Vocabulary 3: The odyssey
1. Adversity: hardship; great misfortune.
Sentence: If you could see it all, before you go – all the adversity you face at sea –
2. Formidable: awe- inspiring by reason for excellence; strikingly impressive.
Sentence: I am Laertes’ , son of Odysseus. Men hold me formidable for guile in peace and war.
3. Ravage: destroy violently; ruin.
Sentence: Or are you wandering rogues, who cast your lives like dice, and ravage other folk by sea.
4. Profusion: large supply; abundance
Sentence: I held this in the fires heart and turned it, toughening it, then hid it, well back in the cavern,
under one of the dung piles in profusion there.
5. Adversary: enemy; opponent
Sentence: Far out, as far offshore as shouted words would carry, I sent a few back to the adversary.
6. Rancor: bitter hatred; ill will.
Sentence: Merciless in rancor, for the son whose eyes you blinded,
7. Abominably: in an extremely unpleasant or disgusting manor.
Sentence: That is the den of Scylla, where she yaps abominably, a newborn whelp’s cry.
8. Ardor: passion; enthusiasm.
Sentence: The lovely voices in ardor appealing over the water made me crave to listen.
9. Tumult: commotion; uproar; confusion
Sentence: When I saw smoke and white water, with sound of waves in tumult—a sound the men heard,
and terrified them.
10. Restitution: compensation; repayment
Sentence: Restitution or penalty they shall pay.
11. Candor: honesty; frankness
Sentence: Telemachus with his clear candor said: “I am with you, Uncle.”
12. Disdainful: scornful; regarding someone as beneath you
Sentence: And one disdainful suitor added this: “May his fortune grow an inch for every inch he bends
it!”
13. Adorn: add beauty to; decorate
Sentence: Other amusements later, with son and harping that adorn a feast.
14. Revelry: merrymaking; festivity
Sentence: In that revelry amid his throng of friends who would imagine a single foe—
15. Glowered: glared; stared angrily
Sentence: Odysseus glowered under his black brows.
16. Avails: is to use; helps
Sentence: The pouncing falcons grip their prey, no frantic wing avails
17. Lavished: gave generously
Sentence: Athena: one whose work moves to delight: just so she lavished beauty of Odysseus’ head and
shoulders.
18. Aloof: at a distance; unfriendly
Sentence: Who else would in the world would keep aloof as you do from her husband.
19. Pliant: flexible
Sentence: A pliant web of oxhide thongs dyed crimson.
20. Tremulous: trembling; shaking
Sentence: As she heard it told, he knees grew tremulous and weak.