Unit 8

Roots & Words

CAP / CEPT TAKE, SEIZE

Inception (n) – The start of something, the beginning

Synonyms: commencement

Antonyms: termination

Helpful Hint: If you know the movie “Inception,” then you can remember that the title refers to the origins of a thought within a dream

SAMPLE SENTENCE: Companies love to play up the story of their humble inception, like how Nike supposedly began in a garage.

Precept (n) – A commandment given as a rule of conduct

Synonyms: guideline, principle, tenet

You May Remember: From unit 1, PRE- means “before”, so a precept is a rule you must “take before” – in other words, there is no negotiating it

SAMPLE SENTENCE: A lot of the unwritten precepts of the religion are handed down from generation to generation and are never formally taught.

-AGOG / -AGOGUE LEADER, BRINGER

Demagogue (n) – A leader who gains power by arousing the emotions and prejudices of the people

Synonyms: radical, revolutionary

Helpful Hint: Negative – a demagogue isn’t inspirational, he is manipulative

SAMPLE SENTENCE: Because of the fragile state of the economy and the recent bloodshed of the civil war, the country’s leadership was easily taken over by an opportunistic demagogue.

Pedagogy (n) – The art of teaching and instructional method

Synonyms: teaching, instruction, education

SAMPLE SENTENCE: The principal was well versed in pedagogy and could easily discuss the best methods that help students learn.

DIS- APART, NOT

Disillusion (v) -To free from idealism or from a belief; To correct someone whose belief is narrow-minded or wrong

Synonyms: to disappoint, to open one’s eyes

Helpful Hints: An illusion is a false appearance or belief. To DISillusion is to take that illusion, or false idea/belief etc., away.

SAMPLE SENTENCE: Even though she was a grown woman, she couldn’t shake the sense of disillusionment that she felt when her childhood idol was arrested for armed robbery.

Dispassionate (adj) – Impartial or calm

Synonyms: disinterested, detached, aloof

Antonyms: emotional, passionate

Helpful Hints: The opposite of passionate

SAMPLE SENTENCE: Even when everyone around him was screaming about this, that, or the other, Atticus remained dispassionate, his voice barely raising at all when he spoke.

FAC MAKE

Efface (v) – To wipe out; to erase; to obliterate

Synonyms: annhilate, erradicate, expunge

You May Remember: From unit 5, the prefix E- means “out of,” so to efface means to “make something become out” or more simply, to remove

SAMPLE SENTENCE: With their fourth straight trip to the state quarterfinals, the softball team completely effaced their former reputation of being a pushover team.

Faction (n) – A subgroup within a larger group

Synonyms: gang, clique, coterie

Helpful Hints: A faction is a group of people forming a cohesive, usually contentious, minority from within a larger group.

SAMPLE SENTENCE: Even though she lobbied for better working conditions and was respected by most of her employees, a bitter faction of workers still attempted to get her thrown out of office.

HOMO- SAME

Homogeneous (adj) – Composed of parts that are all of the same kind

Synonyms: alike, consistent, uniform

Antonyms: different, heterogeneous

SAMPLE SENTENCE: The U.S. military takes people from all sorts of different regions, temperaments, and social situations and molds them into equally competent and homogenous soldiers.

Homophone (n) – A word that sounds exactly like another word, although the spelling may be different

Helpful Hints: Do not confuse with a HOMOGRAPH (two words that are spelled the same, although the pronunciation may be different). Night and Knight are homophones, while present (a gift) and present (to show or display) are homographs.

SAMPLE SENTENCE: Carl misunderstood when his brother, carrying shopping bags, explained, “I love good buys.” Not considering the more logical homophone, Carl said, “Well, then, good-bye,” and drove away.

-ABLE / -IBLE ABLE

Incorrigible (adj) – Unable to change; Stubbornly stuck in one’s ways

Synonyms: hopeless, irreformable, unredeemable

Antonyms: curable, reformable, redeemable

You May Remember: In unit 2, IN- means “not” – “incorrigible means “Not able to be corrected”. Also- Negative – this is less like “self-sure” and more “stubborn”

SAMPLE SENTENCE: As her husband picked his teeth at the dinner table after the meal, Loretta rolled her eyes and muttered, “Henry, you are incorrigible.”

Plausible (adj) – Seemingly true; able to be believed

Synonyms: possible, reasonable, credible

Antonyms:impossible, unbelievable, improbable

Helpful Hints: You try to give your teacher plausible excuses, i.e., believable excuses for not having your homework done.

SAMPLE SENTENCE: Before telling their parents, the sisters collaborated to come up with a plausible excuse about how their cat got out for the third straight day.

-ISE / -IZE TO BECOME

Jeopardize (v) – To put at risk; to endanger

Synonyms: risk, endanger, threaten, imperil

Antonyms: safeguard

Helpful Hints: Think of the game-show Jeopardy. You are risking the loss of money if you give the wrong answer.

SAMPLE SENTENCE: Even though he feared it might jeopardize his chances of winning the bronze medal, the slalom skier went recklessly fast on his final run—it was all or nothing!

Polarize (v) – To divide into two sharply opposed groups

Synonyms: split

Antonyms: unite

Helpful Hints: Think of the North & South Poles, or the poles of a magnet – they are absolute opposites

SAMPLE SENTENCE: Thanksgiving dinner was going fine until the grandmother starting making some aggressive and polarizing comments about how her two daughters were raising their children.

JUD JUDGE

Judicial (adj) – Pertaining to judgements in courts of law; Having to do with the court system

Synonyms: legal, official

SAMPLE SENTENCE: When the traffic cop was asked to rip up the speeding ticket, he claimed that it had already become a judicial affair.

Misjudge (v) – To estimate or judge something poorly

Synonyms: mistake, misread, miscalculate

Antonyms: judge well, figure

SAMPLE SENTENCE: When the raggedy child next door came out to help the girl who had badly hurt her leg in the accident, the girl’s father recognized how badly he had misjudged the boy, whom he had slightly feared.