Words I looked up recently

[flexagon]

...while reading The City & The City:

• Polysemic: having multiple meanings.


• Doyen: A commander in charge of ten men; The senior, or eldest male member of a group; exemplar of a particular practice or movement. Can be "doyenne" if female; related to the word "dean".


• Machicolation: On castle walls, an overhanging parapet with a hole in the floor through which molten lead or missiles could be dropped. (This was possibly used incorrectly in the book; it was a sentence where "crenellation" would have worked perfectly.)


• boscage: a mass of trees or shrubs; a thicket.

...while reading Chronic City:

• samizdat: clandestine printing and distribution of dissident or banned literature; underground or illegal literature.


• bête noire: literally "black beast", someone or something that is disliked or avoided; an anathema.


• grotty ocelot loaf: just kidding, I didn't look this up, but Lethem gets major points for using this phrase on page 410 in a way that makes perfect sense. Now that's writing!

...while reading Shop Class as Soulcraft:

• modus vivendi: signifying an agreement between those whose opinions differ, such that they agree to disagree (used deliciously in the book, as a teenage mechanic "approaches a modus vivendi" with a cranky old VW Beetle).


• exegesis: A detailed analysis or interpretation of a work of literature, especially of the Bible. I'm sure I've looked this one up before.


• alloplastic: Referring to adaptation by means of altering the external environment. This can be contrasted to autoplastic, which refers to the alteration of one's own behavior and responses. Alloplastic also refers to artificial materials substituted for tissue grafts, in surgery.

A lot of people tell me they figure out unknown words by context and don't look them up. I guess sometimes that works, but other times you run across characters involved in "their nostalgic samizdat", which in context I could only possibly have guessed as "collage" or maybe "argument". Way, way off the mark.

Comments

[nevers.livejournal.com]

have you considered setting up an account at wordnik for this sort of thing? i keep a list of words i look up while copyediting at tony. and heather makes lists for any new book she reads that sends her looking up a handful of words.

[flexagon]

thanks! I looked at wordnik... it's neat, but don't think I want any more online accounts right now. :) I was mostly hoping people would talk to me about the books.

[a-kosmos.livejournal.com]

I told Charlie that he was a bete noire, and he purred happily.

[silentq.livejournal.com]

When I was reading The City and The City, I didn't bother looking up machicolation, and I inferred the wrong meaning, so thanks. :)
Have you ever read "And the Ass Saw the Angel" by Nick Cave? I read it with a dictionary beside me since I had to look up multiple words per page, sometimes per sentence. :)

[flexagon]

I still think he used that one wrong.

I haven't read And the Ass Saw the Angel... sounds like a pretty intense reading experience. Was it worth it?

[silentq.livejournal.com]

I had to think about this question for a bit. :) If you love words and language, it's worth it. The story is fairly dark, and since the protagonist is mute, a lot of it takes place in his head. He's concerned with religion, sex, and death. Read a few better reviews and see if they pique your interest, I'm not willing to recommend it fully as it will probably be a challenge.