Davita's Harp Vocabulary

Chaim Potok loves words! Readers of Davita's Harp will especially notice this fact because Potok is often teaching words by defining them in context. Plus, Davita herself is on a never ending quest to improve her vocabulary, and her mother makes sure that she even understands the etymology of words. Remember the time when Davita thought, "I was not sure I understood, and asked her with a child's exasperation why she always needed to give me the old meanings of words, why couldn't she simply tell me what a word meant today?" (Potok 10). In fact, you could argue that Potok advances a theme that humans need to understand the world's history to avoid present and future conflicts, and education and a deep understanding of words is a key avenue of that global understanding.

Therefore, like Davita and her mother, you should also be on a lifelong quest to improve your vocabulary, and the best way to do that is to read, read, read!!

In the spirit of Potok we will embark on a quest to intimately know 500 common SAT vocabulary words by the end of this school year. You will even know the morphology of the words in case a word appears on the SAT test in a different form than our vocabulary list.

The words below appear in Davita's Harp, and they are on the list of 500 SAT vocabulary words to know that you will receive in class on Thursday, September 10. We will work with understanding these words in class, and you will have a vocabulary test on the words on Tuesday, September 22. The number in parenthesis indicates the page number the word first appears.

ruddy (10)
amiable (10)
luminescence (59)
radiant (60)
forlorn (65)
desolate (66)
buffet (73)
bourgeoisie (76)
gregarious (76)
poised (91)
formidable (93)
aloof (106)
spectral (119)
boisterous (124)
apocalypse (126)
accentuate (127)
portly (159)
envied (178)
incessant (185)
apparition (201)
illusion (202)
strife (202)
austere (205)
labyrinth (228)
lull (232)
abject (234)
tranquil (239)
taciturn (246)
rancid (257)
travesty (262)
dictate (263)
gluttonous (266)
pervasive (282)
slander 293
augment 296
frenetic (298)
brusque (300)
bereft (301)
inundate (307)
pliable (338)
gay (367)