The Century Vocabulary Builder eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 319 pages of information about The Century Vocabulary Builder.

The Century Vocabulary Builder eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 319 pages of information about The Century Vocabulary Builder.
live, reside rot, putrefy swelling, protuberant soak, saturate soak, absorb stinking, malodorous spit, saliva spit, expectorate thievishness, kleptomania belch, eructate sticky, adhesive house, domicile eye, optic walker, pedestrian talkative, loquacious talkative, garrulous wisdom, sapience bodily, corporeal name, appellation finger, digit show, ostentation nearness, propinquity wash, lave handwriting, chirography waves, undulations shady, umbrageous fat, corpulent muddy, turbid widow, relict horseback, equestrian weight, avoirdupois blush, erubescence

The word of classic origin in many instances survives only or mainly in the form of an adjective; as a noun (or other part of speech) it has completely or largely disappeared.  This fact may be observed in lists already given, particularly List A. It may also be observed in the following words: 

LIST F

moon, lunar               star, stellar         star, sidereal
sun, solar                earth, terrestrial    world, mundane
heaven, celestial         hell, infernal        earthquake, seismic
ear, aural                head, capital         hand, manual
foot, pedal               breast, pectoral      heart, cardial
hip, sciatic              tail, caudal          throat, guttural
lung, pulmonary           bone, osseous         hair, hirsute
tearful, lachrymose       early, primitive      sweet, dulcet,
sweet, saccharine         young, juvenile       bloody, sanguinary
deadly, mortal            red, florid           bank, riparian
hard, arduous             wound, vulnerable     written, graphic
spotless, immaculate      sell, mercenary       son, filial
salt, saline              meal, farinaceous     wood, ligneous
wood, sylvan              cloud, nebulous       glass, vitreous
milk, lacteal             water, aquatic        stone, lapidary
gold, aureous             silver, argent        iron, ferric
honey, mellifluous        loving, amatory       loving, erotic
loving, amiable           wedded, hymeneal      plow, arable
priestly, sacerdotal      arrow, sagittal       wholesome, salubrious
warlike, bellicose        timely, temporary     fiery, igneous
ring, annular             soap, saponaceous     nestling, nidulant
snore, stertorous         window, fenestral     twilight, crepuscular
soot, fuliginous          hunter, venatorial

The fact that English is a double-barreled language, and that of parallel terms one is likely to be native and the other classic, is interesting in itself.  Our lists of parallels, however, though (with the exception of List B) they are arranged to bring out this duality of origin, have other and more vital uses as material for exercises.  For after all it matters little whether we know where a word comes from, provided we know thoroughly the meaning and implications of the word itself.  The lists already given and those to follow show the more important words actually yoked as parallels.  Your task must be to ascertain the differences in import between the words thus joined.

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The Century Vocabulary Builder from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.