CAESAR’S ENGLISH VOCABULARY FROM

LATIN, LESSON VI

VOCABULARY FROM LATIN LESSON VI (6)

WORD DEFINITIONostentatious showy

inexorable inevitable

indolent lazy

doleful mournful

alacrity eagerness

OSTENTATIOUS (OSS-TEN-TAY-SHUSS) ADJ. - SHOWY

The English adjective ostentatious comes from the Latin verb ostentare, which meant to display in a showy or gaudy manner. The noun form of the word is ostentation. In Twain’s Tom Sawyer, there is a “pewter medal which he had worn with ostentation for months.”

In Spanish, ostentatious is ostentoso.

INEXORABLE (IN-EX-ORA-BUL) ADJ. - INEVITABLEInexorable, from the Latin inexorabilis, means inevitable, something than cannot be escaped. William Shakespeare used inexorable in his 1596 classic, Romeo and Juliet, to describe something “More fierce and more inexorable far than empty tigers or the roaring sea.” Which do you think would be more inexorable: empty tigers, or the roaring sea?

In Spanish, inexorable is inexorable.

INDOLENT (IN-DO-LENT) ADJ. - LAZYThe English adjective indolent--indolence is the noun form—comes from the Latin dolere (to feel pain); you are indolent when you are lazy, when you do things that cause you no (in) pain (dol). Being called indolent is not good. In Esther Forbes’s Johnny Tremain, “Dove was garrulous, indolent, complaining, and boastful.”

In Spanish, indolent is indolente.

DOLEFUL (DOLE-FUL) ADJ. - MOURNFULA relative of indolent is the English adjective doleful, which has the same stem, dol, meaning pain. Something is doleful it if is full of pain, mournful. Kenneth Grahame wrote in The Wind in the Willows that “The Rat paid no heed to his doleful self-reproaches.”

In Spanish, doleful is doliente.

ALACRITY (AH-LACK-RIH-TEE) N. - EAGERNESSThe English noun alacrity comes from the Latin alacritas and means an eagerness, a cheerful readiness to something. Benjamin Franklin wrote in his Autobiography that he “proceeded in my electrical experiments with great alacrity.”

In Spanish, alacrity is alacridad.

VOCABULARY FROM LATIN LESSON VI (6)

WORD DEFINITIONostentatious showy

inexorable inevitable

indolent lazy

doleful mournful

alacrity eagerness

CAESAR’S CLASSIC WORDS CHALLENGEFrom Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome

He was too ______________ to move.a. ostentatiousb. inexorablec. dolefuld. indolent

CAESAR’S CLASSIC WORDS CHALLENGEFrom Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome

He was too ______________ to move.a. ostentatiousb. inexorablec. dolefuld. indolent

2. From Joseph Heller’s Catch-22

He was tormented __________ by morbid fantasies.

a. dolefullyb. inexorablyc. ostentatiouslyd. indolently

2. From Joseph Heller’s Catch-22

He was tormented __________ by morbid fantasies.

a. dolefullyb. inexorablyc. ostentatiouslyd. indolently

3. From Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man

He was weak, ___________ weak.

a. dolefullyb. ostentatiouslyc. indolentlyd. inexorably

3. From Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man

He was weak, ___________ weak.

a. dolefullyb. ostentatiouslyc. indolentlyd. inexorably

THE GRAMMAR OF VOCABULARY: OSTENTATIOUSLY, AN ADVERB.Wealthy Romans lived ostentatiously in great villas.

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