The Tempest Vocabulary Words

Perfidious Definition: “Deliberately faithless; treacherous; deceitful.”Etymology: From Latin “perfidiosus” or “perfidia”, meaning “treacherous”.POS: Adjective. Sentence: “Perfidious Paul was given his nickname because he frequently cheated on his wife and counted cards in the casino.”
Verdure Definition: “Greenness, especially of fresh, flourishing vegetation.”Etymology: From Old French “verdure”, meaning “fresh green color”. POS: Noun. Sentence: “The two children basked in the sunlight while they rolled around in the verdure on top of the mountain.”
Prerogative Definition: “An exclusive right, privilege, etc., exercised by virtue of rank, office, or the like.”Etymology: From Latin “prerogativa”, meaning “special right or privilege granted to someone.”POS: Noun. Sentence: “Once you are 18 years of age, you have the prerogative to go out and vote for political leaders.”
Temporal Definition: “Of or pertaining to time or concerned with the present life or this world; worldly.”Etymology: From Latin “temporalitas”, meaning “of a time, but for a time.”POS: Adjective. Sentence: “Cathy was temporally-driven, and was never late to anything on her schedule.”
Ignoble Definition: “Of low character, aims, grade, or quality.”Etymology: From Middle French “ignoble” or of Latin “ignobilis”, meaning “of low birth.”POS: Adjective. Sentence: “The king often found that he was tired of his plushy life, he looked at the ignoble peasants that he ruled over and wished that he could walk in their shoes for a day.”
Inveterate Definition: “Settled or confirmed in a habit, practice, feeling, or the like.”Etymology: From Latin “inveteratus”, meaning “of long standing, chronic.”POS: Adjective. Sentence: “It had been 50 years since Carlton had bought his first back of cigarettes. He wished he had never done it, because now his peers considered him to be an inveterate smoker.”
Extirpate Definition: “To remove or destroy totally; do away with; exterminate.”Etymology: From Latin “extirpatus/exstirpatus”, meaning “root out, eradicate, pull up by the roots.”POS: Verb. Sentence: “Ms. Manson was sick of the roaches in her house, so she ordered her son, Pugsly, to extirpate them with his new bug-squashing shoes.”
Levied Definition: “An imposing or collecting, as of a tax, by authority or force.”Etymology: From Latin “levari facias”, meaning “cause to be levied.”POS: Adjective. Sentence: “The income taxes that have been sent to the IRS have not yet been levied, putting everyone on the white house on their nerves.”
Auspicious Definition: “Promising success; propitious; opportune; favorable.”Etymology: From Latin “auspicium”, meaning “of good omen.”POS: Adjective. Sentence: “For Angelica, her high school graduation was an auspicious start to her new life as an adult.”
Unmitigable Definition: “Unable to lessen in force or intensity.”Etymology: “Mitigable” from Latin “mitigatus”, meaning “make mild or gentle, pacify, soothe.”POS: Adjective. Sentence: “Because of all of the favors that he had done for Sean in the past, Jerry believed their strong level of friendship to be unmitigable.”
Allaying Definition: “To put (fear, doubt, suspicion, anger, etc.) to rest; calm; quiet.”Etymology: From Old English “alecgan”, meaning “to put down, remit, give up.”POS: Verb. Sentence: “Mary desperately tried to allay Donald’s pain from his found with the addition of some antiseptic and a band-aid.”
Canker Definition: “A gangrenous or ulcerous sore, especially in the mouth, characterized by a foul-smelling exudate.”Etymology: From Late Old English “cancer”, meaning “spreading ulcer, cancerous tumor.”POS: Noun. Sentence: “Cynthia pleaded to Mark that the sores on her mouth weren’t herpes, but only cankers. He still wouldn’t kiss her.”
Paragon Definition: “A model or pattern of excellence or of a particular excellence.”Etymology: From Middle French “parangon” or Italian “paragone”, meaning “touchstone to test gold.”POS: Noun. Sentence: “Owen believed his graduation paper to be the paragon of his high school career.”
Enmity Definition: “A feeling or condition of hostility; hatred; ill will; animosity; antagonism.”Etymology: From Old French “enemite”, meaning “hostile act or aversion.”POS: Noun. Sentence: “There would always be a feeling of enmity between the citizens of Palestine and Israel.”
Sloth Definition: “Habitual disinclination to exertion; indolence; laziness.”Etymology: From Middle English “slou” or “slowe”, meaning “indolence, sluggishness.”POS: Noun or Adjective. Sentence: “Patrick’s sloth, although comical on occasion, often got him low grades in school and damaged his relationships.”
Nonpareil Definition: “Having no equal; peerless.”Etymology: From Middle French “nonpareil”, meaning “having no equal” or “unequalled, peerless”. POS: Adjective.Sentence: “The food wasn’t special, but the atmosphere was nonpareil.”
Jocund Definition: “Cheerful; merry; gay; blithe; glad.”Etymology: From Latin “iocundus” (source of Spanish “jocunde”), meaning “pleasant”, originally “helpful.”POS: Adjective. Sentence: “I wanted my little sister’s birthday party to be cheerful and jocund. For this very reason, I chose a pastel color scheme for the decorations.”
Viands Definition: “An article or dish of food.”Etymology: From Anglo-French “viaunde”, meaning “vegetable as well as animal, victuals, or provisions.”POS: Noun. Sentence: “Hungering for more upper-class viands, I ordered the chef’s speciality as opposed to the grilled cheese sandwich.”
Surfeited Definition: “An excessive amount of something, usually in terms of over-eating or over-drinking.”Etymology: From Latin noun “surfeit”, meaning “indulge or feed to excess.”POS: Adjective. Sentence: “After Halloween night, the young children were surfeited by even the aroma of chocolate and sweets. They begged for a plate of carrots and celery instead.”
Dalliance Definition: “A trifling away of time; dawdling.”Etymology: From Anglo-French “dalier”, meaning “to amuse oneself.”POS: Noun. Sentence: “Things suddenly began to progress more rapidly than before, as if to make up for the time that was lost in dalliance.”
Abstemious Definition: “Sparing or moderate in eating or drinking; temperate in diet. Characterized by abstinence.”Etymology: From Latin “abstemius”, meaning “sober” or “temperate”. POS: Adjective. Sentence: “Smokers tend to die at a much younger age than their abstemious peers.”
Leas Definition: “A tract of open ground, especially grassland; meadow. Usually used for crops in a cyclical fashion.”Etymology: From Old English “leah”, meaning “open field, meadow, or piece of untilled ground.”POS: Noun. Sentence: “The best place for a picnic is out on the lea so that you can watch the sunset while you eat.”
Promontory Definition: “A high point of land or rock projecting into the sea or other water beyond the line of coast; a headland.”Etymology: From Middle French “promontoire”, meaning “mountain ridge” or “headland.”POS: Adjective. Sentence: “We sat out on the promontory, watching the waves and wondering whether or not it was safe to jump off of.”
Abjure Definition: “To renounce, repudiate, or retract, especially with formal solemnity; recant.”Etymology: From Middle French “abjurer”, meaning “to deny on oath.”POS: Verb.Sentence: “Rather than abjuring from a life filled with drugs, Dylan continued to drop acid frequently.”
Mantle Definition: “Something that covers, envelops, or conceals. Often referring to an article of clothing.”Etymology: From Old French “manteler”, meaning “to wrap in a mantle.”POS: Noun. Sentence: “She snatched her cat off of the mantle just before the fire got to Mr. Whiskers.”
July 10, 2019