Chekhov 4 Flashcards
starveling
noun
an undernourished or emaciated person or animal.
“In Petersburg there exists a peculiar breed of people who are specially occupied with making fun of every phenomenon of life; they cannot even pass by a starveling or a suicide without uttering some banality.” (252)
MD - ling - forming a noun from the verb “to starve”
bumpkinish
adj. unintelligent and unsophisticated
MD Country bumpkin
Lent
n. a period of 40 days before Easter during which many Christians do not eat certain foods or do certain pleasurable activities as a way of remembering the suffering of Jesus Christ. In the Western Church it runs from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday and so includes forty weekdays.
MD Glen lent me his swiss army knife as he was abstaining from iced-coffee and circumcisions for Lent
philistine
n. a person who is uninterested in intellectual pursuits = anti-intellectual, low brow
“The so-called family hearth with its ordinary joys and squabbles offended his taste, as a banality; to be pregnant or have children and talk about them was bad tone, philistinism.” (259)
MD - Phillistines enemies of the Hebrews. A Jewish stereotype is being intelligent, thus the enemies were uninterested in intellectual pursuits.
cuckold
n. the husband of an adulteress.
” ‘…if I ever get married a second time, and you decide to make me a cuckold, do it so that I don’t notice. It’s much more honest to deceive a man than to spoil the order of his life and his reputation.” (261)
MD - Old Cuck
pirozhki
n. small Russian pastries or patties, filled with meat or fish and rice.
MD PIR into the pastry/patty zhkin of the pirozhki and see meat or fish and rice.
pernicious
adjective
harmful, esp. in a gradual or subtle way: .
“I give you full freedom, be liberal and quote any authors you like, but make me one concession, do not discuss these two things in my presence: the perniciousness of this society and the abnormality of marriage.” (285)
MD - vicious - harmful
conviction
n. a firmly held belief or opinion.
” ‘Your convictions have changed, you’ve become a different person, and no one blames you for that - convictions aren’t always in our power, but…but Vladimir Ivanych, for God’s sake, why are you insincere?’ “
MD - a judge or a jury must have strong convictions if they about the defendant’s guilt if they are to convict.
bankruptcy
the state of being completely lacking in a particular quality or value: .
” ‘It’s difficult to confess your bankruptcy,’ I said, turning around but not looking at her.’ “
MD - to be bankrupt is to be declared in law unable to pay debts. state of being lacking in value but it can also be quality.
listless
adj. (of a person or their manner) lacking energy or enthusiasm
“She gave me an indifferent, listless look and closed her eyes. I stood there for a while and then left.”
MD - After completing all of Sally’s lists, Wade was listless.
sedition
the crime of encouraging people to disobey their government
MD - The Sedition Act, as it was known, declared such activities—as “opposing or resisting any law of the United States, or any act of the President of the United States” and publishing “any false, scandalous and malicious writing” against the president or the Congress—to be high misdemeanors, punishable by fine and imprisonment.
sleek
- well-groomed and neatly tailored; especially too well-groomed.
“he hadn’t changed at all: the same sleek, unpleasant face, the same irony.” (322)
MD - Sleek Rick lacked slickness because he concentrated on his appearance.
psychosis
noun ( pl. psychoses |-ˌsēz| )
a severe mental disorder in which thought and emotions are so impaired that contact is lost with external reality.
“He remembered long Moscow conversations in which he himself had taken part still so recently-conversations about how it was possible to live without love, how passionate love was a psychosis, how there was finally no such thing as love, but only physical attraction between the sexes-all in the same vein; he remembered and thought sadly that if he were now asked what love was, he would be at a loss to answer.”
MD - psych! - to say something and mean the opposite, except under psychosis, the person who is impaired means what he says.
languish
verb. lose or lack vitality; grow weak or feeble
“….everything was now past, and there was not that terrible unknowing, there was no need to spend whole days waiting, languishing, thinking about one and the same thing; now everything was clear; he had to abandon any hope of personal happiness, to live without desires, without hopes, not to dream, not to wait, but so there would not be this boredom he was so sick of nursing, he could be occupied with other people’s affairs, other people’s happiness, and then old age would set in imperceptibly…” (347)
MD - Lane languished when he had the abscess
admonitory
adj. giving or conveying a warning or reprimand: the sergeant lifted an admonitory finger.
“Why had he lied about growing up in a milieu where everybody worked without exception? Why had he spoken in an admonitory tone about a pure and joyful life? “
MD - admonish - warn or reprimand someone
