came here with the determined resolution of carrying my purpose; nor will I be dissuaded from it. I have not been used to submitting to any person's whims. I have not been in the habit of brooking disappointment”.

caprice • (n)

whim, an impulsive change in thought or action

circumspection • (n)

caution; wariness of taking risks

“I honor your circumspection. A fortnight's acquaintance is certainly very little. One cannot know what a man is by the end of a fortnight.”

civility • (n)

politeness combined with formality

coarseness • (n)

vulgarity and crudity in speech or behavior

“Elizabeth was shocked to think that, however incapable of such coarseness of expression herself, the coarseness of the sentiment was little other than her breast had harbored and fancied liberal!”

cogent • (adj)

clear, logical, and convincing

conciliate • (v)

to stop someone from being angry or discontented; to gain (or try to gain) someone’s friendship or goodwill

“Her air was not conciliating, nor was her manner of receiving them such as to make her visitors forget their inferior rank.”

conjecture • (n)

an opinion formed based on incomplete evidence; a guess

connubial • (adj)

relating to marriage; see also “conjugal”

consternation • (n)

a sudden and paralyzing feeling of dismay, anxiety, or confusion

“He suddenly reminded them, with some consternation, that they had hitherto forgotten to leave any message for the ladies at Rosings.”

copse • (n)

a small group of trees

coquetry • (n)

flirtatious behavior

correspondent • (n)

a letter-writer

“The whole party was in hopes of a letter from Mr. Bennet the next morning, but the post came in without bringing a single line from him. His family knew him to be, on all common occasions, a most negligent and dilatory correspondent; but at such a time they had hoped for exertion.”

decorum • (n)

conventional regularity in matters of speech, dress, and conduct; propriety

“\[She shows\] an abominable sort of conceited independence, a most country-town indifference to decorum.”

defection • (n)

abandonment of duty or loyalty

degradation • (n)

a decline, particularly to a demoralized state; moral or intellectual decadence

“His sense of her inferiority—of its being a degradation…”

defer • (v)

to yield out of respect or regard for another

“She is the sort of woman whom one cannot regard with too much deference.”

deign • (v)

to do something one considers beneath one’s dignity; to “stoop”

“Mr. Wickham, after a few moments, touched his hat—a salutation which Mr. Darcy just deigned to return. What could be the meaning of it?”

depravity • (n)

moral corruption; profligacy, debauchery, dissipation, and obscenity

derision • (n)

ridicule; mockery

dictatorial • (adj)

tending to tell people what to do in an autocratic way; typical of a ruler with total power

diffidence • (n)

modesty or shyness; unassertive timidity

“This naturally introduced a panegyric from Jane on his diffidence and the little value he put on his good qualities.”

dilatory • (adj)

inclined to be late or tardy; tending to delay or procrastinate

discernment • (n)

keen perception, judgment, or insight

disconcert • (v)

to frustrate, embarrass, or confuse

disinterested • (adj)

not influenced by considerations of personal advantage; having or feeling no interest in something

dissemble • (v)

to disguise or conceal one’s true motives or beliefs

dissuade • (v)

to persuade someone NOT to do something

divert • (v)

to amuse, please, or delight

“Follies and nonsense, whims, and inconsistencies do divert me, I own, and I laugh at them whenever I can. But these, I suppose, are precisely what you are without.”

ductility • (adj)

pliancy; capable of being bent, molded, or shaped without losing strength; plasticity

duplicity • (n)

willful deceitfulness; double-dealing

“What Wickham had said of the living was fresh in her memory, and as she recalled his very words, it was impossible not to feel that there was gross duplicity on one side or the other.”

earnestly • (adv)

sincerely and intensely; with conviction

eccentric • (adj)

unconventional and slightly strange; odd

“There was nothing of presumption or folly in Bingley that could provoke his ridicule, or disgust him into silence, and he was more communicative, and less eccentric than the other had ever seen him.”

éclat • (n)

brilliant display or effect

effusion • (n)

an outpouring of words and feelings

“Her daughters listened in silence to this effusion, sensible that any attempt to reason with her or soothe her would only increase the irritation.”

eminent • (adj)

prestigious or distinguished; outstanding and lofty

engross • (v)

to absorb the attention or interest of

“Miss Bingley was engrossed by Mr. Darcy, her sister scarcely less so.”

entail • (n)

a settlement of the inheritance of property

“over a number of generations Jane and Elizabeth tried to explain to her the nature of an entail. They had often attempted to do it before, but it was a subject on which Mrs. Bennet was beyond the reach of reason, and she continued to rail bitterly against the cruelty of settling an estate away from a family of five daughters, in favour of a man whom nobody cared anything about”.

equivocal • (adj)

ambiguous; open to more than one interpretation; deliberately misleading, vague, or evasive

establishment • (n)

\[archaic] a marriage

expedient • (adj)

suitable for achieving a particular result, often self-interestedly so

expostulate • (v)

to express strong disagreement; to argue earnestly or demand vehemently

fastidious • (adj)

very concerned about accuracy and detail; preoccupied with cleanliness

felicity • (n)

happiness, joy

filial • (adj)

of or relating to a son or daughter; having or assuming the relation of a child or offspring

flog • (v)

to beat or whip with a stick, as punishment or torture

folly • (n)

foolishness and lack of good sense

“In his library, he had been always sure of leisure and tranquillity; and though prepared, as he told Elizabeth, to meet with folly and conceit in every other room of the house, he was used to be free from them there.”

forbearance • (n)

patient self-control, restraint, and tolerance

“His ease and cheerfulness rendered him a most agreeable addition to their evening party; he bore with the ill-judged officiousness of the mother and heard all her silly remarks with a forbearance and command of countenance particularly grateful to the daughter.”

formidable • (adj)

inspiring fear or respect through being large, powerful, intense, or capable; difficult to manage, as in “formidable debt”; inspiring awe, admiration, and wonder

“Such formidable accounts of her ladyship, and her manner of living, quite frightened Maria Lucas who had been little used to company.”

fortnight • (n)

two weeks

frivolous • (adj)

not having a serious purpose or value; carefree and inconsequential

“She has been allowed to dispose of her time in the most idle and frivolous manner and to adopt any opinions that came in her way. Since the ——shire were first quartered in Meryton, nothing but love, flirtation, and officers have been in her head.”

garrulous • (adj)

excessively talkative

gratify • (v)

to please; to indulge or satisfy

haughty • (adj)

disdainfully proud; arrogant

histrionic • (adj)

overly theatrical or melodramatic in character or style

humility • (n)

absence of boasting, vanity, or egotism

illiberal • (adj)

uncultured and unrefined; opposed to liberal principles; narrow and restrictive

“Her father, captivated by youth and beauty, and that appearance of good humour which youth and beauty generally give, had married a woman whose weak understanding and illiberal mind had very early in their marriage put an end to all real affection for her.”

indelicate • (adj)

having or showing a lack of tact or sensitivity

indolence • (n)

slothfulness, laziness; absence of will for exertion

infamy • (n)

fame or notoriety as a consequence of evil or distressing conduct

“Be that as it may, she saw him go with regret; and in this early example of what Lydia's infamy must produce, found additional anguish as she reflected on that wretched business.”

impertinent • (adj)

rude; inappropriate or irrelevant in manner; insolent, saucy

“When dinner was over, she returned directly to Jane, and Miss Bingley began abusing her as soon as she was out of the room. Her manners were pronounced to be very bad indeed, a mixture of pride and impertinence; she had no conversation, no style, and no beauty.”

impetuous • (adj)

impulsive; done rashly, in haste, and without thought

implacable • (adj)

relentless, unstoppable; unable to be placated (made less angry)

imprudent • (adj)

unwise (not prudent)

“I am afraid he has been very imprudent and has deserved to lose Mr. Darcy's regard.”

impudent • (adj)

characterized by impertinence or effrontery; brazenly rude or immodest

impute • (v)

to attribute a deed to another person (usually a bad deed or fault)

indisposed • (adj)

slightly unwell; averse or unwilling

in trade • (prep. phrase)

having made money through commerce (as opposed to inheritance)

incensed • (verb, past tense)

extraordinarily angry; enraged

incessant • (adj)

nonstop or continuous, often causing irritation

incredulous • (adj)

characterized by intense disbelief

“Elizabeth looked at her sister with incredulous solicitude, but said nothing.”

indignation • (n)

anger at a perceived injustice

indolence • (n)

lack of exertion; habitual laziness

iniquitous • (adj)

unjustly wicked

insipid • (adj)

lacking in taste; dull, lifeless, flavorless

"She \[Kitty\] was not of so ungovernable a temper as Lydia; and, removed from the influence of Lydia's example, she became, by proper attention and management, less irritable, less ignorant, and less insipid."

insolent • (adj)

arrogantly disrespectful; rude, impertinent

"Elizabeth was determined to make no effort for conversation with a woman who was now more than usually insolent and disagreeable.”

insupportable • (adj)

unable to be endured or tolerated

intrepidity • (n)

courage or daring

inure • (v)

to become accustomed to something unpleasant

"A younger son, you know, must be inured to self-denial and dependence."

invective • (n)

insulting, abusive, highly critical language; vituperation

laconic • (adj)

using very few words; terse

lamentation • (n)

an expression of grief that is visible; wailing and weeping

languor • (n)

the state or feeling, often pleasant, of tiredness or inertia

laudable • (adj)

praiseworthy

licentiousness • (n)

lack of moral restraint, especially sexually; a disregard for accepted rules

"there is reason to suppose as my dear Charlotte informs me, that this licentiousness of behaviour in your daughter has proceeded from a faulty degree of indulgence …”

livery • (n)

a stable for horses

mercenary • (adj)

primarily concerned with material reward at the expense of ethics

"Pray, my dear aunt, what is the difference in matrimonial affairs, between the mercenary and the prudent motive?" Where does discretion end, and avarice begin? Last Christmas you were afraid of his marrying me, because it would be imprudent; and now, because he is trying to get a girl with only ten thousand pounds, you want to find out that he is mercenary.”