Unit11 Flashcards
cantata
A musical composition, particularly a religious work from the 17th or 18th century, for one or more voices accompanied by instruments.
eg. Composers of the 18th century composed sacred cantatas by the dozen, and Bach’s friend G. P. Telemann actually wrote over a thousand.
incantation
(1) A use of spells or verbal charms spoken or sung as part of a ritual of magic. (2) A formula of words used in, or as if in, such a ritual.
eg. He repeated the words slowly over and over like an incantation.
cantor
An official of a Jewish synagogue who sings or chants the music of the services and leads the congregation in prayer.
eg. The congregation waited for the cantor to begin the prayers before joining in.
descant
An additional melody sung above the principal melody.
eg. The soprano added a soaring descant to the final chorus that held the listeners spellbound.
linguistics
The study of human speech.
eg. The new speechwriter, who had majored in linguistics, was soon putting his knowledge of the deceptive tricks of language to good use.
multilingual
Using or able to use several languages.
eg. She soon discovered that he was truly multilingual, fluent in not only the German and Polish he had grown up speaking but in English and Arabic as well.
lingua
A language used as a common or commercial language among peoples who speak different languages.
eg. That first evening in Tokyo, she heard English being spoken at the next table, and realized it was serving as a lingua franca for a party of Korean and Japanese businessmen.
linguine
A narrow, flat pasta.
eg. As a test of her clients’ table manners, she would serve them challenging dishes and watch to see how gracefully they could handle chopsticks or deal with long, slithery linguine.
spirited
Full of energy or courage; very lively or determined.
eg. The team put up a spirited defense, but they were doomed from the start.
dispiriting
Causing a loss of hope or enthusiasm.
eg. It was terribly dispiriting for them to lose yet another game, and he had to reassure his daughter that she’d actually done a great job as goalie.
respirator
(1) A device worn over the nose and mouth to filter out dangerous substances from the air. (2) A device for maintaining artificial respiration.
eg. His lungs had been terribly damaged by decades of heavy smoking, and he’d been living on a respirator for the last year.
transpire
(1) To happen. (2) To become known.
eg. We kept up our questioning, and it soon transpired that the boys had known about the murder all along .
verify
(1) To prove to be true or correct. (2) To check or test the accuracy of.
eg. It is the bank teller’s job to verify the signature on a check.
aver
To state positively as true; declare.
eg. The defendant averred that she was nowhere near the scene of the crime on the night in question.
verisimilitude
(1) The appearance of being true or probable. (2) The depiction of realism in art or literature.
eg. By the beginning of the 20th century, the leading European painters were losing interest in verisimilitude and beginning to experiment with abstraction.
veracity
(1) Truth or accuracy. (2) The quality of being truthful or honest.
eg. We haven’t been able to check the veracity of most of his story, but we know he wasn’t at the motel that night.
