Democracy in America, Volume II: Volume II, Book 2, Section 1, Chapters 1–21

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 II by Henry Reeve.

Here are links to our lists for Volume II:
Book 2: Section 1, Chapters 1–21
Book 2: Section 2, Chapters 1–20
Book 3: Chapters 1–13
Book 3: Chapters 14–26
Book 4: Chapters 1–8

Here is a link to the full text: Volume 2
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. repudiate
    refuse to acknowledge, ratify, or recognize as valid
    When I repudiate the traditions of rank, profession, and birth; when I escape from the authority of example, to seek out, by the single effort of my reason, the path to be followed, I am inclined to derive the motives of my opinions from human nature itself; which leads me necessarily, and almost unconsciously, to adopt a great number of very general notions.
  2. secular
    not concerned with or devoted to religion
    The more the conditions of men are equalized and assimilated to each other, the more important is it for religions, whilst they carefully abstain from the daily turmoil of secular affairs, not needlessly to run counter to the ideas which generally prevail, and the permanent interests which exist in the mass of the people.
  3. prodigious
    great in size, force, extent, or degree
    The number of those who cultivate science, letters, and the arts, becomes immense. The intellectual world starts into prodigious activity: everyone endeavors to open for himself a path there, and to draw the eyes of the public after him.
  4. vernacular
    characteristic of or appropriate to everyday language
    Scientific precedents have very little weight with them; they are never long detained by the subtilty of the schools, nor ready to accept big words for sterling coin; they penetrate, as far as they can, into the principal parts of the subject which engages them, and they expound them in the vernacular tongue.
  5. patrimony
    an inheritance coming by right of birth
    Amongst a democratic people a number of citizens always exist whose patrimony is divided and decreasing.
  6. surreptitious
    conducted with or marked by hidden aims or methods
    They have contracted, under more prosperous circumstances, certain wants, which remain after the means of satisfying such wants are gone; and they are anxiously looking out for some surreptitious method of providing for them.
  7. expeditious
    marked by speed and efficiency
    The artisan readily understands these passions, for he himself partakes in them: in an aristocracy he would seek to sell his workmanship at a high price to the few; he now conceives that the more expeditious way of getting rich is to sell them at a low price to all.
  8. edifying
    enlightening or uplifting so as to encourage improvement
    Next comes an enormous quantity of religious works, Bibles, sermons, edifying anecdotes, controversial divinity, and reports of charitable societies; lastly, appears the long catalogue of political pamphlets.
  9. votary
    a devoted adherent of a cause or person or activity
    These new votaries of the pleasures of the mind have not all received the same education; they do not possess the same degree of culture as their fathers, nor any resemblance to them—nay, they perpetually differ from themselves, for they live in a state of incessant change of place, feelings, and fortunes.
  10. erudition
    profound scholarly knowledge
    Small productions will be more common than bulky books; there will be more wit than erudition, more imagination than profundity; and literary performances will bear marks of an untutored and rude vigor of thought—frequently of great variety and singular fecundity.
  11. patrician
    a member of the aristocracy
    The struggle between the patricians and plebeians of Rome must be considered in the same light: it was simply an intestine feud between the elder and younger branches of the same family. All the citizens belonged, in fact, to the aristocracy, and partook of its character.
  12. plebeian
    one of the common people
    The struggle between the patricians and plebeians of Rome must be considered in the same light: it was simply an intestine feud between the elder and younger branches of the same family.
  13. appellation
    identifying words by which someone or something is called
    The eminently democratic desire to get above their own sphere will often lead them to seek to dignify a vulgar profession by a Greek or Latin name. The lower the calling is, and the more remote from learning, the more pompous and erudite is its appellation.
  14. palpable
    capable of being perceived
    When the universe is peopled with supernatural creatures, not palpable to the senses but discovered by the mind, the imagination ranges freely, and poets, finding a thousand subjects to delineate, also find a countless audience to take an interest in their productions.
  15. obtrude
    thrust oneself in as if by force
    In America, it generally happens that a Representative only becomes somebody from his position in the Assembly. He is therefore perpetually haunted by a craving to acquire importance there, and he feels a petulant desire to be constantly obtruding his opinions upon the House.
Created on Fri Oct 30 15:36:09 EDT 2020 (updated Thu Jul 17 14:32:41 EDT 2025)

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