Into the Wild Vocab Flashcards
taiga
coniferous evergreen forest
“Alaskan taiga”
peregrination
wandering, meandering
“details of his peregrinations”
dispassionate
calm, devoid of feeling
“dispassionate rendering was impossible”
asceticism
practice of self-denial, simplicity, nonmaterialism
“emulated Tolstoy’s asceticism”
fulminate
to denounce or condemn
“they fulminated him as a reckless idiot”
muskeg
a bog
“expanse of windswept muskeg”
unsullied
unsoiled, pure
“unsullied enormity of alaska”
enormity
monstrousness
“unsullied enormity of alaska”
sonorous
rich and full in sound
“Gallien’s low, sonorous drawl”
dissuade
to persuade against
“Gallien tried to dissuade him”
futility
uselessness
“laughing at the futility of life”
escarpment
cliff
“crests of the outermost escarpments”
amalgam
an alloy
“carpeted in a boggy amalgam of muskeg”
cordillera
chain of mountains
“northernmost cordillera of the Outer Range”
anomaly
a deviation from the norm
“a few locals know of the anomaly”
opaque
not allowing light to pass through
“waters opaque with glacial till”
till
glacial drift
“waters opaque with glacial till”
contumacious
willfully disobedient
“the three locals are contumacious Alaskans”
posit
to assume as fact
“starvation was posited as the cause of death”
mawkish
overly sentimental
“walls filled with mawkish paintings”
fickle
not constant, not loyal
“fickle weather”
visage
face
“Ross Perot’s sneering visage”
itinerant
traveling from place to place
“Alex had the physique of an itinerant laborer”
surrogate
a substitute
“found a surrogate family”
stasis
state of inactivity
“Alex liked carthage’s community stasis”
plebian
common, ordinary
“carthage’s plebian virtues”
bequest
legacy, something left in a will
“final years of college paid by a bequest from a family friend”
odyssey
a long journey
“trip was to be an odyssey”
onerous
burdensome
“graduating college was an onerous duty”
detritus
debris
“detrital wash”
austere
simple, severe, nonmaterialistic
“desert is sensorily austere”
inimical
hostile
“desert is historically inimical”
dun
grey-brown
“concealed under a dun-colored tarp”
interdiction
a prohibition
“car would be perfect for drug interdiction”
bore
an abrupt rise of tidal water
“bore of brown water came rushing down”
egress
to exit, means of going out
“only route of egress was now a full-blown river”
flout
to treat with disdain
“his moral responsibility to flout the laws of the state”
emasculate
to weaken
“river was emasculated with dams and canals”
indolent
lazy
“the river burbles indolently from reservoir to reservoir”
saline
salty
“landscape’s saline beauty”
portage
carrying a boat overland
“decides to portage to the canal”
plaintive
mournful
“took photos of plaintive sunset”
perfunctory
hasty and superficial
“journal entries become short and perfunctory”
hummock
a small hill
“left the boat on a hummock of dune grass”
primordial
existing from the very beginning
“dominant, primordial beast”
idiom
dialect, distinctive style
“Bullhead city was in the late 20th century idiom”
garrulous
talkative
“McDonald’s manager was a flashy, garrulous man”
raze
to tear down
“old navy base had been abandoned and razed
sundry
various
“snowbirds and drifters and sundry vagabonds congregate here”
turgid
swollen, pompous
“London’s turgid portrayal of life in alaska”
fatuous
silly or foolish
“London was a fatuous drunk”
recluse
a hermit
“alex was no recluse”
denizen
an inhabitant
“alex spoke to the denizens of the slabs about alaska”
anachronistic
out of place in time
“penned in a shaky, anachronistic script”
spectral
ghostly
“rattle of wind interrupts the spectral quiet”
nexus
a means of connection, a link
“market-liquor store-post office was the cultural nexus”
endemic
native to a particular place
“endemic idiocracy of mainstream American life”
missive
a letter or epistle
“Alex wrote a missive to burres”
emanate
to send forth
“wrong to think joy emanates only from human relations”
cant
insincere talk, hypocrisy
“canted slope?”
maw
mouth or stomach of a voracious carnivore
“shoes protrude from the maw of the combine”
surfeit
excess
“alex did not have a surfeit of common sense”
supplant
to replace
“alex had a variety of lust that supplanted sexual desire”
succor
help or aid
“may have been tempted by the succor of women”
opprobrium
reproach, scorn
“many letters heaped opprobrium on alex”
epistle
a letter or missive
“dense, multipage epistle”
burlesque
mocking treatment of a solemn subject
“alex is a 20th century burlesque of London’s protagonist”
hubris
excessive pride
“alex commits big-time hubris”
requisite
required
“overconfident men screw up because they lack the requisite humility”
beatific
blissful; saintly
“the other hand raised in a brave, beatific farewell”
emetic
causing vomiting
“the wild sweet pea proved emetic, so she recovered after her stomach rejected it”
munificience
great generosity
“despite this apparent munificence, the meat was very lean”
fecund
abundant
“the country was a fecund of plant and animal life”
feckless
irresponsible
“McCandless was not some feckless slacker”
modicum
a moderate or small amount
“loopy young man that lacked even a modicum of common sense”
sobriquet
nickname
“franklin’s sobriquet was “the man who ate his shoes””
metis
a person of mixed ancestry
“Franklin’s team was rescued by a band of metis”
hauteur
haughtiness
“Sir John Franklin’s hauteur contributed to 140 deaths”
ungulate
having hoofs
“the ungulate alex shot was exactly what he said it was”
coppice
a small woods
“bus is parked beside a coppice of aspen”
miasma
a death-like atmosphere
“feet churn the muck into a foul-smelling miasma”
castigate
to criticize severely
“castigated himself for the waste of a life he’s taken”
rictus
a gaping grin
“alex’s features were distorted in a rictus of esctacy and amazement”
axiom
a self-evident truth that requires no proof
“fundamental axiom: winter is better for overland travel”
rubicon
“crossing the Rubicon” is the point of no return
“in doing so, he was crossing his rubicon”
laconic
using few words
“he began a laconic journal of blank pages of Tanaina Plantlore”
gloaming
the twilight
“walked down to the highway in the predawn gloaming
aperture
opening
“walt’s synthetic aperature radar”
patina
film or covering
“i scraped away the patina of ice above my head”
reprise
a repeat
“it was a reprise of my attempt on the north face”
abate
a reduce in amount or intensity
“the blizzard finally abated”
volition
will; choosing or deciding
“volition alone was not going to get me up the wall”
spindrift
sea spray
“spindrift avalanches hissed down from the wall above”
bivouac
a military encampment
“i crouched inside my bivouac sack”
metastasize
the spread of disease
“squall metastasized into a major storm”
faux
fake
“faux leather valise stuffed with pill bottles”
epiphany
a sudden appearance or manifestation
“the epiphany occurred after time and misfortune
hector
to harass or bully
“we were hectored to excel in every class”
progeny
offspring
“his father’s aspirations extended to his progeny
acrid
harsh or caustic
“acrid scent of singed hair”
conflagration
a destructive fire
“bag or garbage flared into a small conflagration”
chutzpah
audacity or nerve
“whole enterprise is held together with little more than chutzpah”
rime
frost
“coated with 6 inches of feathery rime”
dearth
lack of or scarcity
“the rock exhibited a dearth of holds”
recumbent
lying down
“spent most of my time recumbent in my tent”
self-possessed
in control of one’s emotions
“he was a self-possessed young man”
mundane
common or ordinary
“even the mundane seemed charged with meaning”
carapace
the bony shield covering the dorsal part of an animal
“ice cap rides the spine of the range like a carapace”
gunwale
the upper edge of the side of a vessel
“hopped over the gunwale”
desideratum
something wanted or needed
“these mountains heralded the approach of my desideratum”
inveigle
to entice by artful talk
“i inveigled a ride on a salmon seiner”
exfoliate
to peel off layers
“huge fin of exfoliated stone”
sinister
evil or malignant
“the mountain looked particularly sinister”
recalcitrant
disobedient
“chris has the same pensive, recalcitrant stare”
histrionic
overly dramatic
“his notes read like the work of a histrionic high schooler”
greenhorn
a newcomer
“mccandless was one more dreamy, half-cocked greenhorn
recondite
esoteric, know or understood by only a few
“diary filled with recondite theory”
eremitic
like a hermit
“Alaska is not the best place for eremitic experiments
seine
a fishing net
“deckhand on a seine boat”
bight
a bend in a river or shoreline
“Hippie cove is a bight of tidewater”
purge
to cleanse or purify
“Rossellini purged his life of all but the most primitive tools”
devolve
to become simpler or disappear
“humans have devolved into inferior beings”
equanimity
composure
“Rossellini accepted the failure of his hypothesis with equanimity”
Denali
Mt. McKinley
“Waterman climbed Denali”
copious
abundant
“waterman took copious notes”
lucrative
profitable
“McCunn found lucrative employment on the pipeline construction”
paucity
dearth, lack of
“staggering paucity of common sense”
defile
a narrow passage between mountains
“oasis exists at the bottom of this slotlike defile”
ephemeral
not lasting very long
“ephemeral bloom of a lily”
nom de plume
pen name
“everet ruess carved his nom de plume into the canyon wall”
bohemian
artistic person who disregards convention
“Stella (ruess?) had bohemian tastes”
maxim
a proverb, and adage
“Ruess family maxim: Glorify the hour”
callow
immature and inexperienced
“Ruess was a callow romantic”
atavism
reversion to an earlier type, a throwback
“callow romantic and an atavistic wanderer of the wilderness”
incendiary
inflammatory
“Ruess’s almost incendiary passion for the country”
vermilion
bright red
“vermilion sands of the desert”
unscathed
unharmed
“i have always escaped unscathed”
sever
to cut off
“captian nemo severs his every tie upon the earth”
veracity
truth
“the veracity of these ruess sightings are extremely suspect”
vestige
a trace of something no longer present
“vestiges of the monk’s ancient dwellings”
taciturn
silent by nature
“walt maccandless is a bearded, taciturn man”
scudding
moving quickly
“sailboat scudding on the water”
arcane
known or understood by only a few, secret
“walt is an eminence in the ranks of his arcane field”
mercurial
changeable, fickle
“walts moods can me dark and mercurial”
vagary
an unpredictable or whimsical event
“exchanging steady paycheck for vagaries of self-employment”
loath
hesitant
“walt and billie are tightly would and loath to give ground
panache
flair, a grand manner
“chris belted out a song with impressive panache”
obsequious
fawning, brown nosing
“rich food and wine are abundant, and obsequious attendance”
monomania
obsession with a single thing
“chris’s darker side was characterized by monomania”
philanderer
a womanizer
“heavy drinker and incorrigible philanderer”
lenity
mildness or gentleness
“incapable of extending lenity to his father”
sanctimonious
falsely religious
“chris thought walt was a sancitmonious hypocrite”
lambaste
to reprimand harshly
“chris lambasted bible-thumpers”
confrere
a colleague
“walts dwindling numbers of confreres”
pellucid
clear, translucent
“alaska’s pellucid subarctic sky”
