Caesar’s English II

1. Caesar’s English II Lesson XVIII

2. adjacent: adjoining • Spanish: adyacente • (ad-JAY-sent) • The English adjective adjacent come from the Latin adjecere, to lie near. Adjacent means nearby or adjoining. Something can be adjacent without actually being in contact, unlike being contiguous, which requires contact. In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, there are “the demesnes that there adjacent lie.”

3. transient: existing briefly • Spanish: transeúnte • (TRAN-see-ent) Our English adjective transient comes from the Latin transire, to go across. The noun form is transience. Transient means existing briefly, passing quickly. In Silent Spring Rachel Carson described, “the vetch and the clover and the wood lily in all their delicate and transient beauty.”

4. latent: present but inactive • Spanish: latente • (LAY-tent) • In ancient Rome, the Latin verb latere meant to lie hidden. The English adjective latent means present but inactive, and therefore potentially hidden. The noun form is latency. In Native Son Richard Wright wrote that “he felt a certain sense of power, a power born of a latent capacity to live.”

5. livid: bruised or pale • Spanish: lívido • (LIV-vid) • Our English adjective livid traces back to the Latin verb livere, to be blue. It can mean black and blue, bruised looking, reddish, or even ashen or pallid; it all depends on the context. In H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds, there is “a wide expanse of livid color cut with purple shadows, and very painful to the eye.”

6. censure: strong criticism • Spanish: censura • (SEN-sure) • The English word censure, which comes from the Latin censura, can be a noun or a verb, and it refers to strong criticism, such as an official reprimand. In Hamlet Shakespeare has a fool, Polonius, instruct his son to “Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.” If everyone did what Polonius asks, what would happen?

7. adjacent: adjoining • transient: existing briefly • latent: present but inactive • livid: bruised or pale • censure: strong criticism

8. Caesar’s Classic Words Challenge • From Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage The youth turned, with sudden, __________ rage, toward the battlefield. • adjacent • transient • latent • livid

9. Caesar’s Classic Words Challenge • From Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage The youth turned, with sudden, __________ rage, toward the battlefield. • adjacent • transient • latent • livid

10. 2. From Eudora Welty’s One Writer’s Beginnings Photography taught me...to be able to capture ________________. • censure • latency • adjacence • transience

11. 2. From Eudora Welty’s One Writer’s Beginnings Photography taught me...to be able to capture ________________. • censure • latency • adjacence • transience

12. 3. From George Elliot’s Silas Marner Ravelow was not a place where moral __________ was severe. • censure • latency • adjacence • transience

13. 3. From George Elliot’s Silas Marner Ravelow was not a place where moral __________ was severe. • censure • latency • adjacence • transience

14. The Grammar of Vocabulary: transient, an adjective. It was only transient, but Caesar saw it.