Summer Assignment Vocab Flashcards
Allegory/noun
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.’
Alliteration/noun
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.’
Allusion/noun
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
Ambiguity/noun
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’
Analogy/noun
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.’
Antithesis/noun
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
Colloquial/adjective
Definition:used in ordinary or familiar conversation; not formal or literary.
Etymology:mid 18th century: from Latin colloquium ‘conversation’ + -a
Connotation/noun
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’
Denotation/noun
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).
Diction/noun
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.’
Extended Metaphor/noun
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”
Figurative Language/noun
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.
Figure of Speech/noun
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.”
Genre/noun
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’
Imagery/noun
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
Inference/infer/noun
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
Irony/ironical/noun
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.’
Personification/noun
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.
Point of View/noun
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.
Prose/noun
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”).
Repitition/noun
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
Satire/noun
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.’
Semantics/noun
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.”
Symbolism/noun
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
Theme/noun
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.’
Thesis/noun
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.’
Tone/noun
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.’
Transition/noun
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.’
Voice/noun
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- .
