Democracy in America, Volume I: Volume I, Book 1, Chapter 15–Conclusion

by Alexis de Tocqueville
In 1831, French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville visited the United States. In this book, he records his impressions of the customs and culture of the young nation. Learn these words from the translation of Volume I by Henry Reeve.

Here are links to our lists for Volume I:
Book 1: Introductory Chapter–Chapter 3
Book 1: Chapters 4–6
Book 1: Chapters 7–10
Book 1: Chapters 11–14
Book 1: Chapter 15–Conclusion

Here is a link to the full text: Volume 1
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. obloquy
    state of disgrace resulting from public abuse
    In America the majority raises very formidable barriers to the liberty of opinion: within these barriers an author may write whatever he pleases, but he will repent it if he ever step beyond them. Not that he is exposed to the terrors of an auto-da-fe, but he is tormented by the slights and persecutions of daily obloquy.
  2. odium
    state of disgrace resulting from detestable behavior
    Monarchical institutions have thrown an odium upon despotism; let us beware lest democratic republics should restore oppression, and should render it less odious and less degrading in the eyes of the many, by making it still more onerous to the few.
  3. encomium
    a formal expression of praise
    But the ruling power in the United States is not to be made game of; the smallest reproach irritates its sensibility, and the slightest joke which has any foundation in truth renders it indignant; from the style of its language to the more solid virtues of its character, everything must be made the subject of encomium.
  4. adulation
    exaggerated flattery or praise
    No writer, whatever be his eminence, can escape from this tribute of adulation to his fellow-citizens. The majority lives in the perpetual practice of self-applause, and there are certain truths which the Americans can only learn from strangers or from experience.
  5. abnegation
    renunciation of one's own interests in favor of others
    This abnegation of his own opinion, and this implicit deference to the opinion of his forefathers, which are common to the English and American lawyer, this subjection of thought which he is obliged to profess, necessarily give him more timid habits and more sluggish inclinations in England and America than in France.
  6. proselyte
    a new convert, especially to a religion
    About fifty years ago Ireland began to pour a Catholic population into the United States; on the other hand, the Catholics of America made proselytes, and at the present moment more than a million of Christians professing the truths of the Church of Rome are to be met with in the Union.
  7. superannuated
    old; no longer valid or fashionable
    In Europe, Christianity has been intimately united to the powers of the earth. Those powers are now in decay, and it is, as it were, buried under their ruins. The living body of religion has been bound down to the dead corpse of superannuated polity: cut but the bonds which restrain it, and that which is alive will rise once more.
  8. polity
    the form of government of a social organization
    In Europe, Christianity has been intimately united to the powers of the earth. Those powers are now in decay, and it is, as it were, buried under their ruins. The living body of religion has been bound down to the dead corpse of superannuated polity: cut but the bonds which restrain it, and that which is alive will rise once more.
  9. chary
    characterized by great caution
    When kings find that the hearts of their subjects are turned towards them, they are clement, because they are conscious of their strength, and they are chary of the affection of their people, because the affection of their people is the bulwark of the throne.
  10. overweening
    presumptuously arrogant
    They perceive that, for the present, their own democratic institutions succeed, whilst those of other countries fail; hence they conceive an overweening opinion of their superiority, and they are not very remote from believing themselves to belong to a distinct race of mankind.
  11. supercilious
    having or showing arrogant superiority
    His education tends, then, to give him the character of a supercilious and a hasty man; irascible, violent, and ardent in his desires, impatient of obstacles, but easily discouraged if he cannot succeed upon his first attempt.
  12. irascible
    quickly aroused to anger
    His education tends, then, to give him the character of a supercilious and a hasty man; irascible, violent, and ardent in his desires, impatient of obstacles, but easily discouraged if he cannot succeed upon his first attempt.
  13. incipient
    only partly in existence; imperfectly formed
    When peace was concluded, and the channel of intercourse reopened by which the produce of Europe was transmitted to the New World, the Americans thought fit to establish a system of import duties, for the twofold purpose of protecting their incipient manufactures and of paying off the amount of the debt contracted during the war.
  14. progeny
    the immediate descendants of a person
    The time will therefore come when one hundred and fifty millions of men will be living in North America, equal in condition, the progeny of one race, owing their origin to the same cause, and preserving the same civilization, the same language, the same religion, the same habits, the same manners, and imbued with the same opinions, propagated under the same forms.
  15. portentous
    of momentous or ominous significance
    The rest is uncertain, but this is certain; and it is a fact new to the world—a fact fraught with such portentous consequences as to baffle the efforts even of the imagination.
Created on Thu Oct 29 12:24:02 EDT 2020 (updated Wed Jul 16 18:41:01 EDT 2025)

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