Vocabulary

1. Vocabulary April 2011

2. Fractiousadjective*Fractiousness = noun Sentence: “His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed (11).” Definition: stubbornly disobedient or unruly; readily angered; peevish; irritable; quarrelsome Synonyms: awkward, mean, recalcitrant; disorderliness, rowdiness, uncontrollableness

3. Peremptoryadjective Sentence: “Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as if his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his peremptory heart (25).” Definition: leaving no opportunity for denial or refusal; imperative Synonyms: arbitrary, compelling, domineering

4. Superciliousadjective Sentence: “The supercilious assumption was that on Sunday afternoon I had nothing better to do (28).” Definition: haughtily disdainful or contemptuous, as a person or facial expression Synonyms: arrogant, cocky, scornful

5. Ectoplasmnoun Sentence: “He informed me that he was in the ‘artistic game’ and I gathered later that he was a photographer and had made the dim enlargement of Mrs. Wilson’s mother which hovered like an ectoplasm on the wall (34).” Definition: spiritualism – the supposed emanation from the body of a medium

6. Stridentadjective Sentence: “I wanted to get out and walk eastward toward the park through the soft twilight but each time I tried to go I became entangled in some wild strident argument which pulled me back, as if with ropes, into my chair (40).” Definition: making or having a harsh sound; characterized acoustically by noise of relatively high intensity Synonyms: blatant, noisy, raucous

7. Prodigalitynoun Sentence: “Laughter is easier, minute by minute, spilled with prodigality, tipped out at a cheerful word (44).” Definition: wasteful extravagance in spending; lavish abundance Synonyms: absurdity, extravagance, lavishness

8. Corpulentadjective Sentence: “I had expected that Mr. Gatsby would be a florid and corpulent person in his middle years (53).” Definition: large or bulky of body; stout; fat Synonyms: obese, rotund, weighty

9. Provincialadjective Sentence: “But young men didn’t – at least in my provincial inexperience I believed they didn’t – drift coolly out of nowhere and buy a palace on Long Island Sound (54).” Definition: belonging or peculiar to some particular province – a country, territory, district or region; local; Synonyms: country, rural, small-town

10. Malevolencenoun Sentence: “In spite of the wives agreement that such malevolence was beyond credibility the dispute ended in a short struggle and both wives were lifted kicking into the night (57).” Definition: the quality or state of wishing harm or evil to another or others; showing ill will; malice Synonyms: evil, hatred

11. Punctiliousadjective Sentence: “This quality was continually breaking through his punctilious manner in the shape of restlessness (68).” Definition: strict or exact in the observance of the formalities or amenities of conduct or actions Synonyms: precise, conscientious, exact, formal

12. Denizennoun Sentence: “’He becomes very sentimental sometimes,’ explained Gatsby. ‘This is one of his sentimental days. He’s quite a character around New York – a denizen of Broadway (77).’” Definition: an inhabitant; resident; a person who regularly frequents a place Synonyms: citizen, habitant, dweller

13. turgid Sentence: “The none too savory ramifications by which Ella Kaye, the newspaper woman, played Madame de Maintenon to his weakness and sent him to sea in a yacht, were common knowledge to the turgid journalism of 1902 (106).” Definition: inflated, overblown, or pompous; bombastic: turgid language Synonyms: inflated, tumid

14. Euphemismnoun Sentence: “She was appalled by West Egg, this unprecedented ‘place’ that Broadway had begotten upon a Long Island fishing village – appalled by its raw vigor that chafed under the old euphemisms and by the too obtrusive fate that herded its inhabitants along and a short cut from nothing to nothing (114).” Definition: the substitution of a mild, indirect or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh or blunt Synonyms: inflation, purism, pretense

15. Dilatoryadjective Sentence: “The dilatory limousine came rolling up the drive (115).” Definition: tending to delay or procrastinate; slow; tardy Synonyms: backward, dallying, late, leisurely

16. Sentence: “There was ripe mystery about it, a hint of bedrooms, of gay and radiant activities taking place through its corridors and of romances that were not musty and laid way already in lavender but fresh and breathing and redolent of this year’s shining motor cars and of dances whose flowers were scarcely withered (155).” Redolent adjective Sentence: “For Daisy was young and her artificial world was redolent of orchids and pleasant, cheerful snobbery and orchestras which set the rhythm of the year, summing up the sadness and suggestiveness of life in the new tunes (158). ” Definition: strongly reminiscent or suggestive of something; having or emitting fragrance Synonyms: scented, aromatic

17. Garrulousadjective Sentence: “I supposed there’d be a curious crowd around there all day with little boys searching for dark spots in the dust and some garrulous man telling over and over what had happened until it became less and less real even to him and he could tell it no longer and Myrtle Wilson’s tragic achievement was forgotten (163).” Definition: excessively talkative in a rambling, roundabout manner, especially trivial manners Synonyms: babbling, blabbermouth, chatty

18. Fortuitousadjective Sentence: “A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about... like that ashen, fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous trees (169).” Definition: happening or produced by chance, accidental Synonyms: arbitrary, casual, incidental, unplanned