Vocab Quiz 8 Flashcards
inveigle
(v.) To win over by wiles: entice. To acquire by ingenuity or flattery.
acquiesce
(v.) to accept, comply, or submit tacitly or passively —often used with in or to.
preternatural
(n.) Existing outside of nature. Exceeding what is natural or regular: extraordinary.
fetish
(n.) An object (such as a small stone carving of an animal) believed to have magical power to protect or
aid its owner; broadly: a material object regarded with superstitious or extravagant trust or reverence. An object
of irrational reverence or obsessive devotion,
homily
(n.) A usually short sermon. A lecture or discourse on or of a moral theme. An inspirational
catchphrase: platitude.
ambience
(n.) A feeling or mood associated with a particular place, person, or thing: atmosphere.
cloister
(n.) A monastic establishment. An area within a monastery or convent to which the religious are
normally restricted. A place or state of seclusion.
enclave
(n.) A distinct territorial, cultural, or social unit enclosed within or as if within foreign territory
gird
(v.) To encircle or bind with a flexible band (such as a belt). To make (something, such as clothing or a
sword) fast or secure (as with a cord or belt). To provide or equip; especially, to invest with the sword of
knighthood. To prepare (oneself) for action.
sequester
(v.) To set apart: segregate. To isolate or hide away.
affected
(adj.) Influenced or touched by an external factor. Artificial, pretentious, and designed to impress
august
(adj.) Marked by majestic dignity or grandeur
amenable
(adj.) Liable to be brought to account: answerable. Capable of submission (as to judgment or test):
suited. Readily brought to yield, submit, or cooperate.
blithe
(adj.) Lacking due thought or consideration: casual, heedless. Of a happy lighthearted character or
disposition.
brusque
(adj.) Markedly short and abrupt. Blunt in manner or speech often to the point of ungracious
harshness.
Parody
A composition that imitates the style of another composition normally for comic effect.
Attitude
A speaker’s, author’s, or character’s disposition toward or opinion of a subject.
Unreliable Narrator
An unreliable narrator is a storyteller who “misses the point” of the events or things he
describes in a story, who plainly misinterprets the motives or actions of characters, or who fails to see the
connections between events in the story. The author herself, of course, must plainly understand the connections,
because she presents the material to the readers in such a way that readers can see what the narrator overlooks.
This device is sometimes used for purposes of irony or humor.
Avant-garde
(French, the vanguard of an army) Describes new writing that demonstrates new style, form,
and/or subject matter.
Epiphany
Christian thinkers used this term to signify a manifestation of God’s presence in the world. It has since become in modern fiction and poetry the standard term for the sudden flare into revelation of an ordinary
object or scene. In particular, the epiphany is a revelation of such power and insight that it alters the entire
world-view of the thinker who experiences it.
Denouement
A French word meaning “unknotting” or “unwinding,” denouement refers to the outcome or
result of a complex situation or sequence of events, an aftermath or resolution that usually occurs near the final
stages of the plot. It is the unraveling of the main dramatic complications in a play, novel or other work of
literature. In drama, the term is usually applied to tragedies or to comedies with catastrophes in their plot. This
resolution usually takes place in the final chapter or scene, after the climax is over. Usually the denouement
ends as quickly as the writer can arrange it–for it occurs only after all the conflicts have been resolved.
Couplet
Two lines–the second line immediately following the first–of the same metrical length that end in a
rhyme to form a complete unit.
Slant Rhyme
Rhymes created out of words with similar but not identical sounds. In most of these instances,
either the vowel segments are different while the consonants are identical, or vice versa.
Modify
To restrict or limit in meaning. In grammar, a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure
or clause structure. A modifier is so called because it is said to modify (change the meaning of) another element in the structure, on which it is dependent. Typically the modifier can be removed without affecting the grammar
of the sentence.
Rhetorical Language
The devices used in effective or persuasive language, e.g., contrast, repetition, paradox,
understatement, sarcasm, and rhetorical question.
per
(prep.) through, along
intra
(prep.) inside, during
sacer
(adj.) holy, sacred
scribo
(v.) to write
probo
(v.) to prove, approve
