An Average Report Card - Answers

1. Carmelites are priests (mendicant friars) or nuns belonging to a religious order founded at Mount Carmel, Palestine, in the 12th century.


2. A chasuble is a long, sleeveless garment worn by a priest during services. The word comes from Latin casubla, hooded garment, via French.


3. A concatenation is a chain (from Latin con, together, and catena, chain). He strung together a clever concatenation of lies, but failed to convince the jury of his innocence.


4. Gourd, or squash. Some people use dried calabash shells as bowls, cups, and pipes for smoking. It comes (via French) from Spanish calabaza, gourd.


5. To spread false and harmful rumors (about someone). The too-common practice of calumniation gives politics a bad name. (The verb calumniate grew out of the noun calumny—from a Latin term meaning to accuse falsely.)