The key thing to note is that John finally “gives in.” The word “capitulate” comes from early French words that are ultimately related to the Latin for head, because legal documents for ending a conflict (giving in) would be arranged under headings.

When one concedes something, he or she recognizes that it a disputed point, once held, was indeed wrong. Here, the speaker’s concession is implied by the surprising nature of the concession (after defensive responses). The word is related to other words with “-cess-,” “-cede-,” and “-ceed” in them, derived from a Latin root meaning “to yield or depart,” such as “success,” “succeed,” “proceed,” and “precede.”

The contrast between the needed word and “watery flow” indicates that “coagulate” is the best choice. This word means to become more solid (from being liquid) and is often applied to blood and its process of clotting, though it does have a more general meaning. Although the word has close roots in the Latin for “curdling” (certainly a thickening process), it more literally means “to drive together” in the sense of pulling together the particles into a more solid formation. The “drive” portion is found in the “-ag-” of the word, which is related to words like “agent,” “agenda,” “act,” and many, many other English words. The prefix “co-” means “with,” as in “coworker.”

There is no sense of compensation or reward in the claim of “prerogatives,” merely being given or granted something. This is the meaning of “conferred,” which merely means to grant something to another. The “con-” prefix means “with” and the “-fer” means “to bear or carry” and is found in many words like “transfer,” “suffer,” and “infer.” Something “conferred” thus “comes with” the act of conferring.

To “endow” can mean to establish some institution with funds to continue to fund it. This is clearly the case here, where the college is thus enabled by the donation to have a lectureship happen annually.

The key thing to be noted here is that Siger desired to discredit Master Thomas. To “traduce” someone is either to speak ill of them or to tell lies regarding them in order to ruin their reputation. The “-duce” portion of the word comes from “to lead” in Latin and has related English words like “duke,” “conduct,” and “seduce.”  The “tra-” is a shortened form of “trans,” meaning across. To “traduce” literally means (by its parts, at least) to lead (details / lies) about someone in front / across the vision of others.

Since Zack was able to pay attention to the talk, we could say that his attention had been “captured.” Something that is “captivating” does just that, taking one in and holding his or her interest. The words are clearly related and have a great number of other related “-cap-” and “-cep-” words such as “captor,” “caption,” “reception,” “accept,” and so forth.

Although we might think that rumors transform (and grow) in the telling, all that our sentence implies is that they travel quickly and broadly. To “propagate,” while often meaning to breed a species of animal, it likewise can mean to spread something abroad.

Since it is remarked that the whip has jagged glass on its tendrils, such a weapon could do considerable damage to the flesh of the one being whipped.  When flesh is “lacerated,” it has been deeply torn or cut. 

Since Ryan could not stand even for the existence of opposing viewpoints, it would seem that he would like to completely destroy them if at all possible.  The word “annihilate” comes from the Latin “nihil,” meaning “nothing.”  Therefore, to annihilate something means to destroy it utterly.  In English, if one his a “nihilist,” he or she is generally described as believing that there is no (nihil) meaning to life.