McCarthy Vocab 1

bight

1 : a bend in a coast forming an open bay; also : a bay formed by such a bend 2 : a slack part or loop in a rope

hackamore

a bridle with a loop capable of being tightened about the nose in place of a bit or with a slip noose passed over the lower jaw

swale

a low-lying or depressed and often wet stretch of land; also : a shallow depression on a golf fairway or green

sprent

archaic : sprinkled over

bacca

short for tobacco

nave

the main part of the interior of a church; especially : the long narrow central hall in a cruciform church that rises higher than the aisles flanking it to form a clerestory (ALSO 2 - the hub of a wheel)

scantling

1 a : the dimensions of timber and stone used in building b : the dimensions of a structural element used in shipbuilding —often used in plura 2 : a small quantity, amount, or proportion : modicum 3 : a small piece of lumber (as an upright piece in house framing)

weskit

vest

sutler

a civilian provisioner to an army post often with a shop on the post

felloe (var. of felly)

the exterior rim or a segment of the rim of a wheel supported by the spokes

cordillera

a system of mountain ranges often consisting of a number of more or less parallel chains

jornada

Spanish for day trip, working day

jacal

a hut in Mexico and southwestern United States with a thatched roof and walls made of upright poles or sticks covered and chinked with mud or clay

bistre (var. of bister)

a grayish to yellowish brown

purlieu

1 a : an outlying or adjacent district b plural : environs, neighborhood 2 a : a frequently visited place : haunt b plural : confines, bounds

cantle

1 : a segment cut off or out of something : part, portion 2 : the upward projecting rear part of a saddle

sotol

any of several plants (genus Dasylirion) of the agave family of the southwestern United States and Mexico that resemble a yucca

farrier

a person who shoes horses

kerf

a slit or notch made by a saw or cutting torch

anticline

an arch of stratified rock in which the layers bend downward in opposite directions from the crest

augury

1 : divination from auspices or omens; also : an instance of this 2 : omen, portent (one of the few words I was already familiar with and just needed to remember the definition…jeez)

vadose

of, relating to, or being water or solutions in the earth's crust above the permanent groundwater level

ratchel

gravelly stone

squail

to throw anything about awkwardly or irregularly

ocotillo

a thorny scarlet-flowered candlewood (Fouquieria splendens of the family Fouquieriaceae) of the southwestern United States and Mexico

carreta

a simple two-wheeled oxcart

trace

1 archaic : a course or path that one follows 2 a : a mark or line left by something that has passed; also : footprint b : a path, trail, or road made by the passage of animals, people, or vehicles

tenon

a projecting member in a piece of wood or other material for insertion into a mortise to make a joint

slear

"Climbing up through ocotillo and pricklypear where the rocks trembled and sleared in the sun" cha 5 page 62 - this word is not in any dictionary I can find. Someone else discusses this here

escopeta

Spanish for shotgun

rebozo

a long scarf worn chiefly by Mexican women

almagre

Spanish for red-brown

fusil (n)

a light flintlock musket p69

carboy

a large container for liquids p69

thews

muscle, sinew —usually used in plural p78

tapadero

"Westerners often wore and wear their stirrups with TAPADEROS, covers for the front part of the boot, open at the back" -Dictionary of the American West p80

azotea

Spanish for flat, terrace roof p88

bruit

in context, "the advent of the riders bruited by scurvid curs," seems to mean something like the verb definition given by Merriam Webster - report, rumor —usually used with about. Seems akin to "announced" p97

scurvid

scurvid is not in any dictionary; McCarthy seems to have made the word up himself with the (supposedly no longer active) suffix '-id' tacked on to 'scurvy.' So, scurvid probably means despicable and diseased, in context. (p97)

dolmen

a prehistoric monument of two or more upright stones supporting a horizontal stone slab found especially in Britain and France and thought to be a tomb: illustration p97

cresset

an iron vessel or basket used for holding an illuminant (as oil) and mounted as a torch or suspended as a lantern p99

creosote

"the liquor was rank, sour, tasted faintly of creosote." p101 : a clear or yellowish flammable oily liquid mixture of phenolic compounds obtained by the distillation of tar derived from wood and especially from beech wood, also, a resinous desert shrub

huarache

a low-heeled sandal having an upper made of interwoven leather strips p101

surbated

bruised, as the feet by travel; harassed, fatigued. often said of a horse. p 104

talus - a slope formed especially by an accumulation of rock debris p104

apishamore

a saddle blanket made of buffalo hide p104

discalced

unshod, barefoot "sitting like a murdered anchorite discalced in ashes and sark" p107

sark

a shirt (not sure how that fits in context as quoted above…) p107

to quirt

to strike or drive with a a riding whip with a short handle and a rawhide lash p108

weft

Merriam Webster gives 1 a : a filling thread or yarn in weaving b : yarn used for the weft 2 : web, fabric; also : an article of woven fabric, but in the context of "the weft of things" it seems more to just mean "weave" p109

waney (adj)

waning; declining "waney whistle" p109

buskin

a laced boot reaching halfway or more to the knee, especially as worn by actors in a Greek or Roman tragedy p110

parfleche

a raw hide soaked in lye to remove the hair and dried: boots with "parfleche soles" p110

gastine

a Middle English word from old French that means: a wild or desolate region, a wasteland, wilderness, desert. Where did McCarthy get this one? p111

remuda

the herd of horses from which those to be used for the day are chosen p115

viga

one of the heavy rafters and especially a log supporting the roof in American Indian and Spanish architecture of the Southwest "sagging vigas above them" p117

dap

to dip lightly or quickly into water, as a bird does: the horses out in the rain would "dap their hooves" p117

withers

the ridge between the shoulder bones of a horse p126

vidette

var of vedette - a mounted sentinel stationed in advance of pickets p126

hobble (n)

something used to hobble an animal: "we cut at them with out hobbles" Not sure what exactly they would be cutting at these wild wolves with; maybe just any random blade can be considered a "hobble" when used in this way. p129

malpais

an extensive area of rough, barren lava flows (also Spanish mal + pais meaning bad country) p129

rimple

a fold or a wrinkle p130

coulee

1 a : a small stream b : a dry streambed c : a usually small or shallow ravine : gully 2 : a thick sheet or stream of lava. In context, "In the blue coulees on the north slopes narrow tailings of old snow", probably 1c p136

gobbet

1a piece or portion (as of meat) 2 : lump, mass p137

enfilade

a line or straight passage; specifically, the situation of a place, or of a body of men, which may be raked with shot through its whole length. The sense of describing a line of men, which McCarthy is using, only shows up in the Century Dictionary. Merriam Webster favors the "line of rooms" and "straight gunfire" definitions. p 139

rebate (v)

1 to reduce the force or activity of : diminish 2 to reduce the sharpness of : blunt p139

acequia

Southwest : an irrigation ditch or canal p139

kiva

a Pueblo Indian ceremonial structure that is usually round and partly underground (Hopi etymology) p139

maguey

1 : any of various fleshy-leaved agaves (as the century plant) p147

spancel

to tie or fetter with a noosed robe commonly used for tying or hobbling the legs of an animal; in context, "horse and rider spanceled to their shadows", seems merely "to tie", "to yoke" p151

legatee

one to whom a legacy is bequeathed or a devise is given p152

rowel

a revolving disk with sharp marginal points at the end of a spur "riders put rowels to their mounts" p 155

wickiup

a hut used by the nomadic Indians of the arid regions of the western and southwestern United States with a usually oval base and a rough frame covered with reed mats, grass, or brushwood (resembling a teepee); also : a rude temporary shelter or hut p155

fontanel

a membrane-covered opening in bone or between bones; specifically : any of the spaces closed by membranous structures between the uncompleted angles of the parietal bones and the neighboring bones of a fetal or young skull (this is from the passage in which the Delaware bashes babies' brains out) p 156

caul

1 : the large fatty omentum covering the intestines (as of a cow, sheep, or pig) 2 : the inner fetal membrane of higher vertebrates especially when covering the head at birth. In context, closer to 2, because McCarthy is describing freshly skinned heads. p157

whang

1 dialect a : thong b : rawhide p 159

chaparral

a thicket of dwarf evergreen oaks; broadly : a dense impenetrable thicket of shrubs or dwarf trees p161

peltries

pelts, furs; especially : raw undressed skins —often used in plural p163

dandling

1 : to move (as a baby) up and down in one's arms or on one's knee in affectionate play 2 : pamper, pet. The judge "was dandling [the Apache child] on one knee" p164

shoat

a young hog and especially one that has been weaned p169

skiffle

American jazz or folk music played entirely or in part on nonstandard instruments (as jugs, washboards, or Jew's harps); also : a derivative form of music formerly popular in Great Britain featuring vocals with a simple instrumental accompaniment p170

debouch

1 : to march out into open ground 2 : emerge, issue p170

toper

one that drinks liquor to excess; especially : drunkard p171

scapple

To work roughly, or shape without finishing, as stone before leaving the quarry p 173

argosy

1 : a large ship; especially : a large merchant ship 2 : a fleet of ships 3 : a rich supply. In context, a fleet of men: "They watched the passing of that bloodstained argosy through their streets" p175

shako

a stiff military hat with a high crown and plume shako illustration p182

caparison (v)

to provide with or as if with a rich ornamental covering : adorn p182

arrant

being notoriously without moderation : extreme p183

jokin

"joke" (v) is a variant of "jouk," which means: Of birds, a. To perch, sit (upon branches). b. Falconry. To roost, to sleep upon its perch. McCarthy uses this verb in a pretty intense sentence: "Mad jackhares started and checked in the blue glare and high among those clanging crags jokin roehawks crouched in their feathers or cracked a yellow eye at the thunder underfoot." The word "jokin" or "joke" is not listed in Merriam-Webster (or any other online dictionary, for that matter) in this sense, but I found the answer on Cormac-McCarthy.com, where someone had written that it's a variant of jouk. On the OED, there is no listing under "joke (v)" as being a variant of "jouk," but "jouk" was listed and that is the definition I give above. In a further note on that sentence, "roehawk" is not any particular type of hawk, but a word that McCarthy created by combining "roe" (a description of coloration) and "hawk." p186

gentian

1 : any of numerous herbs (family Gentianaceae, the gentian family, and especially genus Gentiana) with opposite smooth leaves and showy usually blue flowers p187

serried

1 : crowded or pressed together : compact 2 [by alteration] : marked by ridges : serrate "serried rimlands" p187

tectite

this one again is not even in the OED…turns out it's McCarthy's variation of "tektite," which is a glassy body of probably meteoritic origin and of rounded but indefinite shape. "In pockets on the north slopes hail lay nested like tectites among the leaves" p 188

withy (adj)

flexibly tough, as if made of a flexible branch of willow p189

ristra

Ristras are arrangements of drying chile pepper pods (also not in M-W or OED, but on Wikipedia) p189

pulque

a Mexican alcoholic beverage made from the fermented sap of various agaves (as Agave atrovirens) p189

charivari

a shivaree, which, pronounced phonetically, is the pronunciation of charivari : a noisy mock serenade to a newly married couple p190

to drub

1 : to beat severely 2 : to berate critically 3 : to defeat decisively p190

catafalque

1 : an ornamental structure sometimes used in funerals for the lying in state of the body 2 : a pall-covered coffin-shaped structure used at requiem masses celebrated after burial p190

stripling

youth p192

ciborium

a goblet-shaped vessel for holding eucharistic bread ciborium illustration p192