Vocab
Lauren Rekhelman
1) Repugnance
- Inconsistency or incompatibility of ideas or statements
- Noun
- All their repugnance was contained in the neat balance of the triangles- a balance that soothed him, transferred some of its equilibrium to him.
- The repugnance of two people’s political beliefs can often lead to much dislike and tension.
2) Abate
- To become less intense. To be soothed or alleviated.
- Verb (or, as used in the book, abated is an adjective)
- Shadrack was suffering from a blinding headache, which was not abated by the comfort he felt when the policemen pulled his hands away from what he thought was a permanent entanglement with his shoelaces.
- The lightning flashes were so frequent, and the thunder so loud, that not even the mother could abate her child’s fear.
3) Unequivocal
- Leaving no doubt.
- Adjective
- A black so definite, so unequivocal, it astonished him.
- It is an unequivocal fact that everyone has to die at some point.
4) Quell
- Put an end to, typically through force.
- Verb
- . . . This tall, proud woman, this woman who was very particular about her friends, who slipped into church with unequaled elegance, who could quell a roustabout with a look . . .
- Her presence was so intimidating that she could quell an argument just by entering a room.
5) Guile
- Sly or cunning intelligence
- Noun
- Her flirting was sweet, low and guileless.
- In folk tales and fables, it is common for the character of the fox to have much guile in its personality.
6) Fastidious
- Very attentive to and concerned about accuracy and detail.
- Adjective
- She liked the last place least . . . because her love mate’s tendency was always to fall asleep afterward and Hannah was fastidious about whom she slept with.
- In her painting, the artist chose her colors with fastidious care.
7) Vitriol
- Cruel and bitter criticism
- Noun
- She was unquestionably a kind and generous woman and that . . . made them defend her from any vitriol that newcomers or their wives might spill.
- When people spread vitriol about somebody it is often untrue and can be extremely harmful.
8) Insouciant
- Casually lacking of concern. Indifferent.
- Adjective
- Nel’s grimy intractable children looked like three wild things happily insouciant in the May shine.
- The man’s insouciant attitude towards the giant squid waltzing down 5th avenue was quite strange.
9) Contrive
- create or bring about by deliberate use of skill or artifice.
- Verb (used as another one of those weird verb/ adjectives in the book- contrived)
- Their evidence against Sula was contrived, but their conclusions about her were not.
- The judge threw out the case because she said the prosecutor had contrived the evidence.
10) Pariah
- An outcast
- Noun
- She was a pariah, then, and knew it. Knew that they despised her and believed that they framed their hatred as disgust for the easy way she lay with men.
- In Ayn Rand’s novel Anthem, the main character becomes a Pariah because he begins to think differently from everyone else in his community.
