English 8

Vocabulary List #1*

August, 2014

1. pestilence (noun) – something that is considered harmful, destructive, or evil

“Miss Maudie’s face likened such an occurrence unto an Old Testament

pestilence.”

The cotton crop failed because of the pestilence brought on by the boll weevil.

Drug trafficking is a pestilence that destroys people and places.

2. assuage (verb) – to provide relief from something unpleasant, distressing, or

painful

“When he was thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.
When it healed, and Jem’s fears of never being able to play football were
assuaged, he was seldom self-conscious about his injury.” (p. 1)

Strong medicine is needed to assuage a migraine.

The flight attendants assuaged the passengers’ fear when the aircraft suddenly
plunged 5,000 feet.

3. illicit (adj.) – something that is unacceptable by prevailing social standards

“I never deliberately learned to read, but somehow I had been wallowing illicitly
in the daily papers.” (p. 17)

Counterfeiting U.S. currency is an illicit activity punishable by incarceration

in a federal penitentiary.

According to the Baylor School Honor Code, lying and stealing are illicit actions
that result in harsh punishment.

4. aloof (adj.) – removed or distant either physically or emotionally

“But I kept aloof from their [Jem and Dill’s] more foolhardy schemes for a while,
on pain of being called a girl . . . “ (p. 42)

After Jenna Fox awakened from her coma, she soon felt the aloofness of her
grandmother Lily, who kept her at an emotional distance.
The new student was shy, but not as aloof as the other students thought
he would be.

5. evasion (noun) – an act or instance of escaping, avoiding, or shirking

something or someone

“Jem’s evasion told me our game was a secret, so I kept quiet.”

The thief’s evasion of the museum guards was successful, and he fled with
a small but priceless painting hidden inside his overcoat.

Right away Mrs. Wright knew Paul’s continued questions were an evasion
to delay her passing out the test.

6. formidable (adj.) – causing fear, dread, or apprehension

“From any angle, it [the figure of Aunt Alexandra] was formidable.” (p. 128)

Our opponents in the basketball game were formidable, tall and strong with
fierce looks on their faces.

The hikers reconsidered their plans after they saw the formidable steepness
of the mountain they’d wanted to climb.

7. obscure (adj.) – not clear or plain; ambiguous; vague

“’They c’n go loose and rape up the countryside for all of ‘em who run this
country care’ was one obscure observation we met head on from a skinny
gentleman when he passed us.” (p. 180)

Obscure memories of her childhood were all Jenna could access after the
traumatic brain injury she suffered in the car accident.

Hal tried his best to solve the algebra problem, but it remained obscure to him
and he never found the answer.

8. fortitude (noun) – strength of mind that enables a person to encounter danger

or bear pain or adversity with courage

“He [Dill] bore with fortitude Miss Rachel’’s Wait Til I Get You Home, Your
Folks Are Out of Their Minds Worryin’, was quite calm during That’s All the
Harris in You Coming Out, smiled at her Reckon You Can Stay One Night, and
returned the hug at long last bestowed upon him.” (p. 142)

The fortitude of the prisoners-of-war enabled them to survive the inhumane

treatment of their captors.

With fortitude, hundreds of firefighters entered the burning Twin Towers in a

desperate effort to save people.

9. sojourn (noun) – a temporary stay

“My sojourn in the corner [of the classroom] was a short one.” (p. 22)

When our house was being renovated, my family had a sojourn in an extended-
stay motel.

Each August before school starts, my family takes a short sojourn to one of the
Gulf beaches.

10. tentative (adj.) – hesitant, uncertain, or cautious

“Jem made a tentative swipe under the bed [after Scout claimed a snake was
there].” (p. 139)

Fearing he might give a wrong answer, Stan was tentative about raising his hand
to answer the teacher’s question.

To the delight of her parents, eighteen-month-old Helen took her first tentative
steps across the sunroom floor.

*All words in Vocabulary List #1 come from To Kill a Mockingbird.