Directions: Familiarize yourself with the words below, their definitions, synonyms, and etymology. You will use each of these vocabulary words to complete Language
Activity 5. The roots and affixes in bold print are among the most common.
Vocab word
P.O.S.
Definition
Example
Synonyms
abnegate
v
to give up; to deny
oneself
abdicate,
relinquish,
renounce
affected
adj
phony, artificial
After his retirement, the former
police commissioner found it
difficult to abnegate authority and
continued to write traffic tickets.
The affected hairdresser spouted
French phrases, though she had never
been to France.
certitude
n
assurance, freedom
from doubt
assurance,
confidence
diffuse
v
adj
disperse,
disseminate,
scatter
consequential,
momentous,
pivotal
dis, dif, di—
not, apart,
away
epochal
to spread out widely,
to scatter freely, to
disseminate
momentous, highly
significant
The witness’ certitude about the night
in question had a big impact on the
jury, who acquitted him.
They turned on the fan, but all that
did was diffuse the cigarette smoke
throughout the room.
The Supreme Court’s epochal
decision will no doubt affect
generations to come.
feckless
adj
ineffective, worthless
purposeless,
worthless
grandiloquence
n
pompous talk; fancy
but meaningless
language
impudent
adj
marked by cocky
boldness or disregard
for others
intimation
n
a subtle and indirect
hint
misanthrope
n
a person who hates or
distrusts mankind
Anja took on the responsibility of
caring for her aged mother, realizing
that her feckless sister was not up to
the task because she had run away
with the circus.
The headmistress was notorious for
her grandiloquence at the lectern,
from which she lectured with
beautiful language about nothing at
all, and her ostentatious clothes,
which she wore even when she had
no place special to go.
Considering that everyone must
follow school rules, it was impudent
of the student to assume the teacher
would allow him to use his cell
phone in class.
Babu intimated that Mabel wasn’t as
good with vocabulary as she claimed
by elbowing her, rolling his eyes, and
raising his eyebrows when she
misused the word “gauche.”
Scrooge was such a misanthrope that
even the sound of children singing
happy songs made him angry.
Latin/Greek
affix
ab—from,
away, apart
Latin/Greek root
ad—to
fac, fic, fect,
fy, fea—make,
do
affectation
affection
benefactor
certus—
certain
certain
ascertain
fus--pour
digress
profuse
epocha—
measure of
time
epoch
less—lack
feck—effect
ineffective
efficacy
pompousness,
pretension
grand—large
loqu, loc,
log—speech,
thought
eloquent
loquacious
monologue
audacious,
brazen
im, in, ig, il,
ir—not
pud--
repudiate
clue, hint,
insinuation
in, il, im, ir—
in, on, into
tim—fear,
frightened
timid
intimidate
hater
mis—wrong,
bad, hate
anthrop—
human
anthropology
philanthropy
feigned,
insincere,
meretricious
neg—not,
deny
Related root
words
negative
Vocab word
P.O.S.
Definition
Example
Synonyms
obfuscate
v
to confuse, make
obscure
conceal,
obscure
paradigm
n
an outstandingly
clear or typical
example
plaintive
adj
expressive of
suffering or woe,
melancholy
promulgate
v
to make known by
open declaration,
proclaim
recapitulate
v
to review by a brief
summary
Benny always obfuscates the
discussion by bringing in irrelevant
facts, stringing them along one after
the other in an attempt to make others
forget what they were talking about
in the first place.
The new restaurant owner used the
successful fast-food giant as a
paradigm for expansion into new
locales.
The cries from the girl trapped in the
tree were plaintive and heard by all,
pinging and zinging over the open
space of the prairie under the
sapphire blue of a cloudless sky.
The publicist, in an open letter to
People Magazine, promulgated the
idea that the celebrity had indeed
gotten married.
After the long-winded president
had finished his speech, his assistant
took five minutes to recapitulate for
the press the points he had made.
sacrilegious
adj
sportive
adj
impious, irreverent
toward what is held
to be sacred or holy
frolicsome, playful
temerity
n
unreasonable or
foolhardy disregard
for danger,
recklessness
unconscionable
adj
unscrupulous;
shockingly unfair or
unjust
wanton
adj
undisciplined,
unrestrained, reckless
example,
standard
Latin/Greek
affix
ob—against
Latin/Greek root
para—beside
deiknynia—to
show
paranormal
pleint—
mournful,
sad
melancholy,
mournful,
pathetic
fus—pour
Related root
words
infusion
profusion
advertise,
announce,
proclaim
pro—forth
vulgare— publish,
make
public
vulgar
reiterate,
review,
summarize
re--again
capitulum—
main part
capital
It’s considered sacrilegious for one
to enter a mosque wearing shoes.
blasphemous,
irreverent
sacr, sanct—
holy
legere—take,
pick up
religion
sacred
The lakeside vacation meant more
sportive opportunities for the kids
than the culinary and wine tasting
tour through France.
energetic,
lively, spry
desporter—to
amuse oneself,
play
sports
I offered her a ride since it was late
and her way home included a walk
through the woods, but she had the
temerity to say she’d rather walk than
ride in my beat-up old truck.
It is unconscionable to send students
to take the AP Language exam
without preparing them through
Language Activities and précis
writing.
Painting graffiti on the statue of the
AP Language teacher was a wanton
display of disrespect.
audacity,
recklessness
temere—by
chance,
blindly, rashly
tenebrous
timorous
scie—to know
conscious
conscience
wan—lacking
wan
wane
immoral,
unjust
careless,
capricious,
frivolous
un—not
con—with
able—capable
of being
AP Language and Composition
Grammar Lecture 5
Directions: Completed cells indicate background information. Blank cells, which you will fill in with your own notes, indicate the focus of the lecture. Use this
information to assist you in completing Language Activity 5.
Terminology
Definition
Rhetorical purpose
Example(s)
cumulative
sentence
periodic sentence
balanced sentence
interrupted
sentence
dash
punctuation mark (formed by typing two hyphens on
the keyboard) used to set off material in a sentence
Use a dash to indicate a sudden break or
change in a sentence, to set off an
introductory series or parenthetical material,
or to indicate interruption.
Near the semester’s end—and this is not always
due to poor planning—some students find
themselves in a real time crunch.
A good book, a cup of tea, a comfortable chair—
these things always saved my mother’s sanity.
A single incident—a tornado that came without
warning—changed the face of the small town
forever.
Sojourner: Mama, why are you—
Mama: Isabelle, do as I say!