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Heart of Darkness Vocab
AP Literature
50
Literature
12th Grade
01/25/2012

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Term
Luminous
Definition
radiating or reflecting light

and in the luminous space the tanned sails of the barges drifting up with the tide
Term
Estuary
Definition
the wide lower area of a river where the current meets the tide

It was difficult to realize his work was not out there in the luminous estuary, but behind him
Term
Ascetic
Definition
morally severe, stric

He had sunken cheeks, a yellow complexion, a straight back, an ascetic aspect
Term
Pacifically
Definition
peaceably, mildly, calmly, or quietly.

The water shone pacifically
Term
Diaphanous
Definition
very sheer and light; almost completely transparent or translucent. delicately hazy.

draping the low shores in diaphanous folds
Term
August
Definition
grand

but in the august light of abiding memories
Term
Sedentary
Definition
accustomed to sit or rest a great deal or to take little exercise.

but he was a wanderer, too, while most seamen lead, if one may so express it, a sedentary life
Term
Tentative
Definition
unsure; uncertain; not definite or positive; hesitant

made a tentative jab with a spear at the white man
Term
Sepulcher
Definition
a tomb, vault for sacred relics

I arrived in a city that always makes me think of a whited sepulcher
Term
Placidity
Definition
calmness, tranquility

The swift and indifferent placidity of that look troubled me
Term
Joviality
Definition
merriment; jollity.

so I proposed a drink, and thereupon he developed a vein of joviality
Term
Enigma
Definition
a puzzling or inexplicable occurrence or situation

Watching a coast as it slips by the ship is like thinking about an enigma. There it is before you—smiling, frowning, inviting, grand, mean, insipid, or savage, and always mute with an air of whispering
Term
Lugubrious
Definition
gloomy, mournful

There was a touch of insanity in the proceeding, a sense of lugubrious drollery in the sight
Term
Declivity
Definition
descending

A rocky cliff appeared, mounds of turned-up earth by the shore, houses on a hill, others, with iron roofs, amongst a waste of excavations, or hanging to the declivity
Term
Tumult
Definition
violent and noisy commotion or disturbance of a crowd or mob; uproar

Then, alluding with a toss of the head to the tumult in the station-yard,
Term
Verandah
Definition
large, open porch, usually roofed and partly enclosed, as by a railing, often extending across the front and sides of a house

he lived all alone in a clay hut with a sort of veranda
Term
Superciliousness
Definition
haughtily disdainful or contemptuous, as a person or a facial expression.

His little eyes glittered like mica discs—with curiosity—though he tried to keep up a bit of superciliousness
Term
Indefatigable
Definition
incapable of being tired out; not yielding to fatigue; untiring.

What a row the brute makes!’ said the indefatigable man with the moustaches
Term
Conflagration
Definition
destructive fires

This will prevent all conflagrations for the future. I was just telling the manager
Term
Servile
Definition
slavishly submissive or obsequious; fawning

Not in bed yet,’ he said, with a kind of servile heartiness
Term
Audacity
Definition
boldness or daring, especially with confident or arrogant disregard for personal safety, conventional thought, or other restrictions.

it was reckless without hardihood, greedy without audacity, and cruel without courage
Term
Heralded
Definition
proclaimed

The dawns were heralded by the descent of a chill stillness
Term
Reverberating
Definition
to reecho or resound

between the high walls of our winding way, reverberating in hollow claps the ponderous beat of the stern-wheel
Term
Circumvent
Definition
to bypass

I had to watch the steering, and circumvent those snags
Term
Intrepidity
Definition
resolutely fearless; dauntless:

He squinted at the steam-gauge and at the water-gauge with an evident effort of intrepidity
Term
Malevolently
Definition
wishing evil or harm to another or others; showing ill will; ill-disposed; malicious

‘It must be this miserable trader-this intruder,’ exclaimed the manager, looking back malevolently at the place we had left.
Term
Farcical
Definition
resembling farce; ludicrous; absurd.

as long as there was a piece of paper written over in accordance with some farcical law or other made down the river
Term
Inexplicable
Definition
not explicable; incapable of being accounted for or explained.

than the curious, inexplicable note of desperate grief in this savage clamor
Term
Perdition
Definition
damnation

It's really easier to face bereavement, dishonor, and the perdition of one's soul—than this kind of prolonged hunger.
Term
Traversed
Definition
to pass or move over, along, or through.

I threw my head back to a glinting whizz that traversed the pilot-house
Term
Evanescent
Definition
fleeting

I saw vague forms of men running bent double, leaping, gliding, distinct, incomplete, evanescent.
Term
Disparagingly
Definition
tending to belittle or bring reproach upon:

‘Mostly fossil,’ the manager had remarked, disparagingly
Term
Pulsating
Definition
to expand and contract rhythmically, as the heart; beat; throb.

the most exalted and the most contemptible, the pulsating stream of light
Term
Innate
Definition
existing in one from birth; inborn; native

When they are gone you must fall back upon your own innate strength
Term
Peroration
Definition
the conclusion of a speech

The peroration was magnificent, though difficult to remember, you know
Term
Altruistic
Definition
unselfishly concerned for or devoted to the welfare of others

It was very simple, and at the end of that moving appeal to every altruistic sentiment it blazed at you, luminous and terrifying
Term
Benevolence
Definition
desire to do good to others; goodwill; charitableness

It gave me the notion of an exotic Immensity ruled by an august Benevolence. It made me tingle with enthusiasm. This was the unbounded power of eloquence—of words—of burning noble words
Term
Brusque
Definition
abrupt in manner; blunt; rough

And then I made a brusque movement, and one of the remaining posts of that vanished fence leaped up in the field of my glass
Term
Apparition
Definition
a supernatural appearance of a person or thing, especially a ghost; a specter or phantom
anything that appears, especially something remarkable or startling

the lower jaw moving, the eyes of that apparition shining darkly far in its bony head that nodded with grotesque jerks
Term
Voracious
Definition
craving or consuming large quantities of food

it gave him a weirdly voracious aspect, as though he had wanted to swallow all the air
Term
Perceptible
Definition
capable of being perceived; recognizable; appreciable:

I noticed that the crowd of savages was vanishing without any perceptible movement of retreat
Term
Fecund
Definition
fertile

whole sorrowful land, the immense wilderness, the colossal body of the fecund and mysterious life seemed to look at he
Term
Precarious
Definition
dependent on circumstances beyond one's control; uncertain; unstable; insecure

We must save it, at all events—but look how precarious the position is—and why? Because the method is unsound.
Term
Exultation
Definition
the act of exulting; lively or triumphant joy, as over success or victory.


I remember the exultation with which I said to myself, ‘He can't walk—he is crawling on all-fours—I’ve got him.
Term
Inexorable
Definition
unyielding; unalterable

Kurtz's life was running swiftly, too, ebbing, ebbing out of his heart into the sea of inexorable time
Term
Obsequiously
Definition
characterized by or showing servile complaisance or deference; fawning

images of wealth and fame revolving obsequiously round his inextinguishable gift of noble and lofty expression.
Term
Noxious
Definition
morally harmful; corrupting; pernicious

This noxious fool’ (meaning the manager) ‘is capable of prying into my boxes when I am not looking
Term
Tepid
Definition
characterized by a lack of force or enthusiasm

in a sickly atmosphere of tepid skepticism, without much belief in your own right
Term
Sarcophagus
Definition
a stone coffin

A grand piano stood massively in a corner; with dark gleams on the flat surfaces like a somber and polished sarcophagus
Term
Guileless
Definition
sincere; honest; straightforward; frank.

This fair hair, this pale visage, this pure brow, seemed surrounded by an ashy halo from which the dark eyes looked out at me. Their glance was guileless, profound, confident, and trustful
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