Perdue, English 10, VOCABULARY - Othello : Act I
Part I: Using Prior Knowledge and Contextual Clues
Below are the sentences in which the vocabulary words appear in the text. After you have found the
word in the text, read the sentence again. Use any clues you can find in the sentence combined with
your prior knowledge, and write what you think the underlined words mean in the space
provided. If you can’t determine the meaning based on the context, then look up the word in
the dictionary and write in the definition in the space provided.
1. But he, as loing his own pride and purposes, Evades them, with a bombast circumstance Horribly
stuffed with epithets of war.
2. 'Tis the curse of service, Preferment goes by letter and affection, And not by old gradation, where
each second Stood heir to the first.
3. You shall mark Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave That doting on his own obsequious
bondage Wears out his time, much like his master's ass, For naught but provender. . . .
4. My house is not a grange.
5. But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier, To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor ---
6. If she be in her chamber or your house, Let loose on me the justice of the state For thus
deluding you.
7. 'Tis yet to know -- Which, when I know that boasting is an honor, I shall promulgate -- . . . .
8. Who'er he be that in this foul proceeding Hath thus beguiled your daughter of herself And you of
her, the bloody book of law You shall yourself read in the bitter letter . . . .
9. A natural and prompt alacrity I find in hardness, and do undertake These present wars against the
Ottomites.
Part II: Determining the Meaning - Match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions.
____ 1. bombast
____ 2. preferment
____ 3. obsequious
____ 4. grange
____ 5. lascivious
____ 6. deluding
____ 7. promulgate
____ 8. beguiled
____ 9. alacrity
A. farm; grainery
B. deceiving
C. promotion
D. lecherous
E. eagerness; quickness
F. puffed-up; pompous
G. officially announce
H. diverted; taken away; also charmed or delighted
I. fawning; showing servile compliance