Summer Assignment Vocab

Question 1

Allegory/noun

Answer 1

Definition: story or any piece of literature where the characters, places, and things are all symbols that represent vices or virtues

Etymology: late Middle English: from Old French allegorie, via Latin from Greek allēgoria, from allos ‘other’ + -agoria ‘speaking.’

Question 2

Alliteration/noun

Answer 2

Definition: the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.

Etymology: early 17th century: from medieval Latin alliteratio(n-), from Latin ad- (expressing addition) + littera ‘letter.’

Question 3

Allusion/noun

Answer 3

Definition: an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference.

Etymology: mid 16th century (denoting a pun, metaphor, or parable): from French, or from late Latin allusio(n-), from the verb alludere

Question 4

Ambiguity/noun

Answer 4

Definition:the quality of being open to more than one interpretation; inexactness.

Etymology: late Middle English: from Old French ambiguite or Latin ambiguitas, from ambiguus ‘doubtful’

Question 5

Analogy/noun

Answer 5

Definition: a comparison between two things, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification.

Etymology: late Middle English (in the sense ‘appropriateness, correspondence’): from French analogie, Latin analogia ‘proportion,’ from Greek, from analogos ‘proportionate.’

Question 6

Antithesis/noun

Answer 6

Definition: a person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else.

Etymology:late Middle English (originally denoting the substitution of one grammatical case for another): from late Latin, from Greek antitithenai ‘set against,’ from anti ‘against’ + tithenai ‘to place.’ The earliest current sense, denoting a rhetorical or literary device, dates from the early 16th centuy

Question 7

Colloquial/adjective

Answer 7

Definition:used in ordinary or familiar conversation; not formal or literary.

Etymology:mid 18th century: from Latin colloquium ‘conversation’ + -a

Question 8

Connotation/noun

Answer 8

Definition: an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning.

Etymology: mid 16th century: from medieval Latin connotatio(n-), from connotare ‘mark in addition’

Question 9

Denotation/noun

Answer 9

Definition: the literal or primary meaning of a word, in contrast to the feelings or ideas that the word suggests.

Etymology: 1530s, “indication,” from Late Latin denotationem (nominative denotatio), noun of action from past participle stem of denotare (see denote). As a term in logic, from 1843 (contrasted with connotation).

Question 10

Diction/noun

Answer 10

Definition: the choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing.

Etymology: mid 16th century (denoting a word or phrase): from Latin dictio(n-), from dicere ‘to say.’

Question 11

Extended Metaphor/noun

Answer 11

Definition: uthor’s exploitation of a single metaphor or analogy at length through multiple linked tenors, vehicles, and grounds throughout a poem or story.

Etymology: derived from the 16th-century Old French word métaphore, which comes from the Latin metaphora, “carrying over”, in turn from the Greek μεταφορά (metaphorá), “transfer”,[4] from μεταφέρω (metapherō), “to carry over”, “to transfer”[5] and that from μετά (meta), “after, with, across”[6] + φέρω (pherō), “to bear”, “to carry”

Question 12

Figurative Language/noun

Answer 12

Definition: language that is used to convey something that is different from the literal dictionary definition of the word

Etymology: te 14c., “emblematical,” from Old French figuratif “metaphorical,” from Late Latin figurativus “figurative” (of speech), from figurat-, past participle stem of Latin figurare “to form, shape,” from figura “a shape, form, figure” (from PIE root *dheigh- “to form, build”). Of speech, language, etc., “allegorical, metaphoric, involving figures of speech,” from late 14c.

Question 13

Figure of Speech/noun

Answer 13

Definition: a word or phrase used in a non-literal sense for rhetorical or vivid effect.

Etymology: c. 1200, “numeral;” mid-13c., “visible appearance of a person;” late 14c., “visible and tangible form of anything,” from Old French figure “shape, body; form of a word; figure of speech; symbol, allegory” (10c), from Latin figura “a shape, form, figure; quality, kind, style; figure of speech,” in Late Latin “a sketch, drawing,” from PIE root *dheigh- “to form, build.”

Question 14

Genre/noun

Answer 14

Definition: a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter.

Etymology: early 19th century: French, literally ‘a kind’

Question 15

Imagery/noun

Answer 15

Definition: visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work.

Etymology: Middle English (in the senses ‘statuary, carved images collectively’): from Old French imagerie, from imager ‘make an image

Question 16

Inference/infer/noun

Answer 16

Definition: a conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning.

Etymology: late 16th century: from medieval Latin inferentia, from inferent- ‘bringing in,’ from the verb inferre

Question 17

Irony/ironical/noun

Answer 17

Definition: the expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.

Etymology: early 16th century (also denoting Socratic irony): via Latin from Greek eirōneia ‘simulated ignorance,’ from eirōn ‘dissembler.’

Question 18

Personification/noun

Answer 18

Definition: the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.

Etymology: 1755, noun of action from personify. Sense of “embodiment of a quality in a person” is attested from 1807.

Question 19

Point of View/noun

Answer 19

Definition: a particular attitude or way of considering a matter.

Etymology: “position from which a thing is viewed,” 1727, translating French point de vue, a loan-translation of Latin punctum visus. Figurative use is from 1760. The Latin phrase was translated into German as Gesichtspunkt.

Question 20

Prose/noun

Answer 20

Definition: a particular attitude or way of considering a matter.

Etymology: c. 1300, “story, narration,” from Old French prose (13c.), from Latin prosa oratio “straightforward or direct speech” (without the ornaments of verse), from prosa, fem. of prosus, earlier prorsus “straightforward, direct,” from Old Latin provorsus “(moving) straight ahead,” from pro “forward” (from PIE root *per- (1) “forward”) + vorsus “turned,” past participle of vertere “to turn” (from PIE root *wer- (2) “to turn, bend”).

Question 21

Repitition/noun

Answer 21

Definition: the action of repeating something that has already been said or written.

Etymology: late Middle English: from Old French repeticion or Latin repetitio(n-), from repetere

Question 22

Satire/noun

Answer 22

Definition: the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.

Etymology: early 16th century: from French, or from Latin satira, later form of satura ‘poetic medley.’

Question 23

Semantics/noun

Answer 23

Definition: the meaning of a word, phrase, sentence, or text.

Etymology: “science of meaning in language,” 1893, from French sémantique (1883); see semantic (also see -ics). Replaced semasiology (1847), from German Semasiologie (1829), from Greek semasia “signification, meaning.”

Question 24

Symbolism/noun

Answer 24

Definition: the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities.

Etymology: 1650s, “practice of representing things with symbols,” from symbol + -ism. Applied to the arts by 1866; attested from 1892 as a movement in French literature, from French symbolisme

Question 25

Theme/noun

Answer 25

Definition: the subject of a talk, a piece of writing, a person’s thoughts, or an exhibition; a topic.

Etymology: Middle English: via Old French from Latin thema, from Greek, literally ‘proposition’; related to tithenai ‘to set or place.’

Question 26

Thesis/noun

Answer 26

Definition: a statement or theory that is put forward as a premise to be maintained or proved.

Etymology: late Middle English (sense 3): via late Latin from Greek, literally ‘placing, a proposition,’ from the root of tithenai ‘to place.’

Question 27

Tone/noun

Answer 27

Definition: the general character or attitude of a place, piece of writing, situation, etc.

Etymology: Middle English: from Old French ton, from Latin tonus, from Greek tonos ‘tension, tone,’ from teinein ‘to stretch.’

Question 28

Transition/noun

Answer 28

Definition: words, phrases, or sentences that connect one topic or idea to another in a paper or essay in a smooth, coherent way

Etymology: mid 16th century: from French, or from Latin transitio(n-), from transire ‘go across.’

Question 29

Voice/noun

Answer 29

Definition: individual writing style of an author, a combination of idiotypical usage of syntax, diction, punctuation, character development, dialogue, etc., within a given body of text

Etymology: Middle English: from Old French vois, from Latin vox, voc- .