Caesar’s English II
Lesson XVIII
• 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.”
• 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.”
• 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.”
• 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.”
• 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?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
adjacent: adjoining
transient: existing briefly
latent: present but inactive
livid: bruised or pale
censure: strong criticism
Caesar’s Classic Words Challenge
1. From Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of
Courage
The youth turned, with sudden, __________ rage,
toward the battlefield.
a. adjacent
b. transient
c. latent
d. livid
Caesar’s Classic Words Challenge
1. From Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of
Courage
The youth turned, with sudden, __________ rage,
toward the battlefield.
a. adjacent
b. transient
c. latent
d. livid
2. From Eudora Welty’s One Writer’s
Beginnings
Photography taught me...to be able to capture
________________.
a.
b.
c.
d.
censure
latency
adjacence
transience
2. From Eudora Welty’s One Writer’s
Beginnings
Photography taught me...to be able to capture
________________.
a.
b.
c.
d.
censure
latency
adjacence
transience
3. From George Elliot’s Silas Marner
Ravelow was not a place where moral
__________ was severe.
a.
b.
c.
d.
censure
latency
adjacence
transience
3. From George Elliot’s Silas Marner
Ravelow was not a place where moral
__________ was severe.
a.
b.
c.
d.
censure
latency
adjacence
transience
The Grammar of Vocabulary:
It
was
only
transient, but
transient, an adjective.
Caesar
saw it.