In modern times this 14th century word has fallen from fashion, in favor of the more prosaic "altar boy" or "altar girl." Before all that, an acolyte was one who assisted a cleric during a liturgical service, or more generally, any attendant, assistant, or follower. The root is a Greek word for follower, which also shows up, curiously, in the grammatical gaffe called anacoluthon.

Today's adjective is a byproduct of the compound French term danse macabre, "dance of death." On its own, the adjective means "about death" or "gruesome and horrifying." Since it's a French word, there are a number of pronunciation options in English: you can go for two syllables or three, and if you opt for the latter, you may be able to send little shivers of pleasure through your listeners by sending the r to your pharynx.

Every respectable animal genus and family has a high-sounding Latinate adjective to characterize it, and for foxes, it's vulpine. The root is Latin vulpes, "fox," which is also the genus name of foxes in binomial taxonomy. Like many such adjectives, vulpine has also taken on figurative associations of foxes, so it can mean "crafty" or "cunning" as well.

Because of the shift in stress it's easy to overlook the relationship renegade and renege, but you shouldn't! They're from the same Latin verb, renegare, "deny." A renegade is one who reneges, that is, renounces a former loyalty, oath, or commitment. The -neg- part in both words also gives us, via different routes, negate and abnegation.

Raid has hardly any positive connotations so if you're inclined to conduct one, you might characterize it by the more genteel word foray, a near synonym. Though originally (and still) a verb, we use foray as a noun more frequently today, in the strict military sense, or to denote goal-oriented missions with more civilized takings, such as food.

Today's verb comes with a guarantee that someone affected by it will be unhappy: to repudiate something means to deny its validity or authority, to reject it disapprovingly, or to refuse to acknowledge or pay it. It's originally from a Latin noun that referred toa preemptive divorce: rejection of a prospective spouse. Today people mostly repudiate doctrines, debts, and contracts.