Into the Wild Vocab Flashcards
(155 cards)
1
Q
taiga
A
coniferous evergreen forest
“Alaskan taiga”
2
Q
peregrination
A
wandering, meandering
“details of his peregrinations”
3
Q
dispassionate
A
calm, devoid of feeling
“dispassionate rendering was impossible”
4
Q
asceticism
A
practice of self-denial, simplicity, nonmaterialism
“emulated Tolstoy’s asceticism”
5
Q
fulminate
A
to denounce or condemn
“they fulminated him as a reckless idiot”
6
Q
muskeg
A
a bog
“expanse of windswept muskeg”
7
Q
unsullied
A
unsoiled, pure
“unsullied enormity of alaska”
8
Q
enormity
A
monstrousness
“unsullied enormity of alaska”
9
Q
sonorous
A
rich and full in sound
“Gallien’s low, sonorous drawl”
10
Q
dissuade
A
to persuade against
“Gallien tried to dissuade him”
11
Q
futility
A
uselessness
“laughing at the futility of life”
12
Q
escarpment
A
cliff
“crests of the outermost escarpments”
13
Q
amalgam
A
an alloy
“carpeted in a boggy amalgam of muskeg”
14
Q
cordillera
A
chain of mountains
“northernmost cordillera of the Outer Range”
15
Q
anomaly
A
a deviation from the norm
“a few locals know of the anomaly”
16
Q
opaque
A
not allowing light to pass through
“waters opaque with glacial till”
17
Q
till
A
glacial drift
“waters opaque with glacial till”
18
Q
contumacious
A
willfully disobedient
“the three locals are contumacious Alaskans”
19
Q
posit
A
to assume as fact
“starvation was posited as the cause of death”
20
Q
mawkish
A
overly sentimental
“walls filled with mawkish paintings”
21
Q
fickle
A
not constant, not loyal
“fickle weather”
22
Q
visage
A
face
“Ross Perot’s sneering visage”
23
Q
itinerant
A
traveling from place to place
“Alex had the physique of an itinerant laborer”
24
Q
surrogate
A
a substitute
“found a surrogate family”
25
stasis
state of inactivity
| "Alex liked carthage's community stasis"
26
plebian
common, ordinary
| "carthage's plebian virtues"
27
bequest
legacy, something left in a will
| "final years of college paid by a bequest from a family friend"
28
odyssey
a long journey
| "trip was to be an odyssey"
29
onerous
burdensome
| "graduating college was an onerous duty"
30
detritus
debris
| "detrital wash"
31
austere
simple, severe, nonmaterialistic
| "desert is sensorily austere"
32
inimical
hostile
| "desert is historically inimical"
33
dun
grey-brown
| "concealed under a dun-colored tarp"
34
interdiction
a prohibition
| "car would be perfect for drug interdiction"
35
bore
an abrupt rise of tidal water
| "bore of brown water came rushing down"
36
egress
to exit, means of going out
| "only route of egress was now a full-blown river"
37
flout
to treat with disdain
| "his moral responsibility to flout the laws of the state"
38
emasculate
to weaken
| "river was emasculated with dams and canals"
39
indolent
lazy
| "the river burbles indolently from reservoir to reservoir"
40
saline
salty
| "landscape's saline beauty"
41
portage
carrying a boat overland
| "decides to portage to the canal"
42
plaintive
mournful
| "took photos of plaintive sunset"
43
perfunctory
hasty and superficial
| "journal entries become short and perfunctory"
44
hummock
a small hill
| "left the boat on a hummock of dune grass"
45
primordial
existing from the very beginning
| "dominant, primordial beast"
46
idiom
dialect, distinctive style
| "Bullhead city was in the late 20th century idiom"
47
garrulous
talkative
| "McDonald's manager was a flashy, garrulous man"
48
raze
to tear down
| "old navy base had been abandoned and razed
49
sundry
various
| "snowbirds and drifters and sundry vagabonds congregate here"
50
turgid
swollen, pompous
| "London's turgid portrayal of life in alaska"
51
fatuous
silly or foolish
| "London was a fatuous drunk"
52
recluse
a hermit
| "alex was no recluse"
53
denizen
an inhabitant
| "alex spoke to the denizens of the slabs about alaska"
54
anachronistic
out of place in time
| "penned in a shaky, anachronistic script"
55
spectral
ghostly
| "rattle of wind interrupts the spectral quiet"
56
nexus
a means of connection, a link
| "market-liquor store-post office was the cultural nexus"
57
endemic
native to a particular place
| "endemic idiocracy of mainstream American life"
58
missive
a letter or epistle
| "Alex wrote a missive to burres"
59
emanate
to send forth
| "wrong to think joy emanates only from human relations"
60
cant
insincere talk, hypocrisy
| "canted slope?"
61
maw
mouth or stomach of a voracious carnivore
| "shoes protrude from the maw of the combine"
62
surfeit
excess
| "alex did not have a surfeit of common sense"
63
supplant
to replace
| "alex had a variety of lust that supplanted sexual desire"
64
succor
help or aid
| "may have been tempted by the succor of women"
65
opprobrium
reproach, scorn
| "many letters heaped opprobrium on alex"
66
epistle
a letter or missive
| "dense, multipage epistle"
67
burlesque
mocking treatment of a solemn subject
| "alex is a 20th century burlesque of London's protagonist"
68
hubris
excessive pride
| "alex commits big-time hubris"
69
requisite
required
| "overconfident men screw up because they lack the requisite humility"
70
beatific
blissful; saintly
| "the other hand raised in a brave, beatific farewell"
71
emetic
causing vomiting
| "the wild sweet pea proved emetic, so she recovered after her stomach rejected it"
72
munificience
great generosity
| "despite this apparent munificence, the meat was very lean"
73
fecund
abundant
| "the country was a fecund of plant and animal life"
74
feckless
irresponsible
| "McCandless was not some feckless slacker"
75
modicum
a moderate or small amount
| "loopy young man that lacked even a modicum of common sense"
76
sobriquet
nickname
| "franklin's sobriquet was "the man who ate his shoes""
77
metis
a person of mixed ancestry
| "Franklin's team was rescued by a band of metis"
78
hauteur
haughtiness
| "Sir John Franklin's hauteur contributed to 140 deaths"
79
ungulate
having hoofs
| "the ungulate alex shot was exactly what he said it was"
80
coppice
a small woods
| "bus is parked beside a coppice of aspen"
81
miasma
a death-like atmosphere
| "feet churn the muck into a foul-smelling miasma"
82
castigate
to criticize severely
| "castigated himself for the waste of a life he's taken"
83
rictus
a gaping grin
| "alex's features were distorted in a rictus of esctacy and amazement"
84
axiom
a self-evident truth that requires no proof
| "fundamental axiom: winter is better for overland travel"
85
rubicon
"crossing the Rubicon" is the point of no return
| "in doing so, he was crossing his rubicon"
86
laconic
using few words
| "he began a laconic journal of blank pages of Tanaina Plantlore"
87
gloaming
the twilight
| "walked down to the highway in the predawn gloaming
88
aperture
opening
| "walt's synthetic aperature radar"
89
patina
film or covering
| "i scraped away the patina of ice above my head"
90
reprise
a repeat
| "it was a reprise of my attempt on the north face"
91
abate
a reduce in amount or intensity
| "the blizzard finally abated"
92
volition
will; choosing or deciding
| "volition alone was not going to get me up the wall"
93
spindrift
sea spray
| "spindrift avalanches hissed down from the wall above"
94
bivouac
a military encampment
| "i crouched inside my bivouac sack"
95
metastasize
the spread of disease
| "squall metastasized into a major storm"
96
faux
fake
| "faux leather valise stuffed with pill bottles"
97
epiphany
a sudden appearance or manifestation
| "the epiphany occurred after time and misfortune
98
hector
to harass or bully
| "we were hectored to excel in every class"
99
progeny
offspring
| "his father's aspirations extended to his progeny
100
acrid
harsh or caustic
| "acrid scent of singed hair"
101
conflagration
a destructive fire
| "bag or garbage flared into a small conflagration"
102
chutzpah
audacity or nerve
| "whole enterprise is held together with little more than chutzpah"
103
rime
frost
| "coated with 6 inches of feathery rime"
104
dearth
lack of or scarcity
| "the rock exhibited a dearth of holds"
105
recumbent
lying down
| "spent most of my time recumbent in my tent"
106
self-possessed
in control of one's emotions
| "he was a self-possessed young man"
107
mundane
common or ordinary
| "even the mundane seemed charged with meaning"
108
carapace
the bony shield covering the dorsal part of an animal
| "ice cap rides the spine of the range like a carapace"
109
gunwale
the upper edge of the side of a vessel
| "hopped over the gunwale"
110
desideratum
something wanted or needed
| "these mountains heralded the approach of my desideratum"
111
inveigle
to entice by artful talk
| "i inveigled a ride on a salmon seiner"
112
exfoliate
to peel off layers
| "huge fin of exfoliated stone"
113
sinister
evil or malignant
| "the mountain looked particularly sinister"
114
recalcitrant
disobedient
| "chris has the same pensive, recalcitrant stare"
115
histrionic
overly dramatic
| "his notes read like the work of a histrionic high schooler"
116
greenhorn
a newcomer
| "mccandless was one more dreamy, half-cocked greenhorn
117
recondite
esoteric, know or understood by only a few
| "diary filled with recondite theory"
118
eremitic
like a hermit
| "Alaska is not the best place for eremitic experiments
119
seine
a fishing net
| "deckhand on a seine boat"
120
bight
a bend in a river or shoreline
| "Hippie cove is a bight of tidewater"
121
purge
to cleanse or purify
| "Rossellini purged his life of all but the most primitive tools"
122
devolve
to become simpler or disappear
| "humans have devolved into inferior beings"
123
equanimity
composure
| "Rossellini accepted the failure of his hypothesis with equanimity"
124
Denali
Mt. McKinley
| "Waterman climbed Denali"
125
copious
abundant
| "waterman took copious notes"
126
lucrative
profitable
| "McCunn found lucrative employment on the pipeline construction"
127
paucity
dearth, lack of
| "staggering paucity of common sense"
128
defile
a narrow passage between mountains
| "oasis exists at the bottom of this slotlike defile"
129
ephemeral
not lasting very long
| "ephemeral bloom of a lily"
130
nom de plume
pen name
| "everet ruess carved his nom de plume into the canyon wall"
131
bohemian
artistic person who disregards convention
| "Stella (ruess?) had bohemian tastes"
132
maxim
a proverb, and adage
| "Ruess family maxim: Glorify the hour"
133
callow
immature and inexperienced
| "Ruess was a callow romantic"
134
atavism
reversion to an earlier type, a throwback
| "callow romantic and an atavistic wanderer of the wilderness"
135
incendiary
inflammatory
| "Ruess's almost incendiary passion for the country"
136
vermilion
bright red
| "vermilion sands of the desert"
137
unscathed
unharmed
| "i have always escaped unscathed"
138
sever
to cut off
| "captian nemo severs his every tie upon the earth"
139
veracity
truth
| "the veracity of these ruess sightings are extremely suspect"
140
vestige
a trace of something no longer present
| "vestiges of the monk's ancient dwellings"
141
taciturn
silent by nature
| "walt maccandless is a bearded, taciturn man"
142
scudding
moving quickly
| "sailboat scudding on the water"
143
arcane
known or understood by only a few, secret
| "walt is an eminence in the ranks of his arcane field"
144
mercurial
changeable, fickle
| "walts moods can me dark and mercurial"
145
vagary
an unpredictable or whimsical event
| "exchanging steady paycheck for vagaries of self-employment"
146
loath
hesitant
| "walt and billie are tightly would and loath to give ground
147
panache
flair, a grand manner
| "chris belted out a song with impressive panache"
148
obsequious
fawning, brown nosing
| "rich food and wine are abundant, and obsequious attendance"
149
monomania
obsession with a single thing
| "chris's darker side was characterized by monomania"
150
philanderer
a womanizer
| "heavy drinker and incorrigible philanderer"
151
lenity
mildness or gentleness
| "incapable of extending lenity to his father"
152
sanctimonious
falsely religious
| "chris thought walt was a sancitmonious hypocrite"
153
lambaste
to reprimand harshly
| "chris lambasted bible-thumpers"
154
confrere
a colleague
| "walts dwindling numbers of confreres"
155
pellucid
clear, translucent
| "alaska's pellucid subarctic sky"
