Heart of Darkness Vocab 1

Luminous

full of or shedding light; bright or shining, especially in the dark.

“In the offing the sea and the sky were welded together without a joint, and in the luminous space the tanned sails”

Interminable

Seemingly endless or never-ending

“The sea-reach of the Thames stretched before us like the beginning of an interminable waterway.”

Ascetic

A person who practices self-discipline and abstains from worldly pleasures for spiritual or religious reasons.

“He had sunken cheeks, a yellow complexion, a straight back, an ascetic aspect, and, with his arms dropped, the palms of hands outwards, resembled an idol.”

Diaphanous

Transparent or translucent, allowing light to pass through easily.

“the very mist on the Essex marsh was like a gauzy and radiant fabric, hung from the wooded rises inland, and draping the low shores in diaphanous folds.”

Venerable

Describes a person who is respected and admired due to their age, wisdom, and experience. Often used to refer to someone who is highly regarded in religious or spiritual contexts.

“We looked at the venerable stream not in the vivid flush of a short day that comes and departs for ever, but in the august light of abiding memories.”

Lurid

Extremely vivid or shocking in color, especially in a way that is unpleasant or disturbing.

“And farther west on the upper reaches the place of the monstrous town was still marked ominously on the sky, a brooding gloom in sunshine, a lurid glare under the stars.”

Somnambulist

A person who sleepwalks, performing complex activities while asleep, such as walking, talking, or even cooking, without any recollection of it upon waking up.

“The slim one got up and walked straight at me— still knitting with downcast eyes—and only just as I began to think of getting out of her way, as you would for a somnambulist, stood still, and looked up.”

Imperturbably

Remaining calm and composed in the face of adversity or disturbance.

“‘Every doctor should be—a little,’ answered that original, imperturbably.”

Sententiously

Speaking or expressing oneself in a concise and pompous manner, often conveying moral judgments or opinions in a brief and pointed way.

“He became very cool and collected all at once. ‘I am not such a fool as I look, quoth Plato to his disciples,’ he said sententiously, emptied his glass with great resolution, and we rose.”

Enigma

a person or thing that is mysterious, puzzling, or difficult to understand.

“Watching a coast as it slips by the ship is like thinking about an enigma.”

Lugubrious

Feeling or looking sad and mournful; characterized by sorrow or gloom.

“There was a touch of insanity in the proceeding, a sense of lugubrious drollery in the sight;”

Recrudescence

The reappearance or resurgence of a disease or symptoms after a period of improvement or remission.

“A blinding sunlight drowned all this at times in a sudden recrudescence of glare.”

Declivity

A steep downward slope or descent.

“A rocky cliff appeared, mounds of turned-up earth by the shore, houses on a hill, others with iron roofs, amongst a waste of excavations, or hanging to the declivity.”

Insidious

(adj.) proceeding in a gradual or subtle way, but with harmful effects; treacherous or deceitful.

“I would become acquainted with a flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly. How insidious he could be,”

Philanthropic

(of a person or organization) seeking to promote the welfare of others, especially by donating money to good causes; generous and benevolent.

“It might have been connected with the philanthropic desire of giving the criminals something to do.”

Propitiatory

intended to reconcile or appease.

“He had tied a bit of white worsted round his neck— Why? Where did he get it? Was it a badge—an ornament—a charm— a propitiatory act?”

Moribund

at the point of death; dying

“These moribund shapes were free as air—and nearly as thin.”

Inscrutable

impossible to understand or interpret

“It was unconscious, this smile was, though just after he had said something it got intensified for an instant. It came at the end of his speeches like a seal applied on the words to make the meaning of the commonest phrase appear absolutely inscrutable.”

Rout

a disorderly retreat of defeated troops/ defeat and cause to retreat in disorder.

“Because triumphant health in the general rout of constitutions is a kind of power in itself.”

Insolence

rude and disrespectful behavior

“He allowed his ‘boy’—an overfed young negro from the coast—to treat the white men, under his very eyes, with provoking insolence.”

Rapacity

Aggressive greed

“The word ‘ivory’ rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it. A taint of imbecile rapacity blew through it all, like a whiff from some corpse.”

Beguile

charm or enchant (someone), sometimes in deceptive ways/ help (time) pass pleasantly

“They beguiled the time by back-biting and intriguing against each other in a foolish kind of way.”