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p. 102 - affable (adjective): pleasantly easy to approach and to talk to; friendly; cordial; warmly polite; benign. origin: 1530-1540
"The enigma then was explained: this affable and kind little widow was no great dame, but a dependent like myself." |
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p. 104 - perfidy (noun): deliberate breach of faith or trust; faithlessness; treachery. origin: 1585-1595
"It was the strain of a forsaken lady, who, after bewailing the perfidy of her lover, calls pride to her aid..." |
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p. 104 - canzonet (noun): an early polyphonic song of dancelike character. origin: 1585-1595
"Adele sang the canzonet tunefully enough, and with the naïveté of her age." |
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p. 106 - boudoir (noun): a woman's bedroom or private sitting room. origin: 1775-1785
"Yet it was merely a very pretty drawing-room, and within it a boudoir, both spread with white carpets, on which seemed laid brilliant garlands of flowers..." |
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p. 106 - fastidious (adjective): excessively particular, critical, or demanding; hard to please; requiring excessive care of delicacy; painstaking. origin: 1375-1425
"'Is Mr. Rochester an exacting, fastidious sort of man?'" |
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p. 107 - salient (adjective): prominent or conspicuous; projecting or pointing outward; leaping or jumping. origin: 1555-1565
"There are people who seem to have no notion of sketching a character, or observing and describing salient points, either in persons or things..." |
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p. 107 - effigy (noun): a representation or image, esp. sculptured (as on a monument) or of someone disliked (crudely used for purposes of ridicule). origin: 1530-1540
"I liked the hush, the gloom, the quaintness of these retreats in the day; but I by no means coveted a night's repose on one of those wide and heavy beds; shut in, some of them with doors of oak; shaded, others, with wrought old English hangings crusted with thick work, portraying effigies of strange flowers, and stranger birds, and strangest human beings, --all of which would have looked strange, indeed, by the pallid gleam of moonlight." |
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| p. 107 - pallid (adjective): pale; faint or deficient in color; wan; lacking in vitality or interest. origin: 1580-1590 |
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p. 108 - propitious (adjective): presenting favorable conditions; auspicious. origin: 1400-1450
"I surveyed the grounds laid out like a map... the horizon bounded by a propitious sky, azure, marbled with pearly white." |
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p. 108 - dint (noun): force; power. origin: 900
“Mrs. Fairfax stayed behind a moment to fasten the trap-door; I, by dint of groping, found the outlet from the attic, and proceeded to descend the narrow garret staircase.” |
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| p. 108 - garret (noun): an attic, usually a small, wretched one. origin: 1300-1350 |
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p. 109 - mirthless (adjective): lacking gaiety or jollity; without amusement or laughter involved. origin: 900
“It was a curious laugh; distinct, formal, and mirthless.” |
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p. 109 - cachinnation (noun): loud or immoderate laughter. origin: 1815-1825
“…and, but that it was high noon, and that no circumstance of ghostliness accompanied the curious cachinnation, but that neither scene nor season favored fear, I should have been superstitiously afraid.” |
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p. 110 – wayward (adjective): turned away from what is right or proper; willful; disobedient; capricious; irregular. origin: 1350-1400
“My pupil was a lively child, who had been spoilt and indulged, and therefore was sometimes wayward…” |
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| p. 110 – par parenthèse (French expression): translated, means “parenthetically.” |
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p. 111 – sequester (verb): to remove or withdraw into solitude or retirement; seclude; separate. origin: 1350-1400
“…I climbed the three staircases, raised the trap-door of the attic, and having reached the leads, looked out afar over sequestered field and hill, and along dim sky-line—that then I longed for a power of vision which might overpass that limit…” |
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p. 112 – peal (noun): any loud, sustained sound or series of sounds, as of cannon, thunder, applause, or laughter. origin: 1350-1400
“When thus alone, I not unfrequently heard Grace Poole’s laugh: the same peal, the same low, slow ha! ha! which, when first heard had thrilled me: I heard, too, her eccentric murmurs; stranger than her laugh.” |
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p. 113 – causeway (verb): to pave, esp. with cobblestones or pebbles. origin: 1400-1450
“If a breath of air stirred, it made no sound here; for there was not a holly, not an evergreen to rustle, and the stripped hawthorn and hazel bushes were as still as the white, worn stones which causewayed the middle of the path.” |
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p. 113 – stile (noun): a series of steps or rungs by means of which a person may pass over a wall or fence that remains a barrier to sheep or cattle. origin: c.a. 900
“This lane inclined uphill all the way to Hay: having reached the middle, I sat down on a stile which led thence into a field.” |
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p. 113 – battlement (verb): a parapet or cresting, originally defensive but later usually decorative, consisting of a regular alternation of merlons and crenels. origin: 1275-1325
“From my seat I could look down on Thornfield: the grey and battlemented hall was the principal object in the vale below me; its woods and dark rookery rose against the west.” |
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| p. 113 – rookery (noun): a breeding place or colony of gregarious birds or animals. origin: 1715-1725 |
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p. 114 – efface (verb): to wipe out; do away with; expunge; erase; obliterate; withdraw. origin: 1480-1490
“...a metallic clatter, which effaced the soft wave-wanderings; as, in a picture, the solid mass of a crag, or the rough boles of a great oak, drawn in dark and strong on the foreground, efface the aerial distance of azure hill, sunny horizon, and blended clouds, where tint melts into tint.” |
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p. 114 – tenant (verb): to hold or occupy as a tenant; dwell in; inhabit. origin: 1250-1300
“In those days I was young, and all sorts of fancies bright and dark tenanted my mind…” |
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p. 114 – prostrate (adjective): lying flat or at full length, as on the ground; overthrown, overcome, or helpless. origin: 1350-1400
“He snuffed round the prostrate group, and then he ran up to me; it was all he could do—there was no other help at hand to summon.” |
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p. 115 – officious (adjective): objectionably aggressive in offering one’s unrequested and unwanted services, help, or advice. origin: 1555-1565
“I was in the mood for being useful, or at least officious, I think, for I now drew near him again.” |
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p. 115 – ireful (adjective): full of intense anger; wrathful. origin: 1250-1300
“…his eyes and gathered eyebrows looked ireful and thwarted just now…” |
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p. 116 – incarnate (adjective): embodied in flesh; personified or typified. origin: 1350-1400
“…but I had met those qualities incarnate in masculine shape, I should have known instinctively that they neither had nor could have sympathy with anything in me, and should have shunned them as one would fire, lightning, or anything else that is bright but antipathetic.” |
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p. 116 – hoary (adjective): aged, ancient, or venerable; tedious from familiarity; stale. origin: 1520-1530
“[He] pointed to Thornfield Hall, on which the moon cast a hoary gleam, bringing it out distinct and pale from the woods, that, by contrast with the western sky, now seemed one mass of shadow.” |
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p. 118 – pollard (noun): a tree whose top branches have been cut back to the trunk so that it may produce a dense growth of new shoots. origin: 1515-1525
“I saw only the hedge and a pollard willow before me, rising up still and straight to meet the moonbeams…” |
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p. 118 – repine (verb): to be fretfully discontented; complain. origin: 1520-1530
“What good would it have done me at that time… to have been taught by rough and bitter experience to long for the calm amidst which I now repined?” |
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| p. 121 – frock (noun): a gown or dress worn by a woman. origin: 1300-1350 |
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p. 122 – choler (noun): irascibility; anger; wrath; irritability. origin: 1350-1400
“…his full nostrils, denoting, I thought, choler…” |
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p. 122 – physiognomy (noun): the outward appearance of one’s face, taken as offering some insight into one’s character. origin: 1350-1400
“His shape, now divested of cloak [meaning stripped of clothing], I perceived harmonized in squareness with his physiognomy; I suppose it was a good figure in the athletic sense of the term—broad chested and thin flanked, though neither tall nor graceful.” |
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p. 122 – piquant (adjective): agreeably stimulating, interesting, or attractive; of an interestingly provocative or lively character. origin: 1515-1525
“Besides, the eccentricity of the proceeding was piquant: I felt interested to see how he would go on.” |
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p. 123 – celerity (noun): quickness in movement or in doing something. origin: 1480-1490
“She hastened to ring the bell; and, when the tray came, she proceeded to arrange the cups, spoons, etc., with assiduous celerity.” |
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p. 124 – chiffonnier (noun): a worktable of the 18th century, having several tiers of shallow drawers. origin: 1800-1810
“…Adele was leading me by the hand round the room, showing me the beautiful books and ornaments on the consoles and chiffonniers.” |
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| p. 128 – diadem (verb): to adorn with a crown. origin: 1250-1300 |
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p. 130 – aver (verb): to assert or affirm with confidence; declare in a positive or peremptory manner. origin: 1350-1400
“She averred they were a mystery to herself, and that what she knew was chiefly from conjecture.” |
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p. 131 – rencounter (noun): a hostile meeting, battle, or contest. origin: 1495-1505
“…all my acquaintance with him was confined to an occasional rencontre in the hall, on the stairs, or in the gallery, when he would sometimes pass me haughtily and coldly, just acknowledging my presence by a distant nod or a cool glance, and sometimes bow and smile with gentleman-like affability.” |
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p. 132 – interlocutrice (noun): a female who takes part in a conversation or dialogue and questions and interrogates those involved. origin: 1505-1515
“I have forbidden Adele to talk to me about her presents, and she is bursting with repletion; have the goodness to serve her as auditress and interlocutrice: it will be one of the most benevolent acts you ever performed.” |
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p. 135 – intrinsic (adjective): belonging to something as one of the basic and essential features that make it what it is. origin: 1480-1490
“…yet there was so haughty a reliance on the power of other qualities, intrinsic or adventitious, to atone for the lack of mere personal attractiveness, that, in looking at him, one inevitably shared the indifference, and, even in a blind, imperfect sense, put faith in the confidence.” |
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| p. 135 – adventitious (adjective): added from an outside and often unexpected source (opposite of intrinsic). origin: 1595-1605 |
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p. 136 – pique (verb): to affect with sharp irritation and resentment, esp. by some wound to pride; to cause somebody to be in a bad mood. origin: 1525-1535
“Leaving superiority out of the question then, you must still agree to receive my orders now and then, without being piqued or hurt by the tone of command—will you?” |
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p. 137 – insolence (noun): contemptuously rude or impertinent behavior or speech. origin: 1350-1400
“And will you consent to dispense with a great many conventional forms and phrases, without thinking that the omission arises from insolence?” |
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p. 137 – palliate (verb): to relieve or lessen without curing; mitigate; alleviate intensity or severity. origin: 1540-1550
“I have plenty of faults of my own: I know it, and I don’t wish to palliate them, I assure you.” |
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p. 138 – hackney (verb): to make trite, common, or stale by frequent use. origin: 1300-1350
“…I verily believe, rather to circumstances than to my natural bent, I am a trite common-place sinner, hackneyed in all the poor petty dissipations with which the rich and worthless try to put on life.” |
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p. 138 – ribaldry (noun): language or behavior that is humorous but rude and vulgar, often involving jokes about sex. origin: 1300-1350
“Now, when any vicious simpleton excites my disgust by his paltry ribaldry, I cannot flatter myself that I am better than he: I am forced to confess that he and I are on a level.” |
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| p. 140 – sententious (adjective): tending to use maxims and aphorisms; inclined to moralize more than is merited or appreciated. origin: 1400-1450 |
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p. 141 – coquetry (noun): flirtation or dalliance; trifling. origin: 1650-1660
“…coquetry runs in her blood, blends with her brains, and seasons the marrow of her bones.” |
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p. 146 – blight (verb): to cause to wither or decay; blast; to destroy or ruin. origin: 1605-1615
“The more you and I converse, the better; for while I cannot blight you, you may refresh me.” |
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p. 147 – belabor (verb): to assail persistently, as with scorn or ridicule. origin: 1590-1600
“Neither of them possessed energy or wit to belabor me soundly; but they insulted me as coarsely as they could in their little way…” |
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p. 147 – exigency (noun): a case or situation that demands prompt action or remedy; emergency. origin: 1575-1585
“…I offered her a purse for immediate exigencies…” |
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p. 148 – prattle (verb): to talk in a foolish or simple-minded way; chatter; babble. origin: 1525-1535
“When we went in and I had removed her bonnet and coat, I took her on my knee; kept her there an hour, allowing her to prattle as she like: not rebuking even some little freedoms and trivialities into which she was apt to stray when much noticed: and which betrayed in her a superficiality of character, inherited probably from her mother, hardly congenial to an English mind.” |
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p. 148 – paroxysm (noun): any sudden, violent outburst; a fit of violent action or uncontrollable expression of emotion. origin: 1570-1580
“…but there was something decidedly strange in the paroxysm of emotion which had suddenly seized him, when he was in the act of expressing the present contentment of his mood, and his newly revived pleasure in the old hall and its environs.” |
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p. 151 – fulminate (verb): to cause something to detonate or explode violently; to express forceful criticism of somebody or something. origin: 1375-1425
“Though it was now dark, I knew he was awake; because I heard him fulminating strange anathemas at finding himself lying in a pool of water.” |
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| p. 151 – anathema (noun): somebody or something that is greatly disliked or detested and is therefore shunned, or consigned to damnation or destruction. origin: 1520-1530 |
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p. 155 – confabulate (verb): to informally converse, discuss, or chat about something. origin: 1605-1615
“To much confabulation succeeded a sound of scrubbing and setting to rights; and when I passed the room, in going downstairs to dinner, I saw through the open door that all was again restored to complete order; only the bed was stripped of its hangings.” |
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p. 157 – harangue (noun): a scolding or a long or intense verbal attack; a long, passionate, and vehement speech to persuade in a forceful way. origin: 1530-1540
“And here she closed her harangue: a long one for her, and uttered with the demureness of a Quakeress.” |
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p. 158 – vindictive (adjective): disposed or inclined to seek revenge; vengeful. origin: 1610-1620
“It was strange: a bold, vindictive, and haughty gentleman seemed somehow in the power of one of the meanest of his dependents…” |
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p. 160 – evince (verb): to show a feeling or quality clearly; to make evident or manifest; to prove; to reveal possession of or indicate by action or implication. origin: 1600-1610
“Then you must prove it by evincing a good appetite…” |
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p. 162 – surfeit (verb): to supply with anything in excess; overindulge. origin: 1250-1300
“…that a more fantastic idiot had never surfeited herself on sweet lies, and swallowed poison as if it were nectar.” |
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p. 163 – ignis-fatuus (noun): a flitting phosphorescent light seen at night, chiefly over marshy ground, and believed to be due to spontaneous combustion of gas from decomposed organic matter; also: something deluding or misleading. origin: 1555-1565
“…if discovered and responded to, it must lead, ignis-fatuus-like, into miry wilds whence there is no extrication.” |
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| p. 163 – extricate (verb): to free or release from entanglement or difficulty; disengage from an unpleasant or complicated situation. origin: 1605-1615 |
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p. 164 – plebeian (noun): somebody thought to behave in a coarse or crude manner; one who is ill-educated and of lower class. origin: 1525-1535
“…is it likely he would waste a serious thought on this indigent and insignificant plebeian?” |
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p. 164 – indelible (adjective): making marks that cannot be erased or removed; cannot be eliminated, forgotten, or changed; unforgettable. origin: 1520-1530
I derived benefit from the task: it had kept my head and hands employed, and had given force and fixedness to the new impressions I wished to stamp indelibly on my heart.” |
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p. 166 – caper (verb): to leap or skip about in a sprightly manner; prance; frisk; gambol. origin: 1585-1595
“For herself, she did nothing but caper about in the front chambers, jump on and off the bedsteads, and lie on the mattresses and piled-up bolsters and pillows before the enormous fires roaring in the chimneys.” |
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p. 169 – sonorous (adjective): giving out a resonant sound; loud, deep, rich and full in sound or language. origin: 1605-1615
“…above all, though not loud, was the sonorous voice of the master of Thornfield Hall, welcoming his fair and gallant guests under its roof.” |
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p. 170 – victualage (noun): food or provisions. origin: 1615-1625
“I could not proceed to the school-room without passing some of their doors, and running the risk of being surprised with my cargo of victualage…” |
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p. 172 – contumacy (noun): stubborn perverseness or rebelliousness; willful and obstinate resistance or disobedience to authority. origin: 1150-1200
“If she objects, tell her it is my particular wish; and if she resists, say I shall come and fetch her in case of contumacy.” |
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p. 172 – trepidation (noun): tremulous fear, alarm, or agitation; perturbation; tremor. origin: 1595-1605
“It was with some trepidation that I perceived the hour approach when I was to repair with my charge to the drawing-room. |
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| p. 174 – dowager (noun): a woman who holds some title or property from her deceased husband, esp. the widow of a king or other royal position. origin: 1520-1530 |
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p. 176 – ensconce (verb): to settle securely or snugly; to cover or shelter; to hide from danger. origin: 1580-1590
“And then they had called her to a sofa, where she now sat, ensconced between them…” |
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p. 179 – economy (noun): the management of resources in a community; regulation of functions; an organized system or method; efficient use. origin: 1520-1530
“You men never do consider economy and common sense.” |
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p. 179 – anathematize (verb): to formally curse, denounce, or excommunicate. origin: 1560-1570
“Mrs. Dent here bent over to the pious lady, and whispered something in her ear; I suppose from the answer elicited, it was a reminder that one of the anathematized race was present.” |
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p. 179 – portentous (adjective): momentous; ominously significant or indicative; marvelous; amazing; prodigious. origin: 1530-1540
“‘I will tell you in your private ear,’ replied she, wagging her turban three times with portentous significancy.” |
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p. 180 – lachrymose (adjective): suggestive of or tending to cause tears; mournful; so sad as to make people cry. origin: 1655-1665
“The best fun was with Madame Joubert: Miss Wilson was a poor sickly thing, lachrymose and low-spirited: not worth the trouble of vanquishing, in short…” |
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| p. 180 – vanquish (verb): to defeat an opponent or opposing army in a battle or fight; to prove convincingly superior to competition or argument. origin: 1300-1350 |
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p. 188 – contumely (noun): insulting display of contempt in words or actions; contemptuous or humiliating treatment or insults. origin: 1350-1400
“Too often she betrayed this, by the undue vent she gave to a spiteful antipathy she had conceived against little Adele: pushing her away with some contumelious epithet if she happened to approach her; sometimes ordering her from the room, and always treating her with coldness and acrimony.” |
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| p. 188 – acrimony (noun): sharpness, harshness, or bitterness of nature, speech, or disposition. origin: 1535-1545 |
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p. 189 – sagacity (noun): acuteness of mental discernment and soundness of judgment. origin: 1540-1550
“The future bridegroom, Mr. Rochester himself, exercised over his intended a ceaseless surveillance: and it was from this sagacity—this guardedness of his—this perfect, clear, consciousness of his fair one’s defect—this obvious absence of passion in his sentiments towards her, that my ever-torturing pain arose.” |
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p. 189 – infatuated (adjective): possessed by an unreasoning passion or attraction. origin: 1425-1475
“…to vainly fancy that each shaft launched, hit the mark, and infatuatedly pluming herself on success, when her pride and self-complacency repelled further and further what she wished to allure—to witness this was to be at once under ceaseless excitation and ruthless restraint.” |
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p. 189 – unremitting (adjective): not slackening or abating; incessant; continuing, persisting, or recurring without diminishing or ceasing. origin: 1720-1730
“If she did, she need not coin her smiles so lavishly; flash her glances so unremittingly; manufacture airs so elaborate, grace so multitudinous.” |
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p. 190 – accost (verb): to confront boldly; to approach with question or remark. origin: 1570-1580
“I have seen in his face a far different expression from that which hardens it now while she is so vivaciously accosting him; but then it came of itself: it was not elicited by meretricious arts and calculated maneuvers…” |
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| p. 190 – meretricious (adjective): alluring by a show of flashy or vulgar attraction; based on pretense, deception, or insincerity. origin: 1620-1630 |
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| p. 191 – palsied (adjective): paralyzed; unable to move or control certain muscles. origin: 1250-1300 |
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p. 191 – supercilious (adjective): haughtily disdainful or contemptuous; full of arrogance. origin: 1520-1530
“Blanche Ingram, after having repelled, by supercilious taciturnity, some efforts of [others] to draw her into conversation, had first murmured over some sentimental tunes and airs on the piano…” |
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p. 197 – vagabond (adjective): wandering from place to place without any settled or permanent home; nomadic; carefree; worthless. origin: 1400-1450
“I have seen a gipsy vagabond; she has practiced in hackneyed fashion the science of palmistry, and told me what such people usually tell.” |
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p. 199 – impudence (noun): lack of respect and excessive boldness; shamelessness. origin: 1350-1400
“It’s like your impudence to say so: I expected it of you; I heard it in your step as you crossed the threshold.” |
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| p. 201 – diablerie (noun): stories, traditions, and practices associated with magic, witchcraft, or devil worship. origin: 1745-1755 |
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p. 203 – mete (verb): to distribute or apportion by measure; allot; to give out. origin: 900
“Chance has meted you a measure of happiness.” |
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p. 203 – lassitude (noun): a state of weariness accompanied by listlessness or apathy; lack of energy. origin: 1525-1535
“…an unconscious lassitude weighs on the lid: that signifies melancholy resulting from loneliness.” |
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p. 204 – ad infinitum (adverb): endlessly, without limit, or infinitely. origin: 900
“I should wish now to protract this moment ad infinitum; but I dare not.” |
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p. 205 – doff (verb): to take off or lift and tilt a hat as a greeting or mark of respect; to take off a coat or another piece of clothing. origin: 1300-1350
“Again I looked at the face; which was no longer turned from me—on the contrary, the bonnet was doffed, the bandage displaced, the head advanced.” |
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| p. 206 – enounce (verb): to pronounce a word clearly and definitely, as well as officially. origin: 1795-1805 |
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p. 207 – pallor (noun): unusual or extreme paleness, as from fear, ill health, or death; wanness.
“Mr. Rochester’s extreme pallor had disappeared, and he looked once more firm and stern.” |
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| p. 208 – behest (noun): an earnest or strongly worded order or request; a command or directive. origin: 1000 |
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