1. Vocabulary List 4

2. decimate (DES uh mate) verb to kill or destroy a large part of
Synonyms: destroy, slaughter, ravage (RAV ij)

3. decimated
in reference to the practice of punishing mutinous military units by capital execution of one in every 10, by lot; killing one in ten, chosen by lots, from a rebellious city or a mutinous army was a common punishment in classical times.

4. Idiosyncrasies (id ee uh SING kruh see)
adjective
personal peculiarity
Synonyms: oddity, mannerism, eccentricity (ek sen TRIS us tee)

5. idiosyncrasies
Idio (peculiar) + syn (together) + crasis (mixture) From the Greek. Idiotes (where we get the modern idiot) were those who did not hold public office. When Rome came in they assumed the reason one did not hold office was because he lacked intelligence, hence idiot being used in the negative.

6. odyssey (OD uh see) noun long adventurous journey
Synonyms: wandering,roaming, peregrination (per uh gruh NAY shun)

7. odyssey
Odyssey, name of the Homeric epic poem of ancient Greece, relating the 10-year wanderings of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, after the Trojan War. Figurative sense of "long, adventurous journey" is first recorded 1889.

8. quintessence (kwin TES uns)
noun
most essential part or quality; perfect example
Synonyms: essence, model, paragon (PAR uh gon)

9. quintessence
early 15c., in ancient and medieval philosophy, "pure essence, substance of which the heavenly bodies are composed," lit. "fifth essence,"
quinta "fifth" + essentia : the element thought to permeate all things

10. narcissism (NAR suh siz um)
noun
extreme self- love or self-admiration
Synonyms: self-centeredness, conceit, egoism (EE go is um)

11. narcissism
Narkissos, beautiful youth in mythology (Ovid, "Metamorphoses," iii.370) who fell in love with his own reflection in a spring and was turned to the flower narcissus.

12. Root Words Con- together; with Loqu- to speak Sequ- to follow
Congregate, contact
Loqu- to speak
Eloquent, loquacious
Sequ- to follow
Consequence, sequence
Clud – to shut or close
Include, exclude, conclude
Noc – to harm
Innocent, nocuous