Sooperphli blog

[nyahgust]

straight guys are absurd. i once asked one if they’d kiss a boy for $50,000 and they said no. at that point it’s not even gay it’s just the best option

[it-is-a-perfect-world-and-we-are]

[sooperphli-blog]

The drug hit him like an express train, a white-hot column of light mounting his spine from the region of his prostate, illuminating the sutures of his skull with x-rays of short-circuited sexual energy. His teeth sang in their individual sockets like tuning forks, each one pitch-perfect and clear as ethanol. His bones, beneath the hazy envelope of flesh, were chromed and polished, the joints lubricated with a film of silicone. Sandstorms raged across the scoured floor of his skull, generating waves of high thin static that broke behind his eyes, spheres of purest crystal, expanding....

from Neuromancer, by William Gibson

[sooperphli-blog]

Discarnate: The Word of the Day

Discarnate

Having no material body or form: a discarnate spirit. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/discarnate

: having no physical body : incorporeal http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/discarnate

"A vulgar ghost with the tricks of a woodpecker, a discarnate humorist, a corny cobold taking advantage of my stark-naked grief!" Nabokov, Vladimir.  "Ultima Thule." The Complete Short Stories. New York: Vintage,1997. Page 502.

"Through forest and field, and in sudden ravines, and among scuttling cottages, those discarnate gamblers kept steadily playing on for steadily sparkling stakes." Nabokov, Vladimir. "First Love." The Complete Short Stories. New York: Vintage, 1997. Page 605.

Sooperphli's WORD OF THE DAY: Vocabulary from Vladimir Nabokov's short stories #418 | Series IV "First Love" Revisited (#9)

[sooperphli-blog]

Chirr: The Word of the Day

Chirr

A harsh trilling sound, such as that made by crickets. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/chirr

Without doubt scissors and razors are weapons, and there was something about this metallic chirr that gratified Ivanov's warlike soul. Nabokov, Vladimir. "Razor." The Complete Short Stories. New York: Vintage, 1997. Page 180.

Sooperphli's WORD OF THE DAY: Vocabulary from Vladimir Nabokov's short stories #417 | Series XXV "Razor" Revisited (#3)

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Beetling: The Word of the Day

Beetling

(of a rock or a person’s eyebrows) projecting or overhanging: piercing eyes glittered beneath a great beetling brow http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/beetling

Three waiters were laying the tables in the diner. One of them, with close-cropped hair and beetling brows, was thinking about the vial in his breast pocket. He kept licking his lips and sniffling. Nabokov, Vladimir. "A Matter of Chance." The Complete Short Stories. New York: Vintage, 1997. Page 54.

Sooperphli's WORD OF THE DAY: Vocabulary from Vladimir Nabokov's short stories #416 | Series IX "A Matter of Chance" Revisited (#4)

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Vapid: The Word of the Day

Vapid

1. lacking or having lost life, sharpness, or flavor; insipid; flat: vapid tea. 2. without liveliness or spirit; dull or tedious: a vapid party; vapid conversation. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/vapid

synonyms: insipid - flat - tasteless - dull (Google search)

1. "I very much like Emma - her naked elbows, the small birdlike face, the vapid, tender eyes." 2. "He reigned thirty-odd years, arousing neither particular love nor particular hatred in anyone, believing equally in the power of good and the power of money, docile in his acquiescence to the parliamentary majority, whose vapid humanitarian aspirations appealed to his sentimental soul, and generously rewarding from a secret treasury the activities of those depurties whose devotion to the crown assured its stability." 3. "He led an indigent, disorganized, solitary life and spent hours in a cheap pub where he wrote his topical poems. This was the pattern of his life -- a life that made little sense -- the meager, vapid existence of a third-rate Russian emigre."

1. Nabokov, Vladimir. "The Fight." The Complete Short Stories. New York: Vintage, 1997. Page 144.

2. "Solus Rex." page 527.

3. "A Busy Man," page 288.

Sooperphli's WORD OF THE DAY: Vocabulary from Vladimir Nabokov's short stories #415 | Series XX "The Fight" Revisited (#8)

[sooperphli-blog]

The Word of the Day Update

Hi friends.

Sooperphli's Word of the Day has had 413 posts (and counting) using vocabulary from Nabokov's short stories. It is perhaps the most comprehensive look at Nabokov's unusual vocabulary in existence. I am currently completing one final series (series LVI) covering a half dozen words I skipped.

Originally I was going to continue The Word of the Day with vocabulary from other sources but my Sooperphli blog will be suspended soon while I retool. I will be back soon with either a new Word of the Day series or perhaps something completely new.

[sooperphli-blog]

Aeolian: The Word of the Day

Aeolian

1 often capitalized : of or relating to Aeolus [Greek god of the wind]

2 : giving forth or marked by a moaning or sighing sound or musical tone produced by or as if by the wind

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aeolian

a member of one of the four main [linguistic] divisions of the prehistoric Greeks that occupied central Greece, including Aeolis and Lesbos, around 1100 b.c. Compare Achaean, Dorian, Ionian. from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Aeolian and http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/aeolian Photo of some of the Aoelian islands from http://www.omnilexica.com/?q=aeolian

Farther, at the very edge of the forest, sun-browned youths play a hard game of catch, flinging their soccer ball one-handed in a motion that revives the immortal gesture of the Discobolus; and now a breeze sets the pines a boil with an Atticrustle, and I dream that our entire world, like that large, firm ball, has flown back in a wondrous arc into the grip of a naked pagan god. Meanwhile an airplane, with an aeolian exclamation, soars above the pines, and one of the swarthy athletes interrupts his game to gaze at the sky where two blue wings speed toward the sun with a rapturous Daedalian hum. Nabokov, Vladimir. "The Fight." The Complete Short Stories. New York: Vintage, 1997. Page 142.

Sooperphli's WORD OF THE DAY: Vocabulary from Vladimir Nabokov's short stories #414 | Series XX "The Fight" Revisited (#7)

[sooperphli-blog]

Tarlatan: The Word of the Day

Tarlatan

A thin, stiffly starched muslin in open plain weave. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/tarlatan A very thin muslin, so open in texture as to be transparent, and often rather coarse in quality. It is used for women's evening dress, for widows' caps, etc. http://www.wordnik.com/words/tarlatan image from http://www.takachpress.com/servlet/the-405/Etching-Wiping-Tarlatin-regular/Detail

In the desk he found a notebook, spreading boards, supplies of black pins, and an English biscuit tin that contained a large exotic cocoon which had cost three rubles. It was papery to the touch and seemed made of a brown folded leaf. His son had remembered it during his sickness, regretting that he had left it behind, but consoling himself with the thought that the chrysalid inside was probably dead. He also found a torn net: a tarlatan bag on a collapsible hoop (and the muslin still smelled of summer and sun-hot grass). Nabokov, Vladimir. "Christmas." The Complete Short Stories. New York: Vintage,1997. Page 134.

Sooperphli's WORD OF THE DAY: Vocabulary from Vladimir Nabokov's short stories #413 | Series XVIII "Christmas" Revisited (#5)

[sooperphli-blog]

Apterous: The Word of the Day

Apterous

1. (Zoology) (of insects) without wings, as silverfish and springtails 2. (Botany) without winglike expansions, as some plant stems, seeds, and fruits

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/apterous

image from insects.tamu.edu

And the sonorous souls of Russian verbs lend a meaning to the wild gesticulation of trees or to some discarded newspaper sliding and pausing, and shuffling again, with abortive flaps and apterous jerks along an endless windswept embankment. Nabokov, Vladimir. “'That in Aleppo Once...'.” The Complete Short Stories. New York: Vintage, 1997. Page 560.

Sooperphli’s WORD OF THE DAY: Vocabulary from Vladimir Nabokov’s short stories #412 | Series LV: from “'That in Aleppo Once...'” (#1)

[sooperphli-blog]

Turgid: The Word of the Day

Turgid

Swollen and distended or congested: "a turgid and fast-moving river".

(of language or style) Tediously pompous or bombastic: "some turgid verses on the death of Prince Albert". google search

...the old peasant woman, in one of Turgenev's turgid little tales, who had just lost her son and shocked the fine lady who visited her in her isba by calmly finishing a bowl of cabbage soup 'because it had been salted'! Nabokov, Vladimir. “Vasiliy Shishkov.” The Complete Short Stories. New York: Vintage, 1997. Page 497.

Sooperphli’s WORD OF THE DAY: Vocabulary from Vladimir Nabokov’s short stories #411 | Series LIV: from “Vasiliy Shishkov” (#8)

[sooperphli-blog]

Chimera: The Word of the Day

Chimera

1 acapitalized: a fire-breathing she-monster in Greek mythology having a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail b : an imaginary monster compounded of incongruous parts 2 : an illusion or fabrication of the mind; especially: an unrealizable dream <a fancy, a chimera in my brain, troubles me in my prayer — John Donne> 3 : an individual, organ, or part consisting of tissues of diverse genetic constitution http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chimera image from http://dragonsdogma.wikia.com/wiki/Chimera

I have been trying to decide what to do -- how to stop things, how to get out.... Retire to a monastery? But religion is boring and alien to me and relates no more than a chimera to what is the reality of the spirit. Nabokov, Vladimir. “Vasiliy Shishkov.” The Complete Short Stories. New York: Vintage, 1997. Page 499.

Sooperphli’s WORD OF THE DAY: Vocabulary from Vladimir Nabokov’s short stories #410 | Series LIV: from “Vasiliy Shishkov” (#7)

[sooperphli-blog]

Breloque: The Word of the Day

Breloque

A seal, locket, charm, or other small trinket or article of jewelry attached to a watch-chain. http://www.wordnik.com/words/breloque

Among those present, I knew by sight the editor of a defunct publication; the others -- an ample female (a translatress, I believe, or perhaps a theosophist) with a gloomy little husband resembling a black breloque.... Nabokov, Vladimir. “Vasiliy Shishkov.” The Complete Short Stories. New York: Vintage, 1997. Page 498.

Sooperphli’s WORD OF THE DAY: Vocabulary from Vladimir Nabokov’s short stories #409 | Series LIV: from “Vasiliy Shishkov” (#6)

[sooperphli-blog]

Theosophy: The Word of the Day

Theosophy

1. Religious philosophy or speculation about the nature of the soul based on mystical insight into the nature of God.

2. often Theosophy The system of beliefs and teachings of the Theosophical Society, founded in New York City in 1875, incorporating aspects of Buddhism and Brahmanism, especially the belief in reincarnation and spiritual evolution.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/theosophist

Religious philosophy with mystical concerns that can be traced to the ancient world. It holds that God, whose essence pervades the universe as an absolute reality, can be known only through mystical experience (see mysticism). It is characterized by esoteric doctrine and an interest in occult phenomena. Theosophical beliefs are found in Neoplatonism, Gnosticism, and among students of the Kabbala, but Jakob Böhme, who developed a complete theosophical system, is often called the father of modern theosophy. Today theosophy is associated with the Theosophical Society, founded by Helena Blavatsky in 1875. See also Annie Besant. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/theosophy

Among those present, I knew by sight the editor of a defunct publication; the others -- an ample female (a translatress, I believe, or perhaps a theosophist) with a gloomy little husband resembling a black breloque.... Nabokov, Vladimir. “Vasiliy Shishkov.” The Complete Short Stories. New York: Vintage, 1997. Page 498.

Sooperphli’s WORD OF THE DAY: Vocabulary from Vladimir Nabokov’s short stories #408 | Series LIV: from “Vasiliy Shishkov” (#5)

[sooperphli-blog]

Punctiform: The Word of the Day

Punctiform

1 : having the form or character of a point 2 : marked by or composed of points or dots : punctate 3 : of or relating to tangible points or dots used for representing words for reading by the blind http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/punctiform

"I shan't mind in the least if you regard as absurd the fact that the tremendous number of similar trifles, every day, everywhere, of various degrees of importance and of different shapes -- tailed germs, punctiform, cubic -- can trouble a man so badly that he suffocates and loses his appetite -- but, maybe, you will come all the same." Nabokov, Vladimir. “Vasiliy Shishkov.” The Complete Short Stories. New York: Vintage, 1997. Page 497.

Sooperphli’s WORD OF THE DAY: Vocabulary from Vladimir Nabokov’s short stories #407 | Series LIV: from “Vasiliy Shishkov” (#4)

[sooperphli-blog]

Metromania: The Word of the Day

Metromania

a mania for writing verses.

"Those credentials are not mine. I mine, I did write that stuff myself, and yet it is all forged. The entire lot of thirty poems was composed this morning, and to tell the truth, I found rather nasty the task of parodying the product of metromania." Nabokov, Vladimir. “Vasiliy Shishkov.” The Complete Short Stories. New York: Vintage, 1997. Page 495.

Sooperphli’s WORD OF THE DAY: Vocabulary from Vladimir Nabokov’s short stories #406 | Series LIV: from “Vasiliy Shishkov” (#3)

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Meretricious: The Word of the Day

Meretricious

1. alluring by a show of flashy or vulgar attractions; tawdry.

2. based on pretense, deception, or insincerity.

3. pertaining to or characteristic of a prostitute. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/meretricious

The poetry was dreadful -- flat, flashy, ominously pretentious. Its utter mediocrity was stressed by the fraudulent chic of alliterations and the meretricious richness of illiterate rhymes. Nabokov, Vladimir. “Vasiliy Shishkov.” The Complete Short Stories. New York: Vintage, 1997. Page 495.

Sooperphli’s WORD OF THE DAY: Vocabulary from Vladimir Nabokov’s short stories #405 | Series LIV: from “Vasiliy Shishkov” (#2)