Divine Comedy Vocabulary
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Created by:
nerdfightersftw on March 24, 2011
Subjects:
literature, dante, renaissance, divine comedy
Description:
Vocabulary in Dante's The Divine Comedy
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28 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 canto | a chapter |
| purgatory | an intermediate state after death for expiatory purification; a place or state of punishment wherein according to the Roman Catholic doctrine the souls of those who die in God's grace may make satisfaction for past sins and so become fit for heaven |
| inferno | a place or state that resembles or suggests hell; also: an intense fire |
| limbo | an abode of souls that are according to the Roman Catholic theology barred from heaven because of not having received Christian baptism |
| comedy | a medieval narrative that ends happily |
| idiom | the language particular to a people or to a district, community or class; dialect: an expression in the usuage of a language that is peculiar to itself grammatically; manner, style |
| allegory | the expression by means of symbolic fictional figures and actions of truths or generalizations about human existences; a symbolic representation; emblem |
| despicable | hateful; abominable |
| reprimand | rebuke, scolding |
| writhes | squirms in agony; contorts the body |
| clambered | climbed with difficulty |
| score | twenty; a group of twenty |
| fraud | deceit, trickery |
| incontinence | the failure to restrain sexual appetite; inability of the body to control the evacuative functions |
| renunciation | the act or practice of renouncing; repudiations: aesthetic self denial |
| pinnacle | a lofty peak; highest point of development or achievement |
| archetype | the original pattern or model of which all things of the same type are representations or copies; a perfect example |
| unorthodox | not conforming to established doctrine especially in religion; unconventional |
| fugitive | running away or intending flight; moving from place to place |
| piteous | of a kind to move others to compassion |
| gaudy | ostentatiously or tastelessly ornamented; marked by extravagance or sometimes tasteless showiness |
| commemoration | to call to remembrance; to serve as a memorial |
| salvation | the delieverance from the power and effects of sin; liberation from ignorance or illusion |
| monologue | a long speech given by one character to the other characters on the stage |
| aside | a brief remark, generally unheard by the characters onstage, but heard by the audience |
| soliloquy | a long speech that often represents the thoughts of that character. It is directed as though it is the character either talking to him/herself or as thinking aloud. |
| paradox | an apparent contradiction that is actually true |
| oxymoron | a combination of contradictory or incongruous words (ex. cruel kindness) |
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