Vocabulary 1.2 Review 

Baleful Baleful: threatening harm; menacing Sentence: Bill shot a baleful glance in her direction Somebody give me a sentence!

Circumspect Circumspect: wary and unwilling to take risks Sentence: the officials were very circumspect in their statements  Another sentence?

Didactic Didactic: intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive  Sentence: Nickle and Dimed is a didactic book that set out to expose social injustice 

Ingenuous Ingenuous: (of a person or action) innocent and unsuspecting.  Sentence: Jessica’s ingenuous nature made her an easy target for the con man. 

Perfunctory Perfunctory: (of an action or gesture) carried out with a minimum of effort or reflection.  Sentence: He gave a perfunctory nod.

Prodigal Prodigal: spending money or resources freely and recklessly; wastefully extravagant.  Sentence: Prodigal habits are wasteful but hard to stop. 

Qualify Qualify: be entitled to a particular benefit or privilege by fulfilling a necessary condition  Sentence: They do not qualify for compensation payments 

Reprove Reprove: reprimand or censure (someone) Sentence: He was reproved for obscenity.

Xenophobia Xenophobia: intense or irrational dislike of people from other countries.  Sentence: British attitudes shifted from relative openness to dislike and distrust, and even racial xenophobia.

Zenith Zenith: the highest point reached by a celestial or other object  Sentence: the sun was well past the zenith"

Ambiguity When a sentence is ambiguous, it has at least two different interpretations. Ex: I rode a black horse in red pajamas It may also refer to multiple interpretations in literature through wording, symbol, or action. “The Sick Rose”, a short lyric written by William Blake, is full of ambiguities: “O Rose thou art sick. The invisible worm, That flies in the night In the howling storm: Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy; And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy”

Antithesis An antithesis is used when the writer employs two sentences of contrasting meanings in close proximity to one another. Whether they are words or phrases of the same sentence, an antithesis is used to create a stark contrast using two divergent elements that come together to create one uniform whole. When Neil Armstrong walked on the moon it might have been one small step for a man but it was one giant leap for mankind. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” “To be, or not to be”

Chiasmus Definition: a figure of speech containing two phrases that are parallel but inverted to each other. Example:  You can take the patriot out of the country but you cannot take the country out of the patriot.

Connotation Definitions: the associations people make with words that go being the literal or dictionary definition. Many words have connotations that create emotions or feelings in the reader. Examples:   And once again, the autumn leaves were falling. This phrase uses ‘autumn’ to signify something coming to an end. “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?” “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts,”

Denotation Denotation is generally defined as literal or dictionary meanings of a word in contrast to its connotative or associated meanings. “And on a day we meet to walk the line And set the wall between us once again. We keep the wall between us as we go. To each the boulders that have fallen to each.” In the above lines, the word “wall” is used to suggest a physical boundary which is its denotative meaning but it also implies the idea of “emotional barrier”.

Epigraph An epigraph is a literary device in the form of a poem, quotation or sentence usually placed at the beginning of a document or a simple piece having a few sentences but which belongs to another writer. Example: Ernest Hemingway used Gertrude Stein’s famous quotation, “You are all a lost generation” in the beginning of his bookThe Sun Also Rises.

Invective The term invective denotes speech or writing that attacks, insults, or denounces a person, topic, or institution. It involves the use of abusive and negative use of language. The tool of invective is generally used to reiterate the significance of the deeply felt emotions of the writer. Ex: “A knave, a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave… and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch…”

Syllepsis When a single word that governs or modifies two or more others must be understood differently with respect to each of those words. A combination of grammatical parallelism and semantic incongruity, often with a witty or comical effect. Not to be confused with zeugma. Examples: Rend your heart, and not your garments. Joel 2:13 “Rend" governs both objects, but the first rending is figurative; the second, literal“ Fix the problem, not the blame." —Dave Weinbaum  The verb "fix" governs both "problem" and "blame." In its first instance, "fix" means "solve," but this verb shifts its meaning when applied to its second object, where the understood "fix" = "assign."

Syllepsis and Zuegma zeugma a figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses (e.g., John and his license expired last week) or to two others of which it semantically suits only one (e.g., with weeping eyes and hearts). syllepsis a figure of speech in which a word is applied to two others in different senses (e.g., caught the train and a bad cold) or to two others of which it grammatically suits only one (e.g., neither they nor it is working). According to this, there is some overlap, though zeugma is more about semantics and syllepsisabout grammar. Online sources on this issue conflict, with some insisting one the difference (“not to be confused with zeugma”) and others stating that the two have merged.