"What Is an American?"

J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur was among the first to ask the question that is still debated today. Based on the 1781 "Letters from an American Farmer," this list focuses on comparisons between the new country and the old world of Europe.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 11 Unit 1's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: A Cause Greater Than Self, The New Colossus, The Statue of Liberty Address, poems about America, America, America and I, What Is an American, Growing Up Asian in America, Let America Be America Again, The Four Freedoms, The Bill of Rights, What Is Freedom, Is the American Dream Still Possible, The Declaration of Independence, poems about immigrants, Money, A Raisin in the Sun, Who Burns, Roberto Acuna, Barack Obama, The Right to Fail
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. penury
    a state of extreme poverty or destitution
    Can a wretch who wanders about, who works and starves, whose life is a continual scene of sore affliction or pinching penury; can that man call England or any other kingdom his country?
  2. procure
    get by special effort
    A country that had no bread for him, whose fields procured him no harvest, who met with nothing but the frowns of the rich, the severity of the laws, with jails and punishments; who owned not a single foot of the extensive surface of this planet?
  3. flourish
    grow vigorously
    in Europe they were as so many useless plants, wanting vegetative mould, and refreshing showers; they withered, and were mowed down by want, hunger, and war: but now, by the power of transplantation, like all other plants, they have taken root and flourished!
  4. indulgent
    tolerant or lenient
    The laws, the indulgent laws, protect them as they arrive, stamping on them the symbol of adoption
  5. ample
    more than enough in size or scope or capacity
    they receive ample rewards for their labour
  6. attachment
    a feeling of affection for a person or an institution
    What attachment can a poor European emigrant have for a country where he had nothing?
  7. consequence
    the state of having important effects or influence
    his country is now that which gives him land, bread, protection, and consequence
  8. posterity
    all future generations
    Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great change in the world.
  9. incorporate
    make into a whole or make part of a whole
    here they are incorporated into one of the finest systems of population which has ever appeared, and which will hereafter become distinct by the power of the different climates they inhabit
  10. industry
    persevering determination to perform a task
    Here the rewards of his industry follow with equal steps the progress of his labour
  11. exuberant
    produced or growing in extreme abundance
    Wives and children, who before in vain demanded of him a morsel of bread, now, fat and frolicsome, gladly help their father to clear those fields whence exuberant crops are to arise to feed and to clothe them all; without any part being claimed, either by a despotic prince, a rich abbot, or a mighty lord.
  12. entertain
    take into consideration or have in view
    The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form new opinions.
  13. subsistence
    a means of surviving
    From involuntary idleness, servile dependence, penury, and useless labour, he has passed to toils of a very different nature, rewarded by ample subsistence.
Created on 十一月 7, 2014 (updated 十一月 9, 2014)

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