English Short Story Vocab (Pt. 1)

Aldermen – a member of a city council

Anathema – someone or something intensely disliked or loathed

Blasphemy – words or acts that speak sacrilegiously about religious figures or God

Boughs – main branches of a tree

Catechism – an elementary book containing a summary of the principles of the Christian religion, in the form of questions and answers

Contemporaries – a person or thing living or existing at the same time as another

Deacons – a subordinate officer in a Christian church

Deputation – a group of people appointed to represent others

Dispensation – giving out in portions

Exhort – urge strongly

Festoon – a decorative chain or strip hanging between two points

Firmament – the sky or the heavens

Forsooth – often used to imply contempt or doubt

Imperviousness – not allowing entrance or passage

Incantations – a use of spells or verbal charms spoken or sung as a part of a ritual of magic

Inextricable – impossible to disentangle or separate

Iniquity – sin; wickedness

Jalousies – a blind with adjustable horizontal slats for admitting light and air while excluding direct sun and rain