The Great Gatsby, Vocabulary from Chapter 1 30Words

"The Great Gatsby," Vocabulary from Chapter 1 30words

April 10, 2013 By Vocabulary.com

As you read F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby," learn this word list that focuses on Nick Carraway and his observations. Here are links to all our word lists for the novel: Chapter 1, Chapters 2-3, Chapters 4-5, Chapters 6-7, Chapters 8-9

reserved

marked by self-restraint and reticence

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

He didn't say any more but we've always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that.

privy

(followed by `to') informed about something secret or not generally known

NOTES:

Nick is using "privy" as an adjective here but it can also be a noun meaning "a room or building equipped with one or more toilets." With that double meaning, Nick could be seen as making fun of both his own passive nature and the nature of the secrets that were shared with him.

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in college I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men.

feign

make a pretence of

NOTES:

Nick admits to feigning actions and emotions in order to avoid listening to the seemingly fake revelations of others. Another reason he might not have wanted to hear these secrets is that doing so places him in the position of being responsible for someone else's happiness. Fitzgerald includes this admission here to set the readers up for the contrasts in Nick's relationship with Gatsby.

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

Most of the confidences were unsought--frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon--for the intimate revelations of young men or at least the terms in which they express them are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions.

levity

a manner lacking seriousness

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

tolerance

willingness to recognize and respect the beliefs or practices of others

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

And, after boasting this way of my tolerance, I come to the admission that it has a limit.

scorn

lack of respect accompanied by a feeling of intense dislike

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction--Gatsby who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn.

elation

a feeling of joy and pride

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

No--Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.

solemn

characterized by a firm and humorless belief in the validity of your opinions

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

I was rather literary in college--one year I wrote a series of very solemn and obvious editorials for the "Yale News"--and now I was going to bring back all such things into my life and become again that most limited of all specialists, the "well-rounded man."

reproach

a mild rebuke or criticism

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

His family were enormously wealthy--even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach--but now he'd left Chicago and come east in a fashion that rather took your breath away: for instance he'd brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest.

supercilious

having or showing arrogant superiority to and disdain of those one views as unworthy

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

Now he was a sturdy, straw haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner.

fractiousness

the trait of being prone to disobedience and lack of discipline

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed.

wistfulness

a sadly pensive longing

NOTES:

The last three words were used in descriptions that show Nick's scornful attitude towards Tom Buchanan. Even in describing Tom's wistfulness, Nick adds the adjectives "harsh" and "defiant". By noting that Tom wanted his approval, Nick is suggesting that, back in college, he was the better man, and he is even more so now that is openly disapproving of Tom in his book.

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

We were in the same Senior Society, and while we were never intimate I always had the impression that he approved of me and wanted me to like him with some harsh, defiant wistfulness of his own.

irrelevant

having no bearing on or connection with the subject at issue

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

(I've heard it said that Daisy's murmur was only to make people lean toward her; an irrelevant criticism that made it no less charming.)

imperceptible

impossible or difficult to perceive by the mind or senses

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

At any rate Miss Baker's lips fluttered, she nodded at me almost imperceptibly and then quickly tipped her head back again--the object she was balancing had obviously tottered a little and given her something of a fright.

tribute

something given or done as an expression of esteem

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

Almost any exhibition of complete self sufficiency draws a stunned tribute from me.

reciprocal

concerning each of two or more persons or things; especially given or done in return

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

Her grey sun-strained eyes looked back at me with polite reciprocal curiosity out of a wan, charming discontented face.

compel

force somebody to do something

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

Before I could reply that he was my neighbor dinner was announced; wedging his tense arm imperatively under mine Tom Buchanan compelled me from the room as though he were moving a checker to another square.

unobtrusive

not obtrusive or undesirably noticeable

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

Sometimes she and Miss Baker talked at once, unobtrusively and with a bantering inconsequence that was never quite chatter, that was as cool as their white dresses and their impersonal eyes in the absence of all desire.

inconsequence

having no important effects or influence

NOTES:

Although details of Daisy and Jordan's "bantering inconsequence" are not given here, examples of it are seen throughout the dialogues that Fitzgerald intentionally creates as the writer and that Nick somehow remembers and repeats as the first-person narrator.

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

complacency

the feeling you have when you are satisfied with yourself

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

There was something pathetic in his concentration as if his complacency, more acute than of old, was not enough to him any more.

extemporize

perform without preparation

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

She was only extemporizing but a stirring warmth flowed from her as if her heart was trying to come out to you concealed in one of those breathless, thrilling words.

subdued

in a softened tone

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

A subdued impassioned murmur was audible in the room beyond and Miss Baker leaned forward, unashamed, trying to hear.

hardy

invulnerable to fear or intimidation

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

I couldn't guess what Daisy and Tom were thinking but I doubt if even Miss Baker who seemed to have mastered a certain hardy skepticism was able utterly to put this fifth guest's shrill metallic urgency out of mind.

ntriguing

capable of arousing interest or curiosity

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

To a certain temperament the situation might have seemed intriguing--my own instinct was to telephone immediately for the police.

turbulent

characterized by unrest or disorder or insubordination

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

I saw that turbulent emotions possessed her, so I asked what I thought would be some sedative questions about her little girl.

sedative

tending to soothe or tranquilize

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

I saw that turbulent emotions possessed her, so I asked what I thought would be some sedative questions about her little girl.

contemptuous

expressing extreme contempt

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

I knew now why her face was familiar--its pleasing contemptuous expression had looked out at me from many rotogravure pictures of the sporting life at Asheville and Hot Springs and Palm Beach.

libel

a false and malicious publication printed for the purpose of defaming a living person

NOTES:

An overheard rumor is not libel; it could be slander, but the rumor is about an event that's supposed to be happy not hurtful. As a Yale graduate who used to write for the college's newspaper, Nick would know the different intents attached to rumor, libel and slander. But he deliberately exaggerates here to be funny and to emphasize that he is not ready for marriage.

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

"That's right," corroborated Tom kindly. "We heard that you were engaged."
"It's libel.

peremptory

offensively self-assured or given to exercising usually unwarranted power

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as if his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his peremptory heart.

intimation

an indirect suggestion

NOTES:

Nick's descriptions show how observant he is--not only does he pick up on "intimations", he also sees things that are almost "imperceptible", hears murmurs that have been "subdued", and often tries to guess what others are thinking and feeling. These are good traits for a writer, but they could also intimate a lack of depth or originality within a character--which leads Nick to admire Gatsby.

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

But I didn't call to him for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone--he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling.