To one member, selling the bell as scrap would profane a familiar ritual. (profane: desecrate, defile, dishonor) To another, taking a hammer to it might desecrate a gift his father had made. (desecrate: profane, defile, violate) The smith let them argue. He had no desire to instigate another spate of reproaches, and a little profanity from the tower told him he had arrived too late to prevent the first. (instigate: initiate, incite, provoke; spate: flood, surge, rush; profanity: swearing, cursing, foul language)
The crack was latent in the casting. (latent: dormant, hidden, potential) Repeated blows made it proliferate into several fine branches. (proliferate: multiply, spread, mushroom) There was real urgency, but a flippancy about the loss of a familiar sound would do little to help. (flippancy: levity, frivolity, light-mindedness) He brought a small replica to the next meeting.
It had a thinner voice and a sound all its own. The old bell came down intact; the replica went up. An epoch in the town's history now ended with a quiet bell people could touch and a new one they could hear. (epoch: era, age, period)