Scarlet Letter Vocabulary
Part 1:
1. “Almost as seasonably (able) as they marked out the first burial ground...”
Able: able
appropriate time; right time of year
2. “The rust on the ponderous iron-work of its oaken door looked more antique than anything else in the
new world.”
Pond: weight
Ous: full of
massive; having great weight
3. “Finding it so directly on the threshold of our narrative, which is now about to issue forth from this
inauspicious portal…”
In: in/not
Ous: full of
ominous; a sign of future despair
4. “Amongst any other population… the grim rigidity that petrified the bearded physiognomies of these
good people would have argued some awful business in hand.”
Phys: nature
Gno: know
outward appearance of facial features
5. “But, in that early severity of the puritan character, an inference of this kind could not so indubitably
(able) be drawn…”
In: in/not
Able: Able
6.
unquestionably; not able to be doubted
“Meagre, indeed, and cold, was the sympathy that a transgressor might look for, from such bystanders
at the scaffold”
Trans: across
Gress: step
one who violates the law; to cross the line (transgression)
7. “No sense of impropriety kept these women from elbowing their way to the front, even at the hanging”
Im: in or not
Pro: forward
a failure to follow society’s standard of decency; improper
8. “It would be greatly for the public behoof, if we women, being of mature age and church-members in
good repute, should have the handling of such malefactresses as this Hester Prynne.”
Mal: bad
women who violate the law or do evil
Fac: to do
9. “A blessing on the righteous colony of the Massachusetts, where iniquity dragged out into the open!”
In: in/not
a wicked, unjust or unrighteous act; sin
10. “Possibly, it was an instinctive device of her spirit, to relieve itself, by the exhibition of these
phantasmagoric forms, from the cruel weight and hardness of the reality.”
Phan: appearance; show
a rapid sequence of images or visions
11. “Knowing your natural temper better than I, he could the better judge what arguments to use, whether
of tenderness or terror, such as might prevail over your hardness and obstinacy; insomuch that you
should no longer hide the name of him who tempted you to this grievous fall”
Ob: against
persistent stubbornness; unyielding; being difficult
12. “…and, I promise you, Mistress Prynne shall hereafter be more amenable to just authority than you may
found her heretofore.”
A: not or without
willing to answer; open to suggestion
Able: able
13. “Throughout them all, giving up her individuality, she would become the general symbol at which the
preacher and moralist might point, and in which they might vivify and embody their images of a
woman’s frailty and sinful passion…”
Viv: life
to give life to; lively or active; animate
Fy: make
14. “A wise sentence!” remarked the stranger, gravely bowing his head. “Thus she will be a living sermon
against sin, until the ignominious letter be engraved upon her tombstone. It irks me, nevertheless, that the
partner of her iniquity should not, at least, stand on the scaffold by her side.”
Gno: know
ous: full of
dishonor; public contempt; humiliation
Part 2:
14. “Again, a mystic sisterhood would contumaciously assert itself, as she met the sanctified frown of
some matron, who, according to the rumor of all tongues, had kept cold snow within her bosom
throughout life.”
15. “It was as if a new birth, with stronger assimilations than the first, had converted the forest-land, still so
uncongenial to every other pilgrim and wanderer, into Hester Prynne’s wild and dreary, but life-long
home”
16. “Baby-linen--for babies then wore robes of state--afforded still another possibility of toil and
emolument…”
17. “This outward mutability indicated, and did not more than fairly express, the various properties of her
inner life”
18. “She remembered—betwixt a smile and a shudder—the talk of the neighbouring townspeople; who,
seeking vainly elsewhere for the child’s paternity, and observing some of her odd attributes, had given
out that poor little Pearl was a demon offspring”
19. “The young minister, on ceasing to speak, had withdrawn a few steps from the group, and stood with
his face partially concealed in the heavy folds of the window-curtain; while the shadow of his figure,
which the sunlight cast upon the floor, was tremulous with the vehemence (ment) of his appeal”
20. “Two or three individuals hinted that the man of skill, during his Indian captivity, had enlarged his
medical attainments by joining in the incantations of the savage priests…”
21. “To sum up the matter, it grew to be a widely diffused opinion, that the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale,
like many other personages of especial sanctity, in all ages of the Christian world, was haunted either by
Satan himself, or Satan’s emissary, in the guise of old Roger Chillingworth.”
22. “Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, at noon day and entirely unawares, fell into a deep, deep slumber, sitting in
his chair, with a large black-letter volume open before him on the table. It must have been a work of vast
ability in the somniferous school of literature.”
23. “While thus suffering under bodily disease, and gnawed and tortured by some black trouble of the soul,
and given over to the machinations (machy) of his deadliest enemy, the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale had
achieved a brilliant popularity in his sacred office.”
24. “The earliest riser... half crazed betwixt alarm and curiosity, would go... summoning all the people to
behold the ghost- as he needs must think it- of some defunct transgressor.”
25. “Forgive, and leave his further retribution to the Power that claims it! I said, but now, that there could
be no good event for him, or thee, or me, who are here wandering together in this gloomy maze of evil,
and stumbling, at every step, over the guilt wherewith we have strewn our path.”
26. “All these giant trees and boulders of granite seemed intent on making a mystery of the course of this
small brook; fearing, perhaps, that, with its never-ceasing loquacity, it should whisper tales out of the
heart of the old forest whence it flowed, or mirror its revelations on the smooth surface of a pool.”
27. “Such was the sympathy of Nature- that wild, heathen nature of the forest, never be subjugated by
human law, nor illumined by higher truth-with the bliss of these two spirits!”
28. “But Pearl, not a whit startled at her mother’s threats, any more mollified (fy) by her entreaties...”