Collection 2: The Wife of Bath's Tale

As you read Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath's Tale" from "The Canterbury Tales," learn this word list. Here are links to lists for texts in Grade 12's Collection 2: The Wife of Bath's Tale, Mallam Sile, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Saudi Women Take the Wheel, The Men We Carry in Our Minds
50 words 1963 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. preamble
    a preliminary introduction, as to a statute or constitution
  2. meadow
    a field where grass or alfalfa is grown to be made into hay
  3. mote
    a tiny piece of anything
  4. bower
    a framework that supports climbing plants
  5. outhouse
    a small outbuilding with a bench having holes through which a user can defecate
  6. wont
    an established custom
  7. limit
    the boundary of a specific area
  8. incubus
    an evil spirit thought to visit people while they sleep
  9. virtue
    a particular moral excellence
  10. maidenhead
    a fold of tissue that partly covers the entrance to the vagina of a virgin
  11. gage
    an instrument for measuring and indicating a quantity
  12. cosset
    treat with excessive indulgence
  13. score
    a set of twenty
  14. void
    containing nothing
  15. Midas
    (Greek legend) the greedy king of Phrygia who Dionysus gave the power to turn everything he touched into gold
  16. Ovid
    Roman poet remembered for his elegiac verses on love
  17. sedge
    a grassy plant that grows in wet areas around the world
  18. bumble
    speak haltingly
  19. mire
    a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot
  20. peradventure
    doubt or uncertainty as to whether something is the case
  21. gospel
    an unquestionable truth
  22. array
    especially fine or decorative clothing
  23. heady
    marked by defiant disregard for danger or consequences
  24. grace
    elegance and beauty of movement or expression
  25. liege
    a feudal lord entitled to allegiance and service
  26. sovereignty
    government free from external control
  27. behest
    an authoritative command or request
  28. station
    one's proper or designated social position
  29. misalliance
    an unsuitable alliance (especially with regard to marriage)
  30. pilot
    act as the navigator in a car, plane, or vessel
  31. wallow
    roll around
  32. bequeath
    leave or give, especially by will after one's death
  33. Florentine
    a native or resident of Florence, Italy
  34. Dante
    an Italian poet famous for writing the Divine Comedy that describes a journey through Hell and purgatory and paradise guided by Virgil and his idealized Beatrice (1265-1321)
  35. temporal
    characteristic of this world rather than the spiritual world
  36. gentility
    elegance by virtue of fineness of manner and expression
  37. Caucasus
    a large region between the Black and Caspian seas that contains the Caucasus Mountains; oil is its major resource
  38. profession
    an open avowal of some belief or opinion
  39. churl
    a crude or uncouth person lacking culture or refinement
  40. Boethius
    a Roman who was an early Christian philosopher and statesman who was executed for treason; Boethius had a decisive influence on medieval logic (circa 480-524)
  41. Seneca
    Roman statesman and philosopher who was an advisor to Nero
  42. sot
    a chronic drinker
  43. Juvenal
    Roman satirist who denounced the vice and folly of Roman society during the reign of the emperor Domitian (60-140)
  44. estate
    extensive landed property retained by the owner
  45. calumniate
    charge falsely or with malicious intent
  46. rebuke
    censure severely or angrily
  47. fen
    low-lying wet land with grassy vegetation
  48. cuckold
    a man whose wife committed adultery
  49. ecstasy
    a state of elated bliss
  50. bliss
    a state of extreme happiness
Created on Thu Jul 03 23:24:54 EDT 2014 (updated Fri Jul 04 11:33:52 EDT 2014)

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