comparatively

" The minister grew comparatively calm".

Bantam Classic
Pg.136

i think comparison is the root word but im not quite sure how it fitsin twith the quote.

askance

"where, asked he, with a look askance at them".

Bantam Classic
Pg.119

i have no idea what this word means.

scrutinized

" Thus Roger Chillingworth scrutinized his patient carefully".

Bantam Classic
Pg.112

from the context i think it means to examine.

garb

" But it was a remarkable attribute of this garb, and indeed of the childs whole
appearance".

Bantam Classic
Pg.93

im pretty sure it means garment.

striven

" I have striven with my young brother here, under whose preaching of the word
you have been privelaged to sit".

Bantam Classic
Pg.61

i think striven is taken from the word strive. putting effort into something.

bade

Hester bade little Pearl run down to the margin of
the water.

Bantam Classic
Pg. 152

i beleive this means to ask or suggest.

blighted

"Hester gazed after him a little while, looking with a half-fantastic curiosity
to see whether the tender grass of early spring would not be blighted beneath
him and show the wavering track of his footsteps..."

Bantam Classic
pg.170

I think this means destroyed or crushed.

hillock

"The leaves might bestrew him, and the soil gradually accumulate and form a little hillock over his frame, no matter whether there were life in it or no."

Bantam Classic

pg.170

I am assuming that because it sounds like "hill" this word is similar to it.
Maybe it is a mound of dirt or some kind of formation like that

.

deletorious

"Or might it suffice him that every wholesome growth should be converted into something deletorious and malignant at his touch?"

Bantam Classic
pg. 158

I believe that this means destroyed or ruined.

vicissitude

"So great a vicissitude in his life could not at once be received as
real."

Bantam Classic

pg.192

I believe this is a vision or something to hope for, a goal.

bedizen

"Prithee, young one, who art thou, and what has ailed thy mother to bedizen thee
in this strange fashion?"

Bantam Classic
Ch. 8 Pg. 100

I think this word means to dress because the context before this quote describes Pearl's dress.

appelation

"Under the appelation of Roger Chillingworth, the reader will remember, was
hidden another name, which its former wearer had resolved should never more be
spoken."

Bantam Classic
Ch. 9 Pg. 107

I believe appelation is another word for pseudonym or pen name.

edifice

"Before this ugly edifice, and between it and the wheel-track of the street, was
a grassy plot..."

Bantam Classic
Ch. 1 Pg. 45

I think edifice means a building, or maybe prison because the first chapter was describing the prison.

Austerity

"it might be partly owing to the studied austerity of her dress, and partly to
the lack of demonstration in her manners."

Bantam Classic
Pg. 148

i think that it means to stand out

Sagacious

".. it truly seemed that this sagacious, experienced, benevolent old physician,
with his concord of paternal and reverntial love for the young pastor, was the
very man of all mankind to be constantly within reach of his voice."

Bantam Classic
Pg. 114

Im thinking this has something to do with years of practice.

Placidity

" her only really comfort was when the child lay in the placidity of sleep."

Bantam Classic
Pg. 85

Im gonna guess that placidity has to do with a peacful state of mind perhaps.

Convulsion

"it now writhed in convulsions of pain, and was a frocible type, in its little
frame.."

Bantam Classic
P67

im not really sure but im gonna guess that it has to do with some kind of serious pain.

adduced

"Indeed hath he, answered the magistrate, and hath adduced such arguments that we will even leave the matter as it now stands."

Bantam Classic
ch. 8 p. 105

I think this word means to bring up in a conversation. Dictionary.com says it means to cite as an example or means of proof in an argument.

conjectured

"As the light drew nearer, he beheld, within its illuminated circle, his brother clergyman, the Reverend Mr. Wilson; who as Mr. Dimmesdale now conjectured, had been praying at the bedside of some dying man. "

Bantam Classic
ch. 12 pg 136

I think this word means come up with an answer. Dictionary.com said it is the formation or expression of an opinion or theory without evidence for proof.

placidity

"Her only real comfort was when the child lay in the placidity of sleep."

Bantam Classic
ch 6 pg 85

Dictionary.com said it means to be calm or peaceful. It can also mean quiet or undisturbed.

impalpable

"To the untrue man, the whole universe is false,- it is impalpable,- it shrinks to nothing within his grasp."

Bantam Books

Chapter 11 pg 133

I think impalpable means to be untouchable.

writhing

"A writhing horror twisted itself across his features, like a snake gliding swiftly over them, and making one little pause with all its wreathed intervolutions in open sight."

Bantam Books

Chapter 3 pg 57

I think this word means strong and overbearing or in a great deal of pain. I've heard it used both ways.

apparition

"It would have been impossible to guess that this bright and sunny apparition owed its existence to the shape of gloomy gray..."

Bantam Books

Chapter 21 pg 204

I think I've heard this word used in Macbeth before when the apparitions came to him and foretold what would happen so I think this means some sort of assumption that will happen.

tumultuous

"The moment that he did so there came what seemed a tumultuous rush of new life, other life than his own, pouring like a torrent into his heart and hurrying through all his veins..."

Bantam Books

Chapter 12 pg 139

This word means highly agitated, a raising of clatter and commotion or to mean disorderly and noisy according to Dictionary. com.

infirmities

"As a physician, with the minister's physical and spiritual infirmities,that
theses bad opportunities had been turned to a cruel puspose."

Bantman Classic

Chp 15 Page 174

Infirmities has to to with being sick. A synonym for illness or sickness. I have heard this word used in other books, and also a infirmiry is a place you go when you are sick.

foreboded

"In allowing the minister to be thrown into a position where so much evil was to
be foreboded, and nothing auspicious to be hoped."

Bantman Classic

Chp 13 page 151


I am not to sure what foreboded actually means, but Websters dictionary says it means to have a inward conviction.

intangibility

"with a strange remoteness and intangibility; it was as if she were hovering
in the air and might vanish."

Batman Classic

chp5 page 84

I think intangibility may mean something that really cant be grasped or preceived. At Dictionary.com it is an adjective that could mean incapable of being perceived by the senses.

crimson

"Save by a flush of crimson that rose irrepressibly over her pale cheek, and
again subsided into the depths of her bosom."

Bantman Classic

Chp 4 page 78


I think crimson means, a terror or horror. It can be used as a adjective to describe a persons expression or feelings.

Plumage

"What little bird of scarlet plummage may this be"?

Bantam Classic
Ch8 pg 100
I honestly have no idea what this means.

Interposed

"Ah, but, interposed, more softly, a young wife, holding a child by the hand, let her cover the mark as she will, the pang of it will be always in her heart."

Bantam Classic
Ch 2 pg 49
I think this word means said.

Malice

"Calm, gentle, passionless, as he appeared, there was yet, we fear, a quiet
depth of malice, hitherto latent, but active now, in this unfortunate old
man,
which led him to imagine a more intimate revenge than any mortal
had
ever
wreaked upon an enemy."

Bantam Classic
Ch11 pg 127
I think malice means harmful.

perpetuated

"Mother and daughter stood together in the same circle of seclusion from human society; and in the nature of the child seemed to be perpetuated those unquiet elements that had distracted Hester Prynne before Pearls birth."

Ch 3 Page 86
Scarlet Letter Bantam Classic

I have no idea what this word means. Dictionary.com says to preserve from extinction or oblivion.

ignominy

"Heaven hath granted thee an open ignominy"

Ch 2 Page 63
Scarlet Letter- Bantam Classic

I have heard ignominy be used towards describing a disgrace or public contempt.

iniquity

"to find yourself, at length, in a land where iniquity is searched out"

Ch 2 Page 58
Scarlet Letter Bantam Classic

Iniquity means a gross injustice or wickedness. I have never heard this word before this book.

Indubitably

"But, in that early severity of the Puritan character, an inference of this
kind could not so indubitably be drawn."

Bantam Classic

Ch 2 pg 47

I think this word means unquestionable.

emolument

"Baby-linen- for babies then wore robes of state- afforded still another
possibility of toil and emolument."

Bantam Classic

ch.5 p.76

I think this word means profit or income.

insubordination

"As night approached, it proving impossible to quell her insubordination by
rebuke or threats of punishment, Master Brackett, the jailor, thought fit to
introduce a physician."

Bantam Classic

ch.4 p.65

I think this word means not submitting to or obeying authority.

ignominious

"Thus she will be a living sermon against sin, until the ignominious letter
be engraved upon her
tombstone."

Bantam Classic

ch.3 p.59

I think this word means shameful or disgraceful because the scarlet letter was given as Hester's punishment.

iniquity

"It irks me, nevertheless, that the partner of her iniquity should not, at
least, stand on the scaffold by her side."

Bantam Classic

ch.3 p.59

I think this word means a sin or injustice because they seem to be describing Hester's sin of adultery.