Pride and Prejudice Vocabulary
disposition
a person’s usual way of feeling or behaving; the tendency of a person to be happy, friendly, anxious, etc. (CAM)
“She is of a nervous/cheerful/sunny disposition.“
the predominant or prevailing tendency of one’s spirits; natural mental and emotional outlook or mood; characteristic attitude (Dictionary.com)
Word’s Use in Pride & Prejudice:
“She told the story, however, with great spirit among her friends; for she had a lively, playful disposition which
delighted in anything ridiculous.”
“Remember, Eliza, that he does not know Jane’s disposition as you do.”
There is, I believe, in every disposition tendency to some particular evil—a natural defect, which not even the best education can overcome.”
“And your defect is to hate everybody.”
“And yours,” he replied with a smile, “is willfully to misunderstand them.”
acquaintance / acquainted
a person that you have met but do not know well:
a business acquaintance (CAM)
used in some expressions about knowing or meeting people
Word’s Use in Pride and Prejudice:
“When you met us there the other day, we had just been forming a new acquaintance..”
“I have had the pleasure of your acquaintance long enough to know that…”
I certainly would be a more interesting object to all my acquaintances if …”
“At our time of life it is not so pleasant, I can tell you, to be making new acquaintances every day; but for your sakes, we would do anything.”
“and though the mother was found to be intolerable, and the younger sisters not worth speaking to, a wish of being better acquainted with them was expressed towards the two eldest”
“I certainly should be a more interesting object to all my acquaintances if…”
countenance
the appearance or expression of someone’s face (CAM)
facial appearance regarded as an indication of mood or feeling (MW)
Word’s Use in Pride and Prejudice:
“Mr. Bingley was good-looking and gentlemanlike; he had a pleasant countenance,
and easy, unaffected manners.”
Of Darcy : “he was discovered to be proud; to be above his company, and above being pleased; and not all his large estate in Derbyshire could then save him from having a most forbidding, disagreeable countenance, and being unworthy to be compared with his friend.”
“Elizabeth saw her sister’s countenance change as she read it”
reverie
a state of being pleasantly lost in one’s thoughts; a daydream (OX)
a state of having pleasant dream-like thoughts: He was lost in reverie until he suddenly heard someone behind him (CAM)
Word’s Use in Pride and Prejudice:
“I can guess the subject of your reverie.”
“I should imagine not.”
“You are considering how insupportable it would be to pass many evenings in this manner-in such society; and indeed I am quite of your opinion. I was never more annoyed! The insipidity, and yet the noise the nothingness, and yet the self-importance of all those people! What would I give to hear your strictures on them!”
“You conjecture is totally wrong, I assure you. My mind was more agreeably engaged. I have been meditating on the very great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty woman can bestow.”
Miss Bingley immediately fixed her eyes on his face, and desired he would tell her what lady had the credit of inspiring such reflections. Mr. Darcy replied with great intrepidity:
“Miss Elizabeth Bennet.”
amiable
pleasant and friendly (CAM)
having an easygoing and pleasing manner especially in social situations (MW)
Word’s Use in Pride and Prejudice:
“He may live in my memory as the most amiable man of my acquaintance”
“He is a sweet-tempered, amiable, charming man.”
“Mrs. Gardiner, who was several years younger than Mrs. Bennet and Mrs. Phillips, was an amiable, intelligent, elegant woman, and a great favourite with all her Longbourn nieces.”
astonishment – surprise
Word’s Use In Pride and Prejudice
“The astonishment of the ladies was just what he wished”
“I am all astonishment!”
scruples / scrupulous
scruple: a feeling that prevents you from doing something that you think is morally wrong or makes you uncertain about doing it (CAM)
“Robin Hood had no scruples about robbing the rich to give to the poor.”
“He is a man without scruple – he has no conscience.”
a scrupulous person is full of scruples – concerns about doing what’s morally right
an unscrupulous person doesn’t have scruples, and therefore is less concerned about doing what’s morally right
scrupulous: ”extremely careful to do what is right or moral” (CAM)
“She managed to get a copy of the report through a friend who wasn’t so scrupulous about sharing information”
unscrupulous: behaving in a way that is dishonest or unfair in order to get what you want (CAM)
“an unscrupulous financial adviser”
Word’s Use In Pride and Prejudice:
“You are over-scrupulous, surely.”
“After abusing you so abominably to your face, I could have no scruple in abusing you to all your relations.” – Elizabeth to Darcy
“As no objection was made to the young people’s engagement with their aunt, and all Mr. Collins’s scruples of leaving Mr. and Mrs. Bennet for a single evening during his visit were most steadily resisted” (I enjoy Austen’s subtle, sly snark)
Darcy to Elizabeth: “My faults, according to this calculation, are heavy indeed! But perhaps,” added he, stopping in his walk, and turning towards her, “these offenses might have been overlooked, had not your pride been hurt by my honest confession of the scruples that had long prevented my forming any serious design.”
designs / have designs on someone
Plans, often ones that are not honest, to get something or someone for yourself:
have designs on (humorous)
“I think Alan has designs on your job!”
If you have designs on someone, you want to start a relationship with them, even if they are in a relationship with someone else or do not seem interested in you :
“He realizes the young man has designs on his brother’s wife.” (CAM)
Word’s Use in Pride and Prejudice:
“and she might be amused in seeing how hopeless Miss Bingley’s designs on him were”
And here Austen uses it in more of this sense:
Design: purpose or intention (CAM)
When news of Mr. Bingley’s arrival in town reaches Bennet household:
“Is he married or single?”
“Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!”
“How so? How can it affect them?”
“My dear Mr. Bennet,” replied his wife, “how can you be so tiresome! You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them.”
“Is that his design in settling here?”
“Design! Nonsense, how can you talk so! But it is very likely that he may fall in love with one of them, and therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes.”
rapture
extreme pleasure and happiness or excitement (CAM)
Rapture is a feeling of emotional ecstasy so magical it’s almost as if you’ve been transported to some other world. Coming to us from an old French word meaning “carried away,” rapture certainly involves getting swept off (VOCAB)
Word’s Use in Pride and Prejudice:
“Mr Bennet left the room, fatigued with the raptures of his wife”
Caroline and Darcy: “Tell your sister I am delighted to hear of her improvement on the harp; and pray let her know that I am quite in raptures with her beautiful little design for a table, and I think it infinitely superior to Miss Grantley’s.”
“Will you give me leave to defer your raptures till I write again? At present I have not room to do them justice.”
decorum
behavior that is socially correct, calm, and polite (CAM)
Decorum is proper and polite behavior. This noun is from Latin decōrus “proper, becoming, handsome,” from décor “beauty, grace,” which is also the source of English décor. The corresponding adjective is decorous, meaning “well-behaved in a particular situation.”
Decorum: propriety (proper, correct or appropriate behavior) in manners and conduct (VOCAB)
Word’s use in Pride and Prejudice:
“a most country-town indifference to decorum”
“A man in distressed circumstances has not time for all those elegant decorums which other people may observe.”
“Jane had been deprived, by the folly and indecorum of her own family!”
enumerate
mention (a number of things) one by one “there is not space to enumerate all his works” (OX)
to name things separately, one by one: to name things separately, one by one (CAM)
“To enumerate is to list or count off one by one.. Tally, total, add up, compute — however you put it, enumerate is basically just another way to say “count.” As in, “How do I love thee? Let me enumerate the ways.” This verb came about in the 1610’s as a variation on the Latin enumerates, which means “to reckon up or count over.” (VOCAB)
“Mrs. Bennet seemed incapable of fatigue while enumerating the advantages of the match. His being such a charming young man, and so rich, and living but three miles from them, were the first points of self-gratulation; and then it was such a comfort to think how fond the two sisters were of Jane, and to be certain that they must desire the connection as much as she could do. It was, moreover, such a promising thing for her younger daughters, as Jane’s marrying so greatly must throw them in the way of other rich men; and lastly, it was so pleasant at her time of life to be able to consign her single daughters to the care of their sister”
“Mrs. Bennet seemed incapable of fatigue while enumerating the advantages of the match. “
1. His being such a charming young man
2. and so rich
3. and living but three miles from them
4. such a promising thing for her younger daughters, as Jane’s marrying so greatly must throw them in the way of other rich men
5. and lastly, it was so pleasant at her time of life to be able to consign her single daughters to the care of their sister
consign:
deliver (something) to a person’s custody
The verb consign means to transfer permanently
give over to another for care or safekeeping
the particulars – the details
“But tell me all and everything about it which I have not already heard. Give me further particulars.”
“though George Wickham has treated Mr. Darcy in a most infamous manner. I do not know the particulars, but I know very well that Mr. Darcy is not in the least to blame, that he cannot bear to hear George Wickham mentioned”
“By all means,” cried Bingley “let us hear all the particulars”
“I am no stranger to the particulars of your youngest sister’s infamous elopement.”
ardent / ardently – enthusiastic or passionate (OX) comes from latin “ardere” ‘to burn’
If you are ardent, you are passionate about something.. Ardent is most often used to modify words like supporter, fan, advocate, admirer, and defender.. The word literally means “burning” or “glowing” — it’s from the Latin verb ardere, “to burn.” (VOCAB)
Darcy to Elizabeth:
”In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”
Indulge – allow oneself to enjoy the pleasure of,
to allow yourself to have or do something that you like, especially something that is considered bad for you (OX)
“not a day went by without a solitary walk, in which she might indulge in all the delight of unpleasant recollections”
“indulged their mirth for some time at the expense of their dear friend’s vulgar relations”
“indulge your imagination in every possible flight which the subject will afford”
delight – synonyms pleasure, happiness, joy
from Latin delectare meaning “to please or charm”
Word’s Use in Pride and Prejudice:
“That will do extremely well, child. You have delighted us long enough. Let the other young ladies have time to exhibit.”
When Elizabeth tells Darcy that she has changed her mind and will agree to marry him:
“The happiness which this reply produced, was such as he had probably never felt before; and he expressed himself on the occasion as sensibly and as warmly as a man violently in love can be supposed to do. Had Elizabeth been able to encounter his eye, she might have seen how well the expression of heartfelt delight, diffused over his face, became him”
endeavor
Verb: to try to do something
Noun: an attempt to do something (CAM)
“endeavoring even to like Bingley’s two sisters”
“With such kinds of histories of their parties and good jokes, did Lydia, assisted by Kitty’s hints and additions, endeavor to amuse her companions all the way to Longbourn.”
“Lady Catherine’s unjustifiable endeavors to separate us were the means of removing all my doubts.”
“but I will endeavor to banish every painful thought and think only of what will make me happy”
resolved
firmly determined to do something
resolve verb : decide firmly on a course of action (OX)
“I am only resolved to act in that manner, which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you, or to any person so wholly unconnected with me.”