New (Old) Words
Listed here are forgotten and newly acquired words
discovered while reading Wolfgang Koeppen's novel The Hothouse.
discovered while reading Wolfgang Koeppen's novel The Hothouse.
These notes were collected in celebration of Wolfgang Koeppen's birthday: June 23, 1906. Koeppen says this book is a purely fictional narrative and has its own poetic truthfulness.
DROLL - Wolfgang is referring to Keetenhueve's own sense of morbidly humorous thoughts ..... You can imagine a "doll" and a "troll" blended together to make "droll." Droll: unusual in an odd or whimsical way.
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ReplyDeleteVOLUPTUARY: a person devoted to luxury and sensual pleasure.
ANCHORITE: a religious recluse.
(Two extremes of Keetenhueve's personality)
ReplyDeleteHUSTINGS: a meeting at which candidates in an election address potential voters.
Keetenhueve was listed as a potential candidate due to his involvement in Germany's reconstruction, his eagerness to reinvent the nation as a liberal democracy ...
ReplyDeleteLIANAS: a woody climbing plant that hangs from trees, especially in tropical rain forests.
Keetenhueve compares the decisions he must make as a politician with jungle lianas ...
"Practical politics was a jungle, you ran into big beasts."
ReplyDeleteTRIBADES: a lesbian, especially one who lies on top of her partner and simulates the movements of the male in heterosexual intercourse.
These are the ones that Elke associates with when her marriage to Keetenhueve becomes broken
ReplyDeletePENTHESILEA: was an Amazonian Queen from Greek mythology
ACHILLES: was a Greek hero of the Trojan War and the central character and greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.
References to these characters made me wonder exactly who they were ... not so up on my Greek mythology.
ReplyDeleteFATA MORGANA: an unusual and complex form of superior mirage that is seen in a narrow band right above the horizon.
Wolfgang used this as a metaphor when describing the party's optimistic views that things would get better.
FOPPISH: (of a man) concerned with his clothes and appearance in an affected and excessive way.
ReplyDeleteERUCTATE: More sophisticated way of saying "belch."
ReplyDeleteCHASUBLE: a sleeveless outer vestment worn by a Catholic or High Anglican priest when celebrating Mass, typically ornate and having a simple hole for the head.
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ReplyDeletePIED-A-TERRE: a temporary or second lodging
Keetenheuve hadn't been in to his apartment in the parliamentary ghetto in Bonn that morning, for him it was just a joyless pied-à-terre
GEMUTLICH: pleasant and cheerful
ReplyDeleteCANARD: an unfounded rumor or story.an unfounded rumor or story
ReplyDeleteMEPHISTOPHELES: familiar spirit of the Devil in late settings of the legend of Faust.
ReplyDeleteAD ACTA: to consider finished
ReplyDeleteAUTODIDACT: a self-taught person (Knurrewahn)
ReplyDeleteMONTEUR: (Dutch) mechanic, service technician
ReplyDeleteREDIVIVUS: reborn, come back to life (the French Revolution blinded him with folly, and perhaps Napoleon was redivivus)
ReplyDeleteHOMBURG: a man's felt hat having a narrow curled brim and a tapered crown with a lengthwise indentation.
ReplyDeleteODALIQUES: a female slave or concubine in a harem, especially one in the seraglio of the sultan of Turkey.
ReplyDeleteDILETTANTE: a person with an amateur interest in the arts.
ReplyDeleteSTAKHANOVITE: a worker in the former Soviet Union who was exceptionally hardworking and productive ... an exceptionally hardworking or zealous person.
ReplyDeleteAEGIS: the protection, backing, or support of a particular person or organization
ReplyDeleteDEBENTURES: a long-term security yielding a fixed rate of interest, issued by a company and secured against assets.
ReplyDeleteMIASMA: an unpleasant or unhealthy smell or vapor.
ReplyDeletePESSARY: a prosthetic device inserted into the vagina to support its internal structure. It's often used in cases of urinary incontinence or vaginal prolapse.
ReplyDelete(on the night stand with the calendar that marked the fruitful and unfruitful days of his wife's cycle)
ROSTRUM: a pulpit or other elevated platform for public speaking.
ReplyDeleteLEMURS: are a clade of strepsirrhine primates endemic to the island of Madagascar.
ReplyDeleteLemurs in the bar staring at a scrawny ghost, trying to set a record for nonstop piano playing!