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Thread: Frankenstein – Vocabulary

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    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
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    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
    I only speak two languages, English and bad English.
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    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
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    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
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    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).

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    Quote Originally Posted by gRomoZeka View Post
    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.
    Quote Originally Posted by gRomoZeka View Post
    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!'
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    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?

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