Thread: Frankenstein – Vocabulary

To go along with the book from the thread here are some vocabulary words and quizzes that my daughter was given:

VOLUME 1

Chapter 1
Page 33
Indefatigable – unable to be tired out
Disposition – a person’s usual frame of mind or a habit of a person, acquired tendency

Page 34
Sustenance – means of sustaining health, life, nourishment, livelihood (means of maintenance)
Adversity – distress, affliction, hardship or an unfortunate event/incident
Interment – burial, esp. with ceremonial rites
Doating – (same as to ‘dote’) meaning to love to an excessive or foolish degree

Page 35
Hitherto – until this time, to this place or point (archaic word)

Page 36
Disconsolate – sad beyond comfort, dejected
Penury – extreme poverty, scarcity

Page 37
Chamois – it’s a sure-footed goat antelope (soft suede leather was formerly made from the hide of this animal); a yellow to grayish yellow colour
Apparition – an appearance of a ghostlike figure, the act of being visible

Chapter 2
Page 38
Ardour – feelings of great intensity and warmth, fervour; eagerness and great zeal

Page 39
Caprice – whims; or a sudden change in attitude, behaviour etc
Filial – (adjective) of, resembling, or suitable to a son or daughter

Page 40
Predilection – a predisposition, preference or bias
Inclemency – harsh, severe, stormy, tempestuous
Apathy – absence of interest of or enthusiasm for things that are generally considered interesting or moving (absence of emotion)

Page 41
Chimerical – wildly fanciful, imaginary; indulging in fantasies
Avidity – with great keen and enthusiasm
Imbued – to instil or inspire (with ideals, principles etc)
Tyros – a novice or beginner
Lineaments – distinctive characteristics or features
Citadel – a strongly fortified building or place of safety
Repined – to have been fretful or low-spirited through discontent
Averred – to have stated positively, to allege as a fact or prove to be true

Page 42
Slough – despair or degradation
Multifarious – having many parts of variety
Ardent – expressive of intense desire or emotion; passionate

Page 43
Galvanism – refers to electricity, esp. when produced by chemical means as in a cell/battery. In
Medical terms, it refers to treatment involving the application of electric currents to tissues

Chapter 3
Page 48
Chimeras – according to Greek mythology, it’s a fire-breathing monster with a head of a lion, body of a goat and tail of a serpent – a fabulous beast made up of parts from various other animals. It also means a grotesque product of the imagination. In Biology terms, it’s an organism, esp. a cultivated plant, consisting of at least two genetically different kinds of tissue as a result of mutation, grafting, etc.

Page 49
Panegyric – a public formal commendation (meaning with praise & approval)
Mien- a person’s manner, bearing or appearance, expressing personality or mood
Affability – warmth & friendliness; easy to converse with, approachable

Page 50
Deference –compliance with the will/wishes of another; courteous regard; respect

Chapter 4
Page 51
Physiognomy – a person’s features/characteristic expression considered as an indication of personality; the art or practice of judging character from facial features
Dogmatism – characterised by making authoritative or arrogant assertions/opinions
Pedantry – being in the display of useless knowledge or minute observance of petty rules/details
Abstruse – not easy to understand

Page 53
Minutiae – small, precise or trifling details

Page 54
Infallible – not liable to error, failure, completely dependable and trustworthy
Precepts – a rule or principle for action, a guide or rule for morals; a direction esp. for technical operation
Incessantly – not ceasing, continual

Page 55
Emaciated – to become abnormally thin

Page 56
Procrastinate – to put of an action until a later time; delay

Chapter 5
Page 59
Lassitude – physical or mental weariness
Dante – it’s the name of an Italian poet famous for an allegorical account of his journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise.

Page 63
Convalescence – gradual return to health after illness, injury or an operation, the period during
which such recovery occurs

Chapter 6
Page 66
Placid – easy-going, docile, having a calm nature

Page 67
Vivacity – liveliness, exuberance, full of high spirits and animation
Vacillating – inclined to waver, indecisive (unable to make up your mind)

Page 71
Salubrious – favourable to health; wholesome, respectable, decent, hygienic, healthy

Page 72
Ingenuity – inventive talent, cleverness; Archaic Meaning: frankness, honesty & candour

Page 76
Cabriolet – a small two-wheeled horse drawn carriage with two seats and a folding hood
Decisive – influential, conclusive, characterised by the ability to make decisions; resolute

Page 77
Promontory – a high point of land esp. of rocky coast that juts out into the area

Page 78
Precipices – the steep sheer face of a cliff OR crag or a precarious (unstable & risky) situation

Chapter 8
Page 83
Infamy – the state or condition of being infamous; an infamous act or event Ignominious – disgraceful, causing public shame, dishonourable, humiliating
Exculpated – to free from blame or guilt, to pardon, acquit, to exonerate (the antonym: convict) Execrated – loathed, detested, abhorred, to have cursed and damned a person/thing

Page 85
Timorous – fearful or timid

Page 88
Absolution – release from guilt, obligation, or punishment *
Besieged – to have crowded round victim to bring about surrender; to overwhelm with requests or queries
Excommunication – to sentence (a member of the church) to exclusion from the communion of believers & from privileges & public prayers of the church *
Obdurate – not easily moved by feelings, hard-hearted; impervious to persuasion esp. to moral persuasion
Perdition – another word for hell, (Christianity) a final & irrevocable spiritual ruin *


Page 90
Inexorable – not able to be moved by entreaty or persuasion; relentless
Unhallowed – not consecrated or holy; sinful or profane (irreligious, wicked, sacrilegious)*

*Means it holds religious connotations – directly to do with the Church

Additional Material and Quizzes to practice


Vocabulary - Frankenstein Chapter 1 - 5

Part I: Using Prior Knowledge and Contextual Clues

Below are the sentences in which the vocabulary words appear in the text. Read the sentence. Use any clues you can find in the sentence combined with your prior knowledge, and write what you think the underlined words mean in the space provided.

1. This man, whose name was Beaufort, was of a proud and unbending disposition and could not bear to live in poverty and oblivion in the same country where he had formerly been distinguished for his rank and magnificence.

2. . . . his grief only became more deep and rankling when he had leisure for reflection, and at length it took so fast hold of his mind that at the end of three months he lay on a bed of sickness, incapable of an exertion.

3. During one of their walks a poor cot in the foldings of a vale attracted their notice as being singularly disconsolate, while the number of half-clothed children gathered about it spoke of penury in it worst shape.

4. By one of those caprices of the mind which we are perhaps most subject to in early youth, I at once gave up my former occupations, set down natural history and all its progeny as a deformed and abortive creation, and entertained the greatest disdain for a would-be science which could never even step within the threshold of real knowledge.

5. He then took a cursory view of the present state of the science and explained many of its elementary terms.

6. On the third day my mother sickened; her fever was accompanied by the most alarming symptoms, and the looks of her medical attendants prognosticated the worst.

7. She died calmly, and her countenance expressed affection even in death.

8. He was respected by all who knew him for his integrity and indefatigable attention to public business.

9. . . . and I found even in M. Krempe a great deal of sound sense and real information, combined, it is true, with a repulsive physiognomy and manners, but not on that account the less valuable.

10. But this discovery was so great and overwhelming that all the steps by which I had been progressively let to it were obliterated, and I beheld only the result.


Part II. Determining the Meaning Match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions.

____1.	oblivion	A. irritating
____2.	rankling	B. hastily done
____3.	penury	C. tireless
____4.	caprice	D. destroying completely
____5.	cursory	E. face
____6.	prognosticated	F. facial features with regard to revealing character
____7.	countenance	G. whim
____8.	indefatigable	H. predicted
____9.	physiognomy	I. extreme poverty
____10.	obliterated	J. State of being forgotten

Additional Material and Quizzes to practice
Vocabulary – Frankenstein
Introduction, Preface, Letters

Part I: Using Prior Knowledge and Contextual Clues
Below are the sentences in which the vocabulary words appear in the text. Read the sentence. Use any clues you can find in the sentence combined with your prior knowledge, and write what you think the underlined words mean in the space provided.

1. “...how I, then a young girl, came to think of, and to dilate upon, so very hideous an idea?”
2. His success would terrify the artist; he would rush away from his odious handiwork, horror-stricken.
3. And now, once again, I bid my hideous progeny go forth and prosper.
4. It was commenced partly as a source of amusement and partly as an expedient for exercising any untried resources of mind.
5. I have no one near me, gentle yet courageous, possessed of a cultivated as well as of a capacious mind, whose tastes are like my own, to approve or amend my plans.
6. I am too ardent in execution, and too impatient of difficulties.
7. His limbs were nearly frozen, and his body dreadfully emaciated by fatigue and suffering.
8. I never saw a man in so wretched a condition.
9. Such words, you may imagine, strongly excited my curiosity; but the paroxysm of grief that had seized the stranger overcame his weakened powers....
10. Strange and harrowing must be his story.

Part II: Determining the Meaning Match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions.

_________1.	dilate	A. spasm, convulsion
_________2.	odious	B. children, offspring
_________3.	progeny	C. thin, wasted
_________4.	expedient	D. expand
_________5.	capacious	E. distressing, agonizing
_________6.	ardent	F. passionate, enthusiastic
_________7.	emaciated	G. suitable, practical
_________8.	wretched	H. hateful
_________9.	paroxysm	I. miserable
_________10.	harrowing	J. spacious, roomy

Vocabulary - Frankenstein Chapters 6-9
Part I: Using Prior Knowledge and Contextual Clues
Below are the sentences in which the vocabulary words appear in the text. Read the sentence. Use any clues you can find in the sentence combined with your prior knowledge, and write what you think the underlined words mean in the space provided.

1. He looks upon study as an odious fetter; his time is spent in the open air, climbing the hills or rowing on the lake.
2. The blue lake, the snow-clad mountains, they never change; and I think our placid home, and our contented hears are regulated by the same immutable laws.
3. The poor woman was very vacillating in her repentance.
4. We passed a fortnight in these perambulations: my health and spirits had long been restored, and they gained additional strength from the salubrious air I breathed, the natural incidents of our progress, and the conversation of my friend.
5. Alas! I had turned loose into the world a depraved wretch, whose delight was in carnage and misery; had he not murdered my bother?
6. Justine also was a girl of merit, and possessed qualities which promised to render her life happy: now all was to be obliterated in an ignominious grave; and I the cause! 7. ...but fear, and hatred of the crime of which they supposed her guilty, rendered them timorous, and unwilling to come forward.
7. He threatened excommunication and hell fire in my last moments, if I continued obdurate.
8. Dear lady, I had none to support me; all looked on me as a wretch doomed to ignominy and perdition.
9. ...happy beyond his hopes, if this inexorable fate be satisfied, and if the destruction pause before the peace of the grave have succeeded to your sad torments.

Part II: Determining the Meaning Match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions.

__ 1.	fetter	A. destruction of life
___ 2.	immutable	B. relentless, unyielding
___ 3.	vacillating	C. shackle
___ 4.	salubrious	D. disgraceful
___ 5.	carnage	E. damnation, complete ruin
___ 6.	ignominious	F. unchanging
___7.	timorous	G. fearful
___8.	obdurate	H. fluctuating, wavering
___9.	perdition	I. stubborn
___10.	inexorable	J. healthful

Thanks, rockzmom!
It's very interesting. I always enjoy vocabulary tests, because you can often guess the meaning without actually knowing the word.

Do you know what criteria are usually used when compiling this kind of lists? I see a lot of "difficult" or obscure words, while some of them seem very common (like placid or decisive).

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Thanks, rockzmom! It's very interesting. I always enjoy vocabulary tests, because you can often guess the meaning without actually knowing the word.

Good to know... I will try and obtain some others and post them.

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Do you know what criteria are usually used when compiling this kind of lists? I see a lot of "difficult" or obscure words, while some of them seem very common (like placid or decisive).

I don't know the answer to that one but I can tell you that when I was helping her study last night... I didn't know a number of the words or even how to begin to pronounce them!! A few of them I actually remembered from Pride and Prejudice:

Mr. Darcy: I love you. Most ardently. Please do me the honor of accepting my hand.

Elizabeth Bennet: Do you deny it, Mr.Darcy? That you seperated a young couple who loved each other, exposing your friend to the censure world of caprice and *my sister* to derision and dissapointed hopes, involving them both in acute misery of the worst kind and..

Caroline Bingley: How many letters you must have occasion to write in the course of the year! Letters of business too! How odious I should think them!'

Thanks for the examples! I had to check the words "caprice" and "odious" in my dictionary. and...
It turned out we actually have these words in Russian, and they are pretty common. I did not recognize them immediately because I was confused by the unfamiliar spelling.

Caprice (каприз = kapriz) is pronounced almost the same way, only with 'z' and is one of the most popular Russian words for "a whim".
Odious (одиозный = odiozny) means roughly the same and used mostly in reference to famous historical figures (politics and such). It's a "highbrow" word, but it's often used in media.

Isn't Russian cool?