The Diamond Age vocabulary

stephenson-age-vocab.md

Vocabulary

hinky, but it still made him a little hinky on those skates carillon, The volume went up but couldn't scour away the deep tones of the carillon, which resonated in his long bones. gallimaufry, n. a confused jumble or medley of things. mid 16th cent.: from archaic French galimafrée ‘unappetizing dish,’ perhaps from Old French galer ‘have fun’ + Picard mafrer ‘eat copious quantities.’ Bud's relationship with the female sex was governed by a gallimaufry of primal impulses, dim suppositions, deranged theories, overhead scraps of conversation, half remembered pieces of bad advice, and fragments of no-doubt exaggerated anecdotes that amounted to rank superstition. calla, like a spray of hundred-meter-long calla lilies. calabash, like the germs of some moon-size calabash. natty, in their best crinolines and natty short-pants suits, natty beige linen suit fabricules, constructed of infinitesimal fabricules that knew how to eject dirt Artifex, Hackworth bore the loftier title of Artifex catachthonic, the park was riddled with carachthonic Feed lines labile, explored the labile frontier espadrilles, bowed as the royal espadrilles touched down alamodality, she'd always had a kind of natural, unconscious alamodality bespoke, adj. (of goods, especially clothing) made to order. archness, said, not without a certain archness phyles, any of a hundred synthetic phyles coenobitical, There were a bunch of coenobitical phyles - religious tribes - that took people of all races chevaline, Bud realized it was a chevaline - a four-legged robot thingy. tantivy, he kicked it up another gear, to a tantivy callipygious, a rack of four weights supported by four callipygious caryatids, not chunky Greeks but modern women, one of each major racial group, each tricep, gluteus, latissimus, sartorius, and rectus abdominus casting its own highlight. gluteus latissimus sartorius rectus abdominus thete, Sue was a typical thete, loud and classless and heavily made up coarcted, All the other thetes, coarcted into the tacky little claves belong to their synthetic phyles eutactic, expanding the eutactic environment gofers, the larger of his two gofers phantascope, was actually some kind of phantascope phenomenoscope, Although, when people used them for purposes other than entertainment, they used a fancier word: phenomenoscope telaesthetics, You could even get telaesthetics patched into your spinal column spang, or even spang in the fucking middle peristalsis, But the light moved along with the viewer so that they were drawn down the tunnels in a kind of peristalsis vertiginous, adj. causing vertigo, especially by being extremely high or steep: vertiginous drops to the valleys below. velleity, n. a wish or inclination not strong enough to lead to action, The difficulty of getting here prevented people from coming on a velleity concinnity, n. the skillful and harmonious arrangement or fitting together of the different parts of something. where concinnity was an end in itself foramen, n. an opening, hole, or passage, especially in a bone. mounted in a tubular foramen wrought through the body of the aerostat aerostat, n. an airship or hot-air balloon, especially one that is tethered. late 18th cent.: from French aérostat, from Greek aēr ‘air’ + statos ‘standing.’ mounted in a tubular foramen wrought through the body of the aerostat adumbrated, v. report or represent in outline, overshadow, foreshadow, indicate faintly. or fall victim to vaguely adumbrated consequences cineritious, adj. Like ashes; having the color of ashes, - as the cortical substance of the brain. A cineritious cloud swirled out of it signature, n. a letter or figure printed at the foot of one or more pages of each sheet of a book as a guide in binding. each sheet folded four times into a sixteen-page signature, thirty-two signatures brought together in a spine geotecture, the geotecture of their island owed less to the Mogul period than to the Soviet cloisonné, n. decorative work in which enamel, glass, or gemstones are separated by strips of flattened wire placed edgeways on a metal backing. through an exquisite cloisonné bowl filled with chemical dessicant dessicant, n. a hygroscopic substance used as a drying agent. hygoscopic, adj. (of a substance) tending to absorb moisture from the air. zaibatsus, n. a large Japanese business conglomerate. assumed were run by all the zaibatsus. megabuckyball, n. a spherical fullerene molecule with the formula C60, named for Buckmeinster Fuller's geodisic spheres. gwailo, n. gwai lo is a common Cantonese slang term for Westerners. enow, alt. spelling of enough. and were happy enow paroemiologic, n. the subject of proverbs may contribute to your paroemiological studies. buller, v. boil, seeth. Scottish. the buller of waves against the gradual shores of Pudong aestival, adj. belonging to or appearing in summer. where the fanciest Vickys of all had their aestival houses nacelles, n. a streamlined housing or tank for something on the outside of an aircraft or motor vehicle. the nacelles containing the tiny air turbines ablative, adj. the surgical removal of body tissue. by means of an ablative technique. catalepsis, n. Pathology, Psychiatry. a physical condition characterized by a loss of sensation, muscular rigidity, fixity of posture, and often by a loss of contact with surroundings. He had once reduced Chang to a state of catalepsis asperity, adj. harshness of tone or manner. Middle English (in the sense ‘hardship, rigor’): from Old French asperite, or Latin asperitas, from asper ‘rough.’ translated with some asperity mephitic, adj. (especially of a gas or vapor) foul-smelling; noxious. wreathed in mephitic fog. faience, n. glazed ceramic ware, in particular decorated tin-glazed earthenware of the type that includes delftware and maiolica. small items of faience concinnitous, adj. containing concinnity, described by its creators as concinnitous, or technically sweet, or a nice hack kludge, n. . an ill-assorted collection of parts assembled to fulfill a particular purpose. which was a butcherous kludge anfractuous, adj. sinuous or circuitous. late 16th cent.: from late Latin anfractuosus, from Latin anfractus ‘a bending.’ small but anfractuous subregion girth, n. security, peace or protection guaranteed in particular instances in Old English law. the principle of grith, or right of refuge hong, n. A foreign trading company in China. to the hong of Dr. X. mufti, n. plain clothes worn by a person who wears a uniform for their job, such as a soldier or police officer. Judge Fang had been here before, in mufti, but today he had thrown a robe over his charcoal-gray pinstripe suit acuity, n. sharpness or keenness of thought, vision, or hearing. an ancient symbol of acuity afferent, adj. conducting or conducted inward or toward something (for nerves, the central nervous system; for blood vessels, the organ supplied). The opposite of efferent. on whatever afferent nerves aleatory, adj. depending on the throw of a dice or on chance; random. The attachment of the nanosites to the nerves is an aleatory process chop, n. a trademark; a brand of goods. it bore the chop of Dr. X. iridium, n. the chemical element of atomic number 77, a hard, dense silvery-white metal. Iridium is found in meteorites in much higher abundance than in the Earth's crust. tastes like iridium, as usual elasmosaurs, n. a Cretaceous plesiosaur with a long neck shaped like that of a swan. dead elasmosaurs on the beach pithed, adj. pierce or sever the spinal cord of (an animal) so as to kill or immobilize it. like a pithed frog on the dissection table gulled, v. fool or deceive (someone). Unknown origin. not knowing that he was being gulled into committing a theft Keemun, n. a black tea grown in Keemun, China. a nice Keemun with distinct lavender notes. haemocules painkillers and some haemocules that supposedly helped to knit wounds together. Propaedeuctic, adj. (of an area of study) serving as a preliminary instruction or as an introduction to further study. Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, a Propaedeuctic Enchiridion in which is told the tale of Princess Nell and her various friends, kin, associateds, &c. Enchiridion, n. a small manual or handbook. Late Latin term (derived from the Greek word ἐγχειρίδιον (enkheiridion)). peccadillo, n. a small, relatively unimportant offense or sin. And so it was that they seized on hypocrisy and elevated it from a ubiquitous peccadillo into the monarch of all vices. nefandous, adj. unfit to be spoken of. From nefas. guilty of the most nefandous conduct themselves foolscap, n. a size of paper, now standardized at about 13 × 8. Ety late 17th century: said to be named from a former watermark representing a jester's cap. a folded sheet of smart foolscap tailings, n. also called mine dumps, culm dumps, slimes, tails, refuse, leach residue or slickens, are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction (gangue) of an ore. glutamate n. a salt or ester of glutamic acid. ester n. an organic compound made by replacing the hydrogen of an acid by an alkyl or other organic group. Many naturally occurring fats and essential oils are esters of fatty acids. Ety mid 19th century: from German, probably from a blend of Essig ‘vinegar’ and Äther ‘ether.’ nitrates n. a salt or ester of nitric acid, containing the anion NO 3− or the group —NO 3. nitrites n. a salt or ester of nitrous acid, containing the anion NO 2− or the group —NO 2. nitrotes (made up) nitrutes (made up) nutrites (made up) natrotes (made up) nitric adj. of or containing nitrogen with a higher valence, often five nitrous adj. of or containing nitrogen with a lower valence, often three. bituminous bitumen n. a black viscous mixture of hydrocarbons obtained naturally or as a residue from petroleum distillation. It is used for road surfacing and roofing. drysotile (made up) carrageenan n. a substance extracted from red and purple seaweeds, consisting of a mixture of polysaccharides. It is used as a thickening or emulsifying agent in food products. carrageen n. an edible red shoreline seaweed with flattened branching fronds, found in both Eurasia and North America and used to produce carrageenan. Also called Irish moss. [Chondrus crispus, phylum Rhodophyta.] early 19th century: from Irish carraigín BHA Butylated hydroxyanisole BHT (ibid) cicatrice n. the scar of a healed wound. some better explanation of the puckered cicatrice running across his buttocks caducity, n. the infirmity of old age; senility. mid 18th century: from French caducité, from caduc, from Latin caducus ‘liable to fall,’ from cadere ‘to fall.’ overlook this sort of routine caducity barkentine n. a sailing ship similar to a bark but square-rigged only on the foremast. mickle, var. of muckle pratfall, n. a fall onto one's buttocks. dromond, n. a large medieval ship of a kind used for war or commerce, chiefly in the Mediterranean. thetes saraminen, the white-shirted sararimen spirochete, n. a flexible spirally twisted bacterium, especially one that causes syphilis.your blood was full of spirochetes. afflatus, n. a divine creative impulse or inspiration. the creepy afflatus Dopplered down a couple of notes dramaturge, n. a dramatist. chit, n. a short official note, memorandum, or voucher, typically recording a sum owed. totipotent, adj. (of an immature or stem cell) capable of giving rise to any cell type or (of a blastomere) a complete embryo. imprecations, n. a spoken curse torus, n. Geometry a surface or solid formed by rotating a closed curve, especially a circle, around a line that lies in the same plane but does not intersect it (e.g., like a ring-shaped doughnut). • a thing of this shape, especially a large ring-shaped chamber used in physical research. a dense woolen torus orbiting each of her freckled forearms hyperboloid, n. a solid or surface having plane sections that are hyperbolas, ellipses, or circles. farrago, n. a confused mixture. Ety mid 17th century: from Latin, literally ‘mixed fodder,’ from far ‘corn.’ blending her into a farrago of alient sights and ideas axons, n. the long threadlike part of a nerve cell along which impulses are conducted from the cell body to other cells. cyalume, (in Japanese a chemical light) like so many cyalume wands spall, v. break (ore, rock, stone, or concrete) into smaller pieces, especially in preparation for sorting. salver, n. a tray, typically one made of silver and used in formal circumstances. foxtails, n. a common meadow grass that has soft brushlike flowering spikes. coronach, n. (in Scotland or Ireland) a funeral song. early 16th century (originally Scots, denoting the outcry of a crowd): from Scottish Gaelic corranach (Irish coranach), from comh- ‘together’ + rànach ‘outcry.’ pibroch, n. a form of music for the Scottish bagpipes involving elaborate variations on a theme, typically of a martial or funerary character. early 18th century: from Scottish Gaelic piobaireachd ‘art of piping,’ from piobair ‘piper,’ from piob, from English pipe. lao gai, n. (in China) a system of labor camps, many of whose inmates are political dissidents. Chinese, ‘reform through labor.’ pooch, v. protrude or cause to protrude pooched his belly out soi disant, adj. self-styled; so-called. French, from soi ‘oneself’ + disant ‘saying.’ glacis, n. a gently sloping bank, in particular one that slopes down from a fort, exposing attackers to the defenders' missiles. late 17th century: from French, from Old French glacier ‘to slip,’ from glace ‘ice,’ based on Latin glacies. escritoire, n. a small writing desk with drawers and compartments. karamaku, made up. thyuh-tuh, Used to do thyuh-tuh with him in London invidious, adj. likely to arouse or incur resentment or anger in others. Invidious distinctions do not interest me gamine, n. a girl with mischievous or boyish charm. her gamine pupils thrasher, n. a scateboarder foxglove, n. a tall Eurasian plant with erect spikes of flowers, typically pinkish-purple or white, shaped like the fingers of gloves. It is a source of the drug digitalis. opprobrium, n. harsh criticism or censure. a cloud of opprobrium that would have blighted the young man's career. phthisis, n. pulmonary tuberculosis or a similar progressive systemic disease. nebulizer, n. a device for producing a fine spray of liquid, used for example for inhaling a medicinal drug. late 19th century: from Latin nebula ‘mist’ in vivo: performed or taking place in a living organism. early 20th century. Latin, ‘in a living thing.’ in vitro: (of a process) performed or taking place in a test tube, culture dish, or elsewhere outside a living organism. late 19th century: Latin, literally ‘in glass.’ judas gate, n. a peephole in a door. ashlars, n. masonry made of large square-cut stones, typically used as a facing on walls of brick or stone. Percheron, n. a powerful draft horse of a gray or black breed, originally from France. au fond, adv. in essence. late 18th century: French, literally ‘at bottom.’ reticule, n. a woman's small handbag, originally netted and typically having a drawstring and decorated with embroidery or beading. decussating, v. (of two or more things) cross or intersect each other to form an X the unmarked, decussating paths. From Latin decem for X. Mendeleev, n. (1834–1907), Russian chemist; full name Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev. He developed the periodic table. plutonic, adj. relating to or denoting igneous rock formed by solidification at considerable depth beneath the earth's surface. flechette, n. a type of ammunition resembling a small dart, shot from a gun. Stetson, n. a hat with a high crown and a wide brim, traditionally worn by cowboys and ranchers in the US. endocrinological, n. the branch of physiology and medicine concerned with endocrine glands and hormones. whose adrenal glands had finally jumped into the endocrinological fray parallax, n. the effect whereby the position or direction of an object appears to differ when viewed from different positions, e.g., through the viewfinder and the lens of a camera. sliding past each other as their parallax shifted with the steady progress of the boat maculated, n. spotted or stained. jai-alai, n. a game like pelota played with large, curved wicker baskets. pelota, n. a Basque or Spanish game played in a walled court with a ball and basketlike rackets attached to the hand. mullion, n. a vertical bar between the panes of glass in a window. angary, n. the right of a country at war to seize or destroy neutral property out of military necessity, provided that compensation is paid. escutcheon, n. shield or emblem bearing a coat of arms. skirl, n. a shrill, wailing sound, especially that of bagpipes. peristalsis, n. the involuntary constriction and relaxation of the muscles of the intestine or another canal, creating wavelike movements that push the contents of the canal forward.