Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy               Vocabulary List 4

1.       Zenith [56] – highest point or state; point directly above a place or observer

2.       Equinox [58] – time when the sun crosses the earth’s equator, making night and day all over the earth of equal length

3.       Myriad [59] – infinitely great number

4.       Declivity[59]  – downward slope of the ground

5.       Fetish [60] – a material, commonly inanimate, regarded with awe as being the embodiment or habitation of  a potent spirit or of having magical potency; any object of blind revernce

6.       Languor [60] – lack of energy; indolence; physical weakness or faintness

7.       Stagnation [60] – not moving; being still

8.       Incipient [62] – beginning to exist or appear; in the initial stages

9.       Desponding[62]  – sad; losing heart, courage, or hope

10.       Impale [63] – fix upon a sharpened stake or something similar

11.    Paddock [63] – small pen or enclosure for pasture near a stable

12.    Insidiously [63] – sneakily; in a manner intended to entrap or beguile; treacherously in a sneaky manner

13.    Dilatorily [64] – in a manner inclined to procrastinate; slowly, tardily, not promptly

14.    Parian [64] – of or pertaining to Paros, noted for its white marble

15.    Pique [65] – irritation, resentment, esp. from some wound to one’s pride

16.    Perfunctorily [65] -  without thought; automatically

17.    Automaton [65] – mechanical figure or contrivance designed to act as if spontaneously through concealed motive power; a person who acts in a monotonous, routine manner without active intelligence [our robots today are automatons, so you can see what describing someone as an automaton means]

18.    Alacrity [67] – liveliness, briskness, sprightliness; cheerful readiness or willingness

19.    Equipoise [68] – an equal distribution of weight; equal balance; equilibrium

20.    Intractably [72] – not docilely, stubbornly; in a manner hard to deal with; unmanageably

English IV