A glossary for the "Speak, Memory" reader
Here I am compiling a glossary of terms from Nabokov’s “Speak, Memory” culled from the 1989 Vintage International edition.
photism: hallucinatory sensation (p. 34)
coeval: contemporary (41)
racemosa: that looks like a cluster of grapes (64)
rutty: that presents with grooves, ridges (64)
hoary: greyish white (a hoary cobweb), overused and original, trite (the hoary old adage) (135)
discarnate: of a person or a being not having a physical body (138)
nictitating: Nictitate didn't just happen in the blink of an eye; it developed over time as an alteration of the older verb nictate, which also means "to wink." Both verbs trace to the Latin word for winking, nictare. The addition of the extra syllable was apparently influenced by Latin verbs ending in -itare, such as palpitare and agitare (which gave us palpitate and agitate, respectively). Today, nictitate has a special use in the animal world. Since the early 18th century, scientists have used nictitating membrane to describe the so-called "third eyelid": the thin, usually transparent membrane in the eyes of birds, fishes, and other vertebrates that helps keep the eyeball moist and clean (144)
anastomosis: the union of parts or branches (as of streams, blood vessels, or leaf veins) so as to intercommunicate or interconnect; network (id.)
lee side: the side sheltered from the wind (151)
meerschaum: a fine light white clayey mineral that is a hydrous magnesium silicate found chiefly in Asia Minor and is used especially for tobacco pipes; a tobacco pipe of meerschaum (id.)
crag: a steep rugged rock or cliffm (archaic : a sharp detached fragment of rock) (165)
tawdry: cheap and gaudy in appearance or quality; morally sordid (166)
tumid: protuberant, swollen (ex: a badly infected tumid leg) (id.)
nankeen: a durable brownish yellow cotton fabric originally loomed by hand in China (168)
sub-rosa: secretive, private, in confidence (169)
desman: an aquatic insectivorous mammal (Desmana moschata) of Russia that resembles a mole; a related animal (Galemys pyrenaicus) of the Pyrenees; the fur or pelt of a desman (170)
cacologist: TBD
hiemal: of or relating to winter; wintry (180)
baize: a coarse woolen or cotton fabric napped to imitate felt (188)
scurrilous: using or given to coarse language; vulgar and evil (ex: scurrilous imposters who used a religious exterior to rob poor people— Edwin Benson); containing obscenities, abuse, or slander (id.)
knutishko: TBD
camphine: oil of turpentine or a mixture of oil of turpentine and alcohol used as an illuminant (201)
amelus: a limbless fetus (203)
jejune: devoid of significance or interest (ex: the "literary" fiction being written in this country nowadays strikes me as so jejune, self-absorbed and lifeless that I am just about unable to read it, much less pass fair judgment on it.— Jonathan Yardley) (204)
camphoraceous: a tough gummy volatile aromatic crystalline compound C10H16O obtained especially from the wood and bark of the camphor tree and used as a liniment and mild topical analgesic in medicine, as a plasticizer, and as an insect repellentalso: any of several similar compounds (such as some terpene alcohols and ketones) (205)
ghyll: variant spelling of gill (216)
laciniate: bordered with a fringe; especially: cut into deep irregular usually pointed lobes laciniate leaves (226)
marginalia: marginal notes or embellishments (as in a book); nonessential itemsthe meat and marginalia of American politics— Saturday Rev. (241)
oasal: see also, OASITIC: of, relating to, or resembling an oasis (248)
spurious: born to parents not married to each other; outwardly similar or corresponding to something without having its genuine qualities : FALSE the spurious eminence of the pop celebrity; of falsified or erroneously attributed origin : FORGED; of a deceitful nature or qualityspurious excuses (249)
antiphonal: related to antiphony, which is the responsive alternation between two groups especially of singers (249)
plangent: having a loud reverberating sound a plangent roar; having an expressive and especially plaintive quality plangent lyrics (249)
persiflage: frivolous bantering talk : light raillery (257)
in vacuo: in vacum (280)
mystagogue: one who initiates another into a mystery cult; one who understands or teaches mystical doctrines (284)
drisk: (pert. to New England); a drizzling mist (id.)
spry: when describing an older person, NIMBLE (286)
couvade: a custom in some cultures in which when a child is born the father takes to bed as if bearing the child and submits himself to fasting, purification, or taboos (297)
incunabula: a book printed before 1501; a work of art or of industry of an early period (298)
skein: or less commonly skean or skeane \ ˈskān \ : a loosely coiled length of yarn or thread wound on a reel; something suggesting the twists or coils of a skein : TANGLE; a flock of wildfowl (such as geese or ducks) in flight (300)
gamboling: to skip about in play (306)