¨   Vocab Lesson 5

¨   Reading and Writing

¨   Word Bank (just pronounce)

¨   Latin saying

¨ Nomen est nomen.

¡ A name is an omen.

¨   Littera

¨ Latin – “letter”

¨   Littera

¨   Familiar words

¨   1. alliteration

¨   Al = Latin – to; toward

¨   Noun

¨   The occurrence of the same initial sound in several words in succession.

¨   In “Renascence,” Edna St. Vincent Millay uses alliteration: “Before the wild wind’s whistling lash…

¨   Other forms

¨   2. Literal, definition #1

¨   Adj.

¨   In accordance with the explicit or primary meaning of the word or phrase – not a metaphorical meaning

¨   The literal meaning of “to spill the beans” does not convey its common meaning “to blurt out a secret.”

¨   2. Literal (definition #2)

¨   Adj.

¨   Word for word – verbatim

¨   A court recorder makes literal transcriptions

¨   Of what is said in the courtroom during a trial.

¨   2. Literal (definition #3)

¨   Adj.

¨   Concerned mainly with facts; unimaginative.

¨   The U.S. Geological Survey’s literal account of the 1989 San Francisco earthquake contrasted sharply with the victim’s emotional accounts.

¨   Other forms

¨   3. Literate, Definition #1

¨   Adj

¨   Able to read and write

¨   To prevent slaves’ becoming literate and better able to escape, southern states passed laws forbidding anyone to teach a slave to read.

¨   3. Literate, Definition #2

¨   Knowledgeable; educated

¨   Elena Cornaro Piscopia, was so literate she became the first woman ever to earn a university degree in Italy in the 1600’s.

¨   Other forms

¨   Literacy – noun

¨   Antonym - illiterate

¨   4. Obliterate

¨   Ob – Latin – off; against

¨   Transitive verb

¨   To do away with completely; to wipe out; erase

¨   Acid rain as begun to obliterate the hieroglyphics  on Cleopatra’s Needle,  an Egyptian monument.

¨   Other form

¨ Obliteration - noun

¨   SCRIBO, SCRIBERE, SCRIPSI, SCRIPTUM

¨ Latin – to write

¨   Familiar words

¨   5. Ascribe

¨   As = Latin – “to;” “toward”

¨   Transitive verb

¨   To attribute to a particular cause, source, or origin

¨   Always use with “to”

¨   Recent studies ascribe the Greek culture to Africa and the Middle East.

¨   Other form

¨ascription

¨   6. Circumscribe, Definition #1

¨   Circum – Latin – “around”

¨   Transitive verb

¨   To fortify their camp by night, pioneers circumscribed it with covered wagons.

¨   6. Circumscribe, Definition #2

¨   To confine; limit

¨   Refusing to let the traditional role of women in the 19^th century circumscribe her life, Alexandra David Neel disguised herself as a monk and traveled extensively in Tibet.

¨   Other form

¨ Circumscription - noun

¨   7. Conscription

¨   Con – Latin – “with”

¨   Noun

¨   A military draft

¨   During the American Civil War, conscription required even very young boys to serve in the military.

¨   Other form

¨   Conscript - noun

¨   8. Proscribe, Definition #1

¨   Pro – Latin – “before,” “for”

¨   Transitive verb

¨   To denounce or condemn

¨   Leaders of the French Revolution proscribed the wearing of wigs or powdering of hair as an aristocratic fault.

¨   8. Proscribe, Definition #2

¨   To prohibit; to forbid

¨   In an attempt to lessen Kurdish influence, the Turkish government proscribed playing Kurdish music in public.

¨   Other form

¨   Proscription - noun

¨   9. Subscribe, Definition #1

¨   Sub – Latin – “under”

¨   Intransitive verb

¨   To pledge to pay for something

¨   To contribute to something

¨   To place an order by signing

¨   In order not to miss a single concert next year, we have decided to subscribe to the whole season.

¨   9. Subscribe, Definition #2

¨   To express consent or agreement; to assent

¨   Refusing to subscribe to the current opinion that only men could be doctors, Elizabeth Blackwell earned her M.D. in 1849.

¨   9. Subscribe, Definition #3

¨   Transitive verb

¨   To sign one’s name to something

¨   When opening an account, a depositor is required to subscribe his or her name to the regulations of the bank.

¨   Other forms

¨   10. Transcribe, Definition 1

¨   Trans – Latin – across + scribe – to write

¨   Transitive verb

¨   To make a copy of; to write out fully.

¨   Many of the works of Aristotle have survived only because Islamic scholars transcribed and preserved them in the libraries of Moorish Spain.

¨   Transcribe, Definition #2

¨   To make a sound recording for later reproduction.

¨   In order to study oral literature, folklorists have transcribed African storytellers reciting epic poems.

¨   Transcribe, Definition #3

¨   To arrange music for an instrument different from the one first composed for.

¨   Musicologists who transcribe Renaissance music written for early instruments like shawms or crumhorns can only approximate their sounds by using oboes and clarinets.

¨   Other forms

¨   Familiar Words

¨   ONOMA

¨   Greek – “name”

¨   11. Acronym

¨   Akros – Greek – “topmost,” “extreme”

¨   + Nym – name

¨   Noun

¨   A word composed of the first letters or parts of a name or series of words.

¨   Laser is an acronym for “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.”

¨   Other forms

¨   12. Onomatopoeia

¨   Onomatapoein – Greek – to coin words

¨   Noun

¨   A word that sounds like the thing it names

¨   The word hiccup is an example of onomatopoeia because its sound imitates the thing it names.

¨   Other forms

¨   13. Pseudonym

¨   Pseud – Greek – “pseudein” “to lie”

¨   Pseud + nym

¨   Noun

¨   A fictitious name

¨   Harriet Stratemeyer Adams wrote under several different pseudonyms, including Carolyn Keene for the Nancy Drew books.