Thoreau Vocabulary

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Thoreau Vocabulary

• Quiz on Friday, December 10

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dilapidated
(adj.) in disrepair
the gray color and ruinous state of the house
and barn, and the dilapidated fences,
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derision
(noun) ridicule contempt
I concluded that he laughed in derision of my
efforts confident of his own resources.
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tumultuous
(adj.) stormy turbulent
and so I left him disappearing far away on the
tumultuous surface.
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superfluous
(adj.) excessive not necessary
our best virtue has for its occasion a
superfluous and evitable wretchedness.
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magnanimity
(noun) generosity
No man loses ever on a lower level by
magnanimity on a higher.
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ethereal
(adj.) not earthly spiritual
we shall be sure to gaze still at the true
ethereal heaven far above, as if the former were
not?
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expedient
(noun) resource
Government is at best but an expedient
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alacrity
(noun) speed
yet this government never of itself furthered
any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it
got out of its way.
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perverted
(verb) misdirected corrupted
The government itself, is equally liable to be
abused and perverted before the people can act
through it.
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posterity
(noun) generations to come
what is it but a tradition endeavoring to
transmit itself unimpaired to posterity
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inherent
(adj.) inborn
The character inherent in the American people
has done all that has been accomplished
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deference
(noun) respect courtesy regard
In the code of military etiquette silence and
fixity are forms of deference.
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dictum
(noun) formal statement of fact or opinion
the frankly villainous dictum that all is fair
in love and war.
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ineffable
(adj.) too overwhelming to be spoken
At the bottom of the steps she stands waiting,
with a smile of ineffable joy