Letter from Birmingham Jail Vocab

Consented

to permit

Cognizant

to be aware

Superficial

on the surface

Moratorium

to suspend

Gadflies

annoying person

Query

to question

Status Quo/ Stagnation/ Complacency

keeping things as is/ without movement/ not change

Lamentably

sadly

Devious

evil

Precipitate

to bring about quickly

Elegy

poem about death

Psalm

biblical word for song

Perilously

dangerously

Repudiated

deny validity

Incorrigible

so bad that you can’t change it/ go back

Manifests

show or appear

Zeitgeist

spirt of time

Antidotes

fighting something bad

Anesthetizing

numbing

Pious

to be openly religious

Irrelevancies

not important

Sanctimonious

hypocritical devotion

Trivialities

small details

Interposition

to intervene

Nullification

to void

Laxity

laziness

Nonconformists

don’t follow rules- not always bad people

Sanction

support actions

Ecclesia

gathering members of church

Sublime

excellent

Provocation

to be provoked

Scintillating

alive, brilliant, sizzling