Choose the meaning of the bold word in the following question.

Question

Choose the meaning of the bold word in the following question.

Then he would shout and jabber as if crazy, / And wouldn’t speak a word except in Latin / When he was drunk, such tags as he was pat in; / He only had a few, say two or three, / That he had mugged up out of some decree; / No wonder, for he heard them every day. (The Canterbury Tales, “The Prologue")
(1 point)
Responses

foreign language
foreign language

formal order
formal order

old book
old book

timeless memory
timeless memory

Answer 1

formal order

Answer 2

The meaning of the bold word "decree" in the passage is "formal order".

Answer 3

The meaning of the bold word "decree" in the passage is "formal order." To arrive at this answer, you can infer the meaning from the context of the surrounding lines. The passage describes a person who only speaks in Latin when drunk and mentions that the person has memorized a few Latin phrases from a "decree." A "decree" refers to a formal order or official announcement, which fits with the idea of memorizing Latin phrases.