Once again I'm between chapters (by heaven, this book...I'm pacing myself because it's so good) and so it's time to go through our past chapters and pick out all those pesky archaic words and dine sumptuously upon their definitions, derivations and the odd etymology. It's quite a smorgasbord this time.
Before I get into that I really wanted to let everyone know that I have begun a Kickstarter for my beloved novel The Reliquary. I apologize to those who are attached to me through other social media who may have been subject to my other postings. We're at 3% in three days, which is fabulous. We have only 27 more days to go. Sadly, this project will only go forward if people like yourself choose to back it. It is an all or nothing proposition. Please give generously and you will get generously! There are quite a few reward tiers available from 5$ to as high as 200$ which features super exclusive prizes. There's a perfect fit for anyone who wants to help me in this creative endeavor.
To find out how Kickstarter works you can get that information HERE.
Click HERE for my actual Kickstarter page.
Regardless of how much or how little you are able to do, your support means everything to me. I thank you in advance. Even just hitting +1 and sharing this post with others is ever so appreciated. I want as many people as possible to have a chance to read my novel and come to love the characters as much as I do.
Now! On to the Vocab Freak's Frolic!
I do feast so well upon these old novels. There are so many good words that we've forgotten or have no more "use" for. Of the 27 words we'll be looking at today a mere 13 of the show up as worthy of inclusion in my word processor's dictionary. You know you're a Vocab Freak when you find yourself delighted that you know a word your phone or word processor's dictionary doesn't. :)
Sublunary: Naturally, one expects the word to mean "beneath the moon". However that doesn't quite fit. It is derived from that Latin "sublunaris" which means "terrestrial". Fair enough. The definition is an "belonging to this world as contrasted with a better more spiritual one".
Negus: I was rather interested in this word, given my culinary arts background. One of my other great delights, besides gaining a robust vocabulary, is finding old world drinks and foods that we've lost. A negus was essentially mulled wine but that you swap the hot wine for hot port instead.
Pefidy: "deceitfullness; untrustworthiness"
Canzonette: "in music, a popular Italian secular vocal composition that originated around 1560" One of which you can listen to HERE sung by a lady who appears to be taking it a tad too seriously while simultaneously seeming unimpressed.
Cachinnate: According to the online dictionary, "It sounds exactly like what it is..." to which I thought, "an alien insectoid mating ritual?". Of course I was wrong, but so was the online dictionary, in my opinion. Continuing the quote, "it's what you do when you laugh loudly, guffaw, or cackle, and probably embarrass and annoy everyone around you." Uh...huh. Ca...chi..nnate... I'll let my dear readers judge that one.
Physiognomy: One of the great surprises in Jane Eyre, for myself at least, is how pervasive the pseudoscience of Phrenology is throughout. Some bit of it is in just about every section of the novel. Physiognomy is a companion pseudoscience that is "the supposed are of judging character from facial characteristics". You see this in effect particularly in the "fortune telling gypsy" scene.
Choler: "one of the bodily humors, identified with bile, believed to be associated with a peevish or irascible temparment.
Blent: "past participle of blend" Fair enough. I should have expected that.
Averred: "to state or assert to be the case"
Adventitious: "happening or carried on according to chance rather than design or inherent nature"
Ribald: "referring to sexual matters in an amusingly rude or irreverent way".
Sententious: "given to moralizing in a pompous or affected manner" And this usage didn't even come from the section with Brocklehurst in it.
Dentelles: "ornamental tooling used in book binding, resembling lace edging"
Spoony: "sentimentally or foolishly amorous" Apparently my spooning with my wife is spoony behavior...fair enough. :)
Sago: "edible starch that is obtained from a palm and is a staple food in parts of the tropics..."
Abigails: "a lady's personal maid"
Minois Chiffone: (referencing Louisa) "attractive, but in an unusual way". From further research I've found that it generally refers to an unevenesss of facial features. This very imperfection, or multiple imperfections, are considered attractive...because of their asymmetry. Interesting, I thought.
Saturnine: (descriptive of Miss Ingram) "dark and moody"
Contumelious: "scornful and insulting; insolent"
Beldame: "a malicious and ugly woman, especially an old one; a witch". Beldame has got to be one of my favorite words in older language. It's almost a mocking word because it come from the French "bel" which means beautiful and then the English "dame". So it means literally "beautiful older woman" but is spun on its ear in usage. I love fairy tales and fantasy stories that use the world "beldame" as a descriptor. I think I first encountered it in Neil Gaiman's Coraline which was how the ghost children referred to the "other mother" with the black buttons for eyes.
Lassitude: "a state of physical or mental weariness; lack of energy" To be a parent is to be in a constant state of lassitude.
Deglutition: "the act or process of swallowing" Huh...
Badinage: "humorous or witty conversation" If you notice, I've added a little badinage to some of these definitions. Let me know if you think it works better than just a list of words and definitions. I kind of like it, but I'm not pertinacious about it.
Pertinacious: "holding firm to an opinion or a course of action"
Seraglio: "the women's apartments in an Ottoman palace"
Dudgeon: "a feeling of offense or deep resentment"
Bathos: "an effect of anticlimax created by an unintentional lapse in mood from the sublime to the trivial or ridiculous"
I hope you learned a few things. I certainly did.
I'm hoping to have my next blog post, regarding the actual story contents of the book, by perhaps the end of the week. I've gotten to the point where I am compelled to savor it. I wanted them together, now I'm pissed they're apart, and can't wait for them to be reunited. That moment of realization for Jane is going to have to be amazing. I can't wait for it, but I want to draw it out a bit. There should be two more entries before I finish this book and pick up Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird".
Don't forget to +1, subscribe, share and the like if you happen to enjoy my meager scribblings here. I guess they aren't scribblings since I use a keyboard. Would it be "my meager...key clackings"?
At any rate...I remain, faithfully,
W
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