Term
Onerous
Ex (pg. 22):
"He had spent the previous four years, as he saw it, preparing to fulfill an absurd and onerous duty: to graduate from college." |
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Definition
| Having legal obligations that outweigh the advantages |
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Term
Mien
Ex (pg. 18): ""He liked the community's stasis, its plebian virtues and unassuming mien." |
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Definition
| Air or bearing especially as expressive of attitude or personality, demeanor |
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Term
Contumacious
Ex (pg. 11): "Thompson, Samuel, Swanson, however are contumacious Alaskans with a special fondness for driving motor vehicles where motor vehicles aren't really designed to be driven" |
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Definition
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Term
Austerity
Ex (pg. 32) : "McCandles was stirred by the austerity of the landscape, by its saline beauty." |
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Definition
| quality of severity in manner and life. Ascetic practices. |
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Term
Indelible
Ex (pg. 48) : "McCandles made an indelible impression on a number of people during the course of his hegira" |
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Definition
| cannot be removed , washed away, or erased |
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Term
Hegira
Ex (pg. 48) ""McCandles made an indelible impression on a number of people during the course of his hegira" |
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Definition
| any flight or journey to a more desirable or ocngenial place |
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Term
Surfeit
Ex (pg. 42): "Nor was McCandles endowed with a surfeit of common sense" |
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Definition
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Term
Amicable
Ex (pg.121): "Walt's split from his first wife, Marcia, was not a clean or amicable parting." |
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Definition
| characterized by friendly goodwill |
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Term
Inequity
Ex (pg.113): "McCandles took life's inequities to heart." |
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Definition
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Term
Lucrative
Ex (73): "...lucrative jobs..." |
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Definition
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Term
Ephemeral
Ex (pg.88): "The emhemeral bloom of a sego lily peeks from the toes of a ninety-foot stone arch, and a canyon wrens call back and fofrth in plaintive tones from a thatch of scrub oak." |
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Definition
| lasting one day only; lasting a very short time |
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Term
Paucity
Ex (85): "Like Waterman and McCun, he displayed a staggering paucity of common sense." |
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Definition
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Term
Panache
Ex (pg. 110): "Indeedd, in a goofy video Chris made in college, he can be heard belting out 'Summers by the sea/Sailboats in Capri' with impressive panache, crooing like a proffesional lounge singer" |
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Definition
| a grand or flamboyant manner |
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Term
Intermittent
Ex (pg.29): "...thrilled by minor brushes with the law, savoring the intermittent company of other vagabonds he met along the way." |
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Definition
| not continuous, happening at irregular intervals. |
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Term
Hubris
Ex (pg.155): "...I now recognize that I suffered from hubris, perhaps and an appalling innocence, certainly; but I wasen't suicidal. |
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Definition
| noun, excessive pride or self- confidence; arrogance |
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Term
Desideratum
Ex (p. 137): "Those mountains heralded the approach of my desideratum" |
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Definition
| Something desired as essential |
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Term
Metastasized
Ex (pg. 150): "By late afternoon the squall(sudden gust of wind) had metastasized into another major storm" |
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Definition
| to spread or transform, especially in a dangerous form |
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Term
Lambasted
Ex (pg. 123): "He lampooned Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden, called for the resignation of Attorney General Edwin Meese, lambasted Bible-thumpers of the Christian right..." |
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Definition
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Term
Opprobrium
Ex (pg. 71): "The article about McCandless in Outside... heaped opprobrium on McCandless- and on me... for glorifying what some thought was a foolish, pointless death." |
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Definition
| Harsh criticism or censure |
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Term
Equanimity
Ex (pg. 75): "Rosellini appeared to accept the failure of his hypothesis with equanimity." |
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Definition
| Composure of mind especially under stress |
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Term
Fulminate
Ex (pg. 52): "McCandless's face would darken with anger and he'd fulminate about his parents or politicians or the endemic idiocy of mainstream American life." |
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Definition
| to utter or send out with denunciation |
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Term
Uncanny
Ex: Everett Ruess's correspondence reveals uncanny parallels between Ruess and Chris McCandless." |
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Definition
| being beyond what is normal or expected; suggesting superhuman or supernatural powers |
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Term
Castigate
Ex (pg. 176): Although he castigated himself severely for this waste of life he'd taken, a day later McCandless appeared to regain some perspective..." |
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Definition
| to subject to severe punishment, reproof, or criticism |
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Term
Idyll
Ex.(168): Then, in the midst of this idyll, came the first of two pivotal setbacks.
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Definition
| a poem or prose composition, usually describing pastoral scenes or events or any charmingly simple episode, appealing incident, or the like. |
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Term
Recondite
Ex. ...a diary filled with incoherent ramblings about truth and beauty and recondite ecological theory... |
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Definition
(Of a subject or knowledge) Little known; abstruse |
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Term
Rapturously
Ex. (182): In another essay Muir rapturously describes riding out a ferocious Sierra gale...
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Definition
| Full of, feeling, or manifesting ecstatic joy or delight. |
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Term
Recalcitrant
Ex. (128): "In both photos Chris stares at the lens with the same pensive, recalcitrant squint, as if he'd been inturrupted in the middle of an important thought and was annoyed." |
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Definition
1: obstinately defiant of authority or restraint
2difficult to manage or operate |
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Term
Modicum
ex.(184): "...a loopy young man who read too many books and lacked even a modicum of common sense."
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Definition
| a moderate or small amount. |
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Term
Monomania
Ex. (120): "He could be generous and caring to a fault, but he had a darker side as well, characterized by monomania, impatience, and unwavering self-absorption, qualities that seemed to intensify through his college years"
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Definition
| exaggerated or obsessive enthusiasm for or preoccupation with one thing. |
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Term
Conjecture
Ex: "There has been a lot of conjecture about what caused such a precipitous decline." |
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Definition
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Term
Rapport
ex.(108): "Around Iron Mountain his rapport with the creatures of the forest was legendary" |
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Definition
| relation marked by harmony, conformity, accord, or affinity |
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Term
Filigree
ex.(59): "...over which a a purple filigree of veins unfolds like a finely wrought tattoo." |
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Definition
| anything very delicate or fanciful |
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Term
Feral
ex.(189): "He was hungry, and his meager diet had pared his body down to a feral scrawn of gristle and bone" |
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Definition
| having reverted to the wild state, existing in a wild, natural animal like characteristic |
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Term
Amalgam
Ex.(10): "... maybe five miles across, carpeted in a boggy amalgam of muskeg, alder thickets, and veins of scrawny spruce." |
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Definition
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