A Northern Light Definitions & Stems
Vocabulary List #3
1. “’Hispidulous’
‘What’s it mean?’
‘Covered in short hairs. Bristly’” (Donnelly 229).
“Mr. Loomis’s shirttails had not quite covered his bare behind, and I had seen, though I truly wished I hadn’t, that it was pale, flabby, and horribly hispidulous” (Donnelly 233).
Ous: full of Definition: covered in short hairs
2. “Icosahedron…means twenty-sided” (Donnelly 242).
Hedron: sided object Definition: twenty-sided object
3. “’Uncontrollable,’ Weaver shot at me, on his way back to the dining room. ‘Clamorous,’ I shot back. We had a word duel going for my word of the day—obstreperous” (Donnelly 147).
Ob: against ous: full of Definition: unruly, boisterous, clamorous
4. “Limicolous…means something that lives in the mud. I thought it was a very good word to describe the men who beat Weaver, and told him so” (Donnelly 260).
Ous: full of Definition: living in mud
5. “I saw Thistle, one of the cows, grazing nearby. She was huge and would calve any day now. Gravid was my word of the day. It means pregnant…it also means burdened or loaded down. Looking at Thistle, with her heavy belly and her tired eyes, it made perfect sense” (Donnelly 269).
Grav: heavy Definition: pregnant; burdened or loaded down
6. “She shivered under my hands and moaned for me to stop. ‘It’s cold, Mattie, it hurts,’ she whimpered, trying to pull away from me, her thin limbs shuddering.
‘Hush, Beth, I know,’ I soothed. ‘Hold still, hold still.’ I tried to think of my word of the day, aby, to take the fear from the mind. I recalled that it meant to endure, to atone, and found I didn’t care” (Donnelly 287).
Ab: away Definition: to endure; to undergo suffering as a penalty
7. “Fugacious…means falling or fading early, fleeting. The dying peonies reminded me of it” (Donnelly 298).
Fug: flee ous: full of Definition: falling or fading early; fleeting
8. “My husband is on his way, Mattie. My sister wired that he’s a day away at most. If I’m still here when he arrives, the next stop for me is a doctor’s office. And then a sanatorium and so many drugs pushed down my throat, I won’t be able to remember my own name, much less write” (Donnelly 308).
Ium: an element Definition: a hospital/institution for the treatment of chronic diseases
9. “’Discuss,’ he said. ‘Confer,’ I replied. Confabulate was my word of the day and Weaver and I were dueling with it. It means to chat or talk familiarly. I like it a lot because it is a word that winks at you. It has shades of the word fable in it, as if it wants you to know that that’s what most conversation is—people telling each other tales” (Donnelly 316).
Con: together ate: cause Definition: chat; talk familiarly; to converse informally
10. “Abusion”… “Wondering if there’s a word in your dictionary for when people know the truth but pretend they don’t” (Donnelly 336).
Ab: away Definition: deception; evil or corrupt usage
11. “Fran broke off a feathery frond and held it in front of her face, then she flicked it away and blew a kiss. She waved her pretty hand and toyed with buttons on her swimming costume. She was a revelation. Nonpareil was my word of the day. It means peerless, and that’s what she was. Neither Lillie Langtry, nor the great Sarah Berhardt herself, could have done as well. Her gestures were bold and coy all at once, and they had the same effect on table six that a red rag has on a bull” (Donnelly 344).
Non: not Definition: peerless; having no equal
12. “Our happy state of mind persisted for two whole days, then disappeared instantly, as birds will right before it rains, when my father came into the Glenmore at the end of the dinner service on a beautiful afternoon to tell us that Weaver’s mamma’s house had burned down…I decided dolor, a word I’d seen as I’d paged back from doughnut, would be a better choice, given what had happened. It means grief, distress, or anguish. There was a piece of it in doleful and condolence, too” (Donnelly 349).
Dol: grief Definition: sorrowful; mournful
13. “Tergiversation, my word of the day, means fickleness of conduct, inconstancy, turning renegade. I felt like a renegade myself just then. I didn’t believe in happy endings. Not in stories or real life. I knew better” (Donnelly 366).
Tion: act or state Definition: to change repeatedly one's attitude or opinions with respect to a cause,
subject
Fic: make ness: quality Definition: likely to change; casually changeable
14. “I thought of my word of the day, luciferous, as I picked up the broken pieces of the teapot. It means bringing light. It has the name Lucifer in it. I knew all about Lucifer, thanks to my good friend John Milton. Lucifer was a beautiful angel whom God chucked out of heaven for being rebellious. He found himself banished to hell, but instead of being sorry for angering God and trying to make amends, he set about agitating again. He went to the Garden of Eden and wheedled Eve into eating from the Tree of Knowledge and got the whole of mankind kicked out of paradise forever.
It was a dreadful thing that he did, and he is not to be admired for it, but right then I felt I understood why
he did it. I even felt a little sorry for him. He probably just wanted some company, for it is very lonely knowing
things” (Donnelly 372).
Luc: light ous: full of Definition: bringing or providing light; providing insight or enlightenment