Renaissance Vocabulary Flashcards
Paradigm Shift
A change in the way one thinks
Miasma
Bad air
Usury
Lending money at an unfairly high rate
Erudition/Erudite
Having a wealth of knowledge
Eclectic
Deriving ideas or taste from a diverse range of sources
Perfidious
Untrustworthy
Parsimonious
Cheap, stingy, frugal
Pariah
An outcast given a wide berth
Fickle, Capricious
Indecisive, easily swayed
Motif
A decorative design or pattern
Ignominious
Deserving shame
Gargantuan
Enormous
Utopian
Idealistic
Prodigious
Remarkably great
Machinations
Plot or scheme
Panacea
A reliable cure for a disease or problem
Insidious
Stealthily treacherous or deceitful
Regent
A ruler running a country due to a monarch’s incapacitation or age
Pacifism
The belief that any violence is wrong
Affable
Friendly, good-natured
Posterity
Future generations
Lecherous
Extreme sexual desire
Cuckold
The husband of an adulterous wife
Unrequited
Not returned
Muse
An object of inspiration
Hedonist
A seeker of pleasure
Temporal
-Secular
or
-Relating to time
Paragon
Someone or something regarded as a perfect example of something
Subsistence Agriculture
Making just enough food to survive/Making food just for you and your family
Anti-Semitism
Hatred or dislike of Jewish people
Pogroms
Attacks on Jewish people
Renaissance
A rebirth of culture
Balance of Power
A way of keeping order between nations, where weaker ones align themselves with each other for protection from larger ones
Oligarchy
Rule by a select few
Diplomacy
Nations discussing matters rather than using force to prevent conflict
