Unit 4: Vocabulary from Readings 4

This list covers Antigone, Lines 710–1500.
15 words 87 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. culprit
    someone or something responsible for harm or wrongdoing
    Since I caught her clearly disobeying,
    the only culprit in the entire city,
    I won’t perjure myself before the state.
  2. perjure
    make oneself guilty of telling untruths in a court of law
    Since I caught her clearly disobeying,
    the only culprit in the entire city,
    I won’t perjure myself before the state.
  3. prerogative
    a right reserved exclusively by a person or group
    You’re not honouring that by trampling on
    the gods’ prerogatives.
  4. piety
    righteousness by virtue of being religiously devout
    I’ll set out provisions,
    as much as piety requires, to make sure
    the city is not totally corrupted.
  5. squander
    spend thoughtlessly; throw away
    O Eros, the conqueror in every fight,
    Eros, who squanders all men's wealth
  6. pervert
    corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality
    Even in good men you twist their minds,
    perverting them to their own ruin.
  7. devout
    deeply religious
    To be piously devout shows reverence
  8. libation
    a serving of wine poured out in honor of a deity
    When you died, with my own hands I washed you.
    I arranged your corpse and at the grave mound
    poured out libations.
  9. reverence
    a feeling of profound respect for someone or something
    Look on me, you lords of Thebes,
    the last survivor of your royal house,
    see what I have to undergo,
    the kind of men who do this to me,
    for paying reverence to true piety.
  10. defile
    spot, stain, or pollute
    In the city
    our altars and our hearths have been defiled,
    all of them, with rotting flesh brought there
    by birds and dogs from Oedipus’ son,
    who lies there miserably dead.
  11. intransigence
    stubborn refusal to compromise or change
    All men make mistakes—that’s not uncommon.
    But when they do, they’re no longer foolish
    or subject to bad luck if they try to fix
    the evil into which they’ve fallen,
    once they give up their intransigence.
  12. pithy
    concise and full of meaning
    What sort of pithy common thought
    are you about to utter?
  13. denigrate
    attack the good name and reputation of someone
    I have no desire
    to denigrate a prophet when I speak.
  14. ominous
    threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments
    To me her staying silent was extreme—
    it seems to point to something ominous,
    just like a vain excess of grief.
  15. profanity
    vulgar or irreverent speech or action
    You see us here, all in one family—
    the killer and the killed.
    Oh the profanity of what I planned.
Created on Fri Nov 19 17:28:58 EST 2021 (updated Wed Jan 05 15:17:34 EST 2022)

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