Module 5 Quiz Flashcards
Academy
A school or learned society
Arcadian
Simple, peaceful, rustic
Croesus
A very rich man
(Croesus, like Midas, was a very wealthy king of Asia Minor)
Cynic
One who sarcastically doubts human motives
(Like the Greek school of thought)
Draconian
Extremely severe
(In Athens, Draco made extremely severe laws. For example, he made stealing a cabbage punishable by death.)
Epicure, epicurean
A person of refined taste in matters of food and drink
(Epicurus was the founder of the epicurean school of thought that believed the supreme goal of life should be pleasure)
To cut the Gordian knot
To solve a difficult problem by direct and drastic means
(Alexander the great cut King Gordius’ intricate knot)
Laconic
Brief, concise
(Laconia was another name for Sparta, where the soldiers were characteristically blunt and decisive men of few words)
Mausoleum
A large tomb
(King Mausolus was encapsulated in a magnificent tomb)
Meander
To follow a winding course; the Greek-key design
Ostracism
Exclusion from society
Philippic
A bitter denunciation
(Demosthenes denounced Phillip of Macedonia through a series of orations. These orations were called the philippics)
A phyrrhic victory
A victory won at too great a cost
(Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, won a battle against the Romans, but at the cost of the majority of his army)
Solecism
A substandard usage of language, a social blunder
(The Soli colony was extremely barbaric)
Sophistry, sophism
Clever but deceptive argumentation meant to mislead
Spartan
Rigorous, austere, disciplined
Stoic
Impassive (not feeling or showing emotion)
Sword of Damocles
A constantly threatening danger
(He had a sword hung over his head by a single thread to illustrate how it feels to be a dictator)
Sybarite
One devoted to luxury and pleasure
(Sybaris was a Greek colony in southern Italy famed for its wealth and luxurious living)
-ast, -st
one who does
Ex: Gymnast
-t, -te
he who; that which
Ex: poet, athlete
-y, -ia
quality of, state of, act of
Ex: philosophy, anemia
All-
other
Ex: parallel
Cac-
bad
ex: cacogenics
Cau(s)-
to burn
Ex: cauterize
Cla-
to break
Ex: iconoclast
Do-
to give
Ex: dose, antidote
Erg-, urg-
to work
ex: energy
Lat(e)r-
to worship excessively, be fanatically devoted
Ex: idolater, idolatry (like the word idolize)
path-
to feel, suffer; disease
Ex: sympathy; pathology
Phy-
to grow
Ex: neophyte
Physi-
nature
Ex: physiology
Sta-
to stand, stop
Ex: static
The-
to place, put
Ex: thesis, synthetic
-ma, -m, -me
result of; thing that is the result of
Ex: drama
-sis-, -se, -sy, -sia
act of; state of; result of
Ex: Analysis; amnesia
Andr-
man, male
Ex: androgenic
Kine-, Cine-
to move
Ex: kinetic, cinema