Have you ever used a phrase like “the vast majority” or have heard something like “In a vast desert like the Sahara…”? Sometimes we start using these common phrases, without necessarily thinking about what the individual words mean. Let’s break it down! Today our vocab word for The Prince and the Pauper Chapter 9 is…
VAST
Mark Twain’s wonderful descriptive skills often create a picture in the reader’s mind of a number of different scenes from Tudor England. When describing facades, crowds, banquet halls, and other items related to royal life at the time, there is often no better way to describe them but “vast”. Keep reading or watch the video below to dive into this word.
VAST
| DEFINITION (adj) very great in size, amount, extent/range | FACTS/CHARACTERISTICS Often used before the word ‘majority’ modern day |
| EXAMPLES large wide expansive | NON-EXAMPLES small thin tiny |
Etymology
- Language of Origin: Latin
- “vastus” meaning immense, extensive, huge; desolate, unoccupied, empty
Sentences/Additional Forms
- Straightforward sentence: The astronauts in the space station stared down at the vast surface of Earth below.
- Sentence from the chapter: “At nine in the evening the whole vast river-front of the palace was blazing with light.” (p. 42)
- Other forms: vastly (adv.), vastness (n.)
But wait, there’s more!
How vast is space?
How many stars are in the sky? 100 thousand million in the Milky Way galaxy alone
How big is the (observable) universe? 93 billion light years (Going the speed of the fastest manmade object ever, it would take 4269 years to travel the distance of ONE light year)
How big is the sun? One million Earths could fit inside the sun
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References
https://unsplash.com/photos/FA0Xhlv7m6A https://www.etymonline.com/word/vast https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Herschel/How_many_stars_are_there_in_the_Universe#:~:text=Astronomers%20estimate%20there%20are%20about,millions%20of%20other%20galaxies%20also! http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160610-it-took-centuries-but-we-now-know-the-size-of-the-universe https://www.quora.com/How-long-would-it-take-a-spacecraft-to-travel-one-light-year https://www.space.com/58-the-sun-formation-facts-and-characteristics.html
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