Saturday, May 22, 2010

Words from Suttree, Chapters 2 Through 6

I’ve been reading Cormac McCarthy’s Suttree. Never in my life have I had to look up so many words when reading something. Here’s a list of the Suttree words I looked up in getting through chapters two through six (about 76 pages of text). The words from chapter one can be found at the bottom of another post. [n.1]

Chapter 2

Moiled – (moil) To work hard; to whirl or churn ceaselessly; twist.

Concatenate – To link together; unite in a chain.

Revetment – A facing of masonry or the like, esp. for protecting an embankment.

Brogans – Heavy, sturdy work shoes.

Nates – Buttocks, rump.

Limn – To represent in drawing/painting; to describe.

Chapter 3

Adenoidal – Pertaining to the adenoids (lymph glands near the pharynx), having enlarged, esp. to a degree that interferes with breathing.

Leptosome – A person of asthenic build; slight; weak; thin.

Bewenned – (be-wenned) Wen = harmless cyst, fatty secretion of a sebaceous gland.

Chapter 4

Anneloid – (annelid) Worms or wormlike animals of the phylum Annelida.

Marcid – Withered, shrunken, wasted away.

Accretion – Natural growth or extension by gradual external addition.

Barbican – An outwork of a fortified place; a defensive outpost.

Lazaret – Same as lazaretto = Hospital for those with contagious diseases, esp. leprosy; a quarantine ship.

Comestibles – Edibles.

Excrescence – (1) An abnormal outgrowth; (2) A normal outgrowth (hair, horns).

Electuary – A pasty mass composed of a medicine, usually in powder form, mixed with a palatable medium (e.g., honey, syrup), esp. for animals.

Decocted – (decoct) To extract the flavor/essence by boiling. [n.2]

Beeves – Plural of beef (!).

Abbatoir – (s/b abattoir?) Slaughterhouse.

Cambrelled – (cambrel) British for gambrel; hock of an animal, esp. a horse; gambrel stick = a device for suspending slaughtered animals.

Blueflocced – ? (Floc = a tuft like mass; floccus = a small tuft of wooly hairs)

Piscean – Person born under the Pisces sign; of/pertaining to the sign (here it probably means fish, or fishlike).

Placoid – Plate like, as scales.

Jowter – A mounted peddler of fish.

Kneecrooks – (made-up compound word) knee + bends.

Dolorous – Full of, expressing, or causing pain or sorrow.

Slaverous – ? (slaver = Dealer/owner of slaves; slobber, drool) (Here it probably means drooling).

Mummes – A person who wears a mask or costume while merrymaking; an actor.

Shriving – (shrive) Impose penance; grant absolution; hear confessions; confess.

Chancel – The space about an alter, usually enclosed and restricted to church officials.

Glaucous – Of a pail grayish or bluish green.

Sedge – Any of numerous grass-like plants of the family cyperaceae, having solid stems, leaves in three vertical rows of spikelets of inconspicuous flowers.

Relict – Organism or species of an earlier time surviving in an environment that has undergone considerable change; widow.

Ebonfaced – Ebony faced.

Wapsy – Waspy (having many wasps?).

Batboard – (batting = fabric, cotton, often used as stuffing) Here it’s likely a compound—board made of batting.

Jakes – Latrines, privies.

Serried – Pressed together, crowded, esp. in rows.

Brisket – Chest of an animal (the cut of meat was clearly not what was intended here).

Scupper – Opening on a ship deck or roof to let water run out.

Caustic – (as a noun) A caustic material or substance; a hydroxide of a light metal.

Adumbrate – To give a sketchy outline of; foreshadow; disclose partially or guardedly.

Chapter 5

Ermine – Of or pertaining to weasels.

Shako – A stiff, cylindrical military dress hat with a metal plate in front, a short visor, and a plume.

Baize – Cotton or woolen material napped to imitate felt and used chiefly as a cover for gaming tables, often bright-green.

Chapter 6

Kudzu – An Asian vine of the legume family used for forage and erosion control; a serious weed in the S.E. United States.

Creepers – A creeping plant/vine.

Datura – Any of a genus of widely distributed strong scented herbs, shrubs, trees, of the nightshade family.

Phlox – Any of a genus of American annual or perennial herbs that have red, purple, white, or variegated flowers.

Suppurating – (suppurate) To form or discharge pus.

Midden – Dunghill; refuse heap.

Talus – A slope formed esp. by the accumulation of rock debris; the debris at the base of a cliff.

Sleech – Thick river mud/sludge/slime.

Vitreous – Relating to/resembling glass; glassy; made from glass.

Chrysalis – A pupa, esp. of a moth or butterfly, enclosed in a firm case or cocoon.

Whelk – Type of marine snail; inflamed swelling (pimple or pustule).

Apostate – One who has abandoned one’s religious faith, political party, cause, etc.

Birdlime – A sticky substance that is smeared on branches or twigs to capture small birds.

Warfarined – (warfarin) A white crystalline compound (C19, H16, O4) used as a rodenticide and as an anticoagulant.

Pneuma – The soul or vital spirit.

Niello – Any of several black metallic alloys used to fill an incised design on the surface of another metal; such a decorated surface; the art or process.

Slattern – An untidy, dirty woman.

Hipshot – Having the hip dislocated; hence having a hip lower than the other.

Winksome - ?

Dogstar – Sirius (but that doesn’t seem to be what he means here).

Ordurous – Of or pertaining to ordure (dung, feces); filthy.

Sussurous – (s/b susurrous?) Whispering; rustling.

Dishabille – Partially or very casually dressed; casual or lounge attire.

Cordite – A smokeless explosive powder.

Tawed – (taw) To convert (skin) into white leather by mineral tanning, as with alum and salt.


Note 1: The definitions are mostly my abbreviated versions I noted when I looked each word up.

Note 2: I can’t hear or see the word “essence” without thinking of the scariest movie of all time—Dark Crystal. Watch this, if you dare. It is extremely disturbing. I can’t believe people let kids watch this:

13 comments:

  1. I read Cormac McCarthy's The Road nearly two years ago and the word I remember most is "catamite." I will leave it to you to look it up.

    And I've never been able to watch The Dark Crystal because I know I just can't handle it.

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  4. Trent,

    Great work here. I'm engaged in a similar process with "Blood Meridian." This book also contains the phrase "batboard jakes" but none of the dictionaries I use provide a satisfactory definition for either word. What dictionary/source did you use for Suttree?

    Cheers,
    Nate

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    1. Batboard is a carpentry term and is usually referred to as "bat and board siding". It's where large pieces of wood are stuck upright with gaps between them and then smaller "bats" are placed between these gaps. Google "bat and board siding" for pictures, etc.

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  5. Hi, Nate. Thanks for reading and posting. For most of the words I use the Merriam-Webster online dictionary and Wordnik pretty interchangeably. For the handful of words where I couldn't get a satisfactory answer, I Google the term and potential variations. If I'm at home at the time, I might use my American Heritage Dictionary.

    As for batboard, that's just my best guess.

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  6. I don't know what happened to the comments here. I didn't delete them (knowingly, at least).

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  7. Just looking up 'bewenned' when i came across your blog..You are a legend, will save me much time as i read on. Cheers

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  8. Hi Bradley. Thanks! I'm reading way too many books right now, so I haven't updated the definitions posts lately. But I intend on continuing with them, so hopefully I'll stay ahead of you page wise.

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  9. Very helpful. I'm currently self-annotating Blood Meridian. If you either have a list of words from that, or if you could use any that I've looked up, I'd be glad to help.

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  10. I've just been annotating my copy as I reread Suttree. You Sir have provided a service to humanity!Bewenned isn't even in Webster's. Googling it brought me here. Thanks!

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  11. Love Cormac.How can one person know so many weird words.

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