Caesar’s English II Lesson XI
GRAT (PLEASING) GRATIFICATION,
INGRATIATE, GRATUITOUS
• GRAT means pleasing.
• Gratification is when you are
pleased; to ingratiate yourself with
someone means trying to please him
and win him over; and a gratuitous
assumption is unfounded; it is one
that might please you, but it has no
good reason or evidence, so it is
pleasing, but probably false!
• Spanish…gratificación
curr (run) current, recur, incur
• CURR means run.
• A current runs in a
stream; something recurs
when it happens again,
like a rerun; and to incur
costs means to run into
them!
• Spanish…incurrir
trans (across) transfer,
transfusion, transcendent
• TRANS means across.
• To transfer means to
move things across from
here to there; a
transfusion moves blood
across from a person or
bottle to another person;
and transcendent things
are superior--they cross
beyond anything
previously done.
• Spanish…transcendente
migr (wander) migrate, migratory,
transmigration
• MIGR means wander.
• To migrate is to wander or
move to a new place;
migratory birds fly south
for the winter, as though
they were wandering
through the skies; and the
transmigration of souls is
the idea that souls wander
to a new being at death!
• Spanish…transmigración
rupt (break) abrupt, corrupt,
disrupt
• RUPT means break.
• An abrupt change is a
sharp break in an event; a
corrupt official has
broken morals; and to
disrupt an event is to
break it up!
• Spanish…abrupto
Advanced Word: Gratuitous
The adjective gratuitous means
unfounded or unmerited. It might be
pleasing to you, but it is not necessary
or based on evidence. In Thomas
Hardy’s 1886 novel The Mayor of
Casterbridge, he wrote that “A
gratuitous ordeal was in store for her
in the matter of her handwriting.”
Henry David Thoreau used
gratuitous in his 1854 Walden, to say
that we should care for our neighbor:
“We should feed and clothe him
gratuitously sometimes.”
Caesar’s English II Lesson XI
Stem
meaning
Example
GRAT
CURR
TRANS
MIGR
RUPT
PLEASING
RUN
ACROSS
WANDER
BREAK
gratitude
current
transfer
migrate
interrupt
Toady : Ingratiate ::
a.
b.
c.
d.
current : event
corrupt : crime
transfuse : blood
bird : migrate
Toady : Ingratiate ::
a.
b.
c.
d.
current : event
corrupt : crime
transfuse : blood
bird : migrate
Transfer : Goods ::
a.
b.
c.
d.
hunger : gratify
corrupt : money
transfuse : blood
costs : incur
Transfer : Goods ::
a.
b.
c.
d.
hunger : gratify
corrupt : money
transfuse : blood
costs : incur
Find the best opposite.
INCUR
a.
b.
c.
d.
avoid
recur
current
transfer
INCUR
a.
b.
c.
d.
avoid
recur
current
transfer
GRATUITOUS
a.
b.
c.
d.
transcendent
justified
corrupt
disrupted
GRATUITOUS
a.
b.
c.
d.
transcendent
justified
corrupt
disrupted
Caesar believed that his military
abilities were ___________.
a.
b.
c.
d.
ambuscaded
current
transcendent
disrupted
Caesar believed that his military
abilities were ___________.
a.
b.
c.
d.
ambuscaded
current
transcendent
disrupted
The senators believed that Caesar’s
decision was merely __________.
a.
b.
c.
d.
recurring
omniscient
migratory
gratuitous
The senators believed that Caesar’s
decision was merely __________.
a.
b.
c.
d.
recurring
omniscient
migratory
gratuitous
Barbarian uprisings ____________
in Gaul throughout the decade.
a.
b.
c.
d.
recurred
transfused
transmigrated
reiterated
Barbarian uprisings ____________
in Gaul throughout the decade.
a.
b.
c.
d.
recurred
transfused
transmigrated
reiterated
The Grammar of Vocabulary:
gratuitous, an adjective.
Cicero delivered a diatribe of gratuitous insults.
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Caesar’s Classic Words Challenge
From Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield
This was entirely a __________ assumption.
a.
b.
c.
d.
recurrent
corrupt
gratuitous
transcendent
From Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield
This was entirely a __________ assumption.
a.
b.
c.
d.
recurrent
corrupt
gratuitous
transcendent
From James Hilton’s Lost Horizon
Shangri-La was interesting enough to _________
these attitudes.
a.
b.
c.
d.
disrupt
incur
transmigrate
transcend
From James Hilton’s Lost Horizon
Shangri-La was interesting enough to _________
these attitudes.
a.
b.
c.
d.
disrupt
incur
transmigrate
transcend
From Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim
He kept on trying to __________ himself with
all.
a.
b.
c.
d.
ingratiate
transfer
disrupt
migrate
From Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim
He kept on trying to __________ himself with
all.
a.
b.
c.
d.
ingratiate
transfer
disrupt
migrate