I’ve decided to copy my wife's “dog-eared” feature. These posts will contain quotations from books, music, movies, and whatever else I feel like sharing.
Suttree
Suttree went on. A mute and shapeless derelict would stop him with a puffy hand run forth from a cavernous sleeve of an armycoat. Woadscrivened, a paling heart that holds a name half gone in grime. Suttree looked into the ruined eyes where they burned in their tunnels of disaster. The lower face hung in sagging wattles like a great scrotum. Some mumbled word of beggary. To make your heart more desolate.
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).
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.
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:
We had lain thus in bed, chatting and napping at short intervals, and Queequeg now and then affectionately throwing his brown tattooed legs over mine, and then drawing them back; so entirely sociable and free and easy were we; when, at last, by reason of our confabulations, what little nappishness remained in us altogether departed, and we felt like getting up again, though day-break was yet some way down the future.
Herman Melville, Moby-Dick.
First Clown: . . . . Here's a skull now; this skull has lain in the earth three and twenty years.
Hamlet: Whose was it?
First Clown: A whoreson mad fellow's it was: whose do you think it was?
Hamlet: Nay, I know not.
First Clown: A pestilence on him for a mad rogue! a' poured a flagon of Rhenish on my head once. This same skull, sir, was Yorick's skull, the king's jester.
Hamlet: This?
First Clown: E'en that.
Hamlet: Let me see. [Takes the skull.] Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? Your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning? quite chop-fallen? Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come; make her laugh at that. . . .
Shakespeare, Hamlet.
And listen to this, one of my favorite songs of all time (song starts at 0:17, I strongly encourage you to stop it by 3:23 as the music they use for the end credits totally kills the mood):
Two Words I Used Earnestly in a Five-Day Period
(1) Cad – I referred to someone as a cad.
(2) Swell – When a friend asked if I’d like him to share some information with me, I said it would be swell if he did.
Relatedly: About six months ago I referred to someone as a “dickweed.” Immediately after it came out of my mouth I was shocked by it. That word was an often-used piece of my vocabulary when I was in my early teens, but I don’t think I’ve heard anyone say it in at least 17 years or so.
Words from Suttree
I just started reading Cormac McCarthy’s Suttree. I’ve never read any of his stuff before, except for the first 10 pages or so of No Country for Old Men (I didn’t stop because I didn’t like it, I was just browsing the books on my mom’s bookcases). Never in my life have I had to look up so many words when reading something. There’s a saying about reading Infinite Jest: make sure you have two bookmarks and the O.E.D. handy. But, so far, on a words per page basis Suttree blows Infinite Jest out of the water on the words-Trent-doesn’t-know scale. So here’s a list of the Suttree words I looked up in getting through the first chapter (25 pages of text, but the dialog sections have way fewer words that I need to look up, so the words here are almost all from the 15 or so pages of non-dialog): [n.1]
Foetal – Variant of fetal/fetus
Alluvial – Detritus from running water
Hawser – Large rope for towing/securing/etc a ship
Interstitial – Relating to / situated in a gap
Striae – Stripe/line, groove, channel
Stele – The central vascular portion of the axis of a vascular plant, usually cylindrical
Pinchbeck – Fools gold, a counterfeit thing
Rictus – The gape of a bird’s mouth
Mucilage – Gelatinous substance of various plants
Reticulate – Resembling a net or network
Plover – Type of bird, like a sandpiper
Viscid – Sticky, having an adhesive quality
Volute – Spiral or scroll shaped; a type of mollusk
Gambrel – A stick or iron for suspending slaughtered animals
Incruent – Bloodless
Homunculus – A little man
Instanter – At once
Grapnel – Small anchor, usually with 4 or 5 flukes used especially to recover sunken objects
Stob – Stake, post
Flowage – An overflowing onto land
Rimpled – Wrinkled, crumpled
Agoggle – (Agog) Full of intense interest
Cerements – A shroud for the dead
Sulcate – Scarred with furrows, usually longitudinal
Davited – (davit) a crane that projects over the side of a ship
Catenary – The curve of a cord that hangs between two fixed points
Cannelured – Ring like groove, the groove near the butt of a bullet
Breeks – Breeches, trousers
Parget – Any plaster or rough cast used to cover walls/etc
Gaitered – (gaiter) A covering for the ankle, calf, shoe top, compare to “upper”
Amphoric – Resembling the deep, hollow sound made by blowing across the mouth of a bottle
Note 1: The definitions are mostly my abbreviated versions I noted when I looked each word up. Also: A few of the words in the list are somewhat familiar to me (e.g., alluvial, interstitial, pinchbeck), and others are of the sort where I could’ve made a decent guess (e.g., viscid, instanter, riven), but I wasn’t sure so they made the list.
