The Scar Dictionary

[Pale]

On my first reading of "The Scar" I was constantly referring to my online dictionary. To track down the definitions of the arcane or sea-faring language used by Mieville. I remember doing something similar when I read "Titus Groan¡" by Mervyn Peake. ( oddly enough a large influence on China's writing ).


Here's a few handy definitions: ( Apologies if i'm teaching you to suck eggs)

Contuancy:
1 obstinate and wilful rebelliousness or resistance to authority; insubordination; disobedience
2 the wilful refusal of a person to appear before a court or to comply with a court order

Etiolated:
1 (Botany) to whiten (a green plant) through lack of sunlight
2 to become or cause to become pale and weak, as from malnutrition

Chakra
noun (in yoga) any of the seven major energy centres in the body

Revenant
: noun something, esp. a ghost, that returns

Thanti:
thanatology noun the scientific study of death and the phenomena and practices relating to it

bathypelagic
adjective of, relating to, or inhabiting the lower depths of the ocean between approximately
1000 and 4000 metres

ferrous
adjective of or containing iron in the divalent state; designating an iron(II) compound

stevedore

noun
1 a person employed to load or unload ships
verb
2 to load or unload (a ship, ship's cargo, etc.)


Benthic
benthos
noun
1 the animals and plants living at the bottom of a sea or lake
2 the bottom of a sea or lake

Blebed
bleb
noun
1 a fluid-filled blister on the skin
2 a small air bubble

cilia cilium
noun
cilia
1 of the short threads projecting from the surface of a cell, organism, etc., whose rhythmic beating causes movement of the organism or of the surrounding fluid
2 the technical name for: eyelash

venal
adjective
1 easily bribed or corrupted; mercenaryexample: a venal magistrate
2 characterized by corruptionexample: a venal civilization
3 open to purchase, esp. by briberyexample: a venal contract

ve'nality noun

denature verb [transitive]
1 to change the nature of
2 to change (a protein) by chemical or physical means, such as the action of acid or heat, to cause loss of solubility, biological activity, etc.
3 render (something, such as ethanol) unfit for consumption by adding nauseous substances

corium
1 Also called: derma, dermis the deep inner layer of the skin, beneath the epidermis, containing connective tissue, blood vessels, and fat
2 (Entomol) the leathery basal part of the forewing of hemipterous insects

Inchoate
adjective
1 just beginning; incipient
2 undeveloped; immature; rudimentary

echovirus
noun .any of a group of viruses that can cause symptoms of mild meningitis, the common cold, or infections of the intestinal and respiratory tracts

chitin
noun a polysaccharide that is the principal component of the exoskeletons of arthropods and of the bodies of fungi

preternatural
adjective
1 beyond what is ordinarily found in nature; abnormal
2 another word for: supernatural

vertiginous
adjective
1 of, relating to, or having vertigo
2 producing dizziness
3 whirling

parados
noun a bank behind a trench or other fortification, giving protection from being fired on from the rear

Fugue
noun
1 a musical form consisting essentially of a theme repeated a fifth above or a fourth below the continuing first statement
2 (Psychiatry) a dreamlike altered state of consciousness, lasting from a few hours to several days, during which a person loses his memory for his previous life and often wanders away from home



More soon.Pale.

[Doul]

cheers pale, i wish i had these when i was reading it...

[Mort]

Awesome Pale.

Another positive for Mr Mieville - he expands your vocab with some mind-bending words!

[rockhound]

Someone at TORCON asked Mr Mieville if he read the dictionary "just for fun" in relation to the vocabulary in his texts...

[Nakijo]

@rockhound

Are you trying to tell me that you haven't read the dictionary?

It is a truly worthwhile exercise, particularly if you are a writer.

Of those listed by Pale, the only ones I didn't know were "corium" and "parados"

*shrug*

[rockhound]

I've barely got time to read the Scar presently

[Nakijo]

I know what you mean!

Took me ages to get through the Scar simply because I didn't have time to read it

[rockhound]

I'm getting 10-15 minutes daily, and most of that is Bus-ride time

[Nakijo]

rockhound said:

Someone at TORCON asked Mr Mieville if he read the dictionary "just for fun" in relation to the vocabulary in his texts...

I should have asked before... what was his answer?

[rockhound]

He more or less just said that he had a big vocabumolary (my word, not his ;D )

[Nakijo]

Darn!

Will I never find anyone else who has read the dictionary?

I guess I'm doomed to be the freak in the corner...

;D

[rockhound]

And an introduction to the phylum ctenophora for those wondering about the name of the bathyscaphos:



www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/cnidaria/ctenophora.html

Ctenophores (Greek for "comb-bearers") have eight "comb rows" of fused cilia arranged along the sides of the animal, clearly visible along the red lines in these pictures. These cilia beat synchronously and propel ctenophores through the water. Some species move with a flapping motion of their lobes or undulations of the body. Many ctenophores have two long tentacles, but some lack tentacles completely.
Ctenophores, variously known as comb jellies, sea gooseberries, sea walnuts, or Venus's girdles, are voracious predators. Unlike cnidarians, with which they share several superficial similarities, they lack stinging cells. Instead, in order to capture prey, ctenophores possess sticky cells called colloblasts. In a few species, special cilia in the mouth are used for biting gelatinous prey.

The phylogenetic position of ctenophores has been and still is in dispute. Ctenophores have a pair of anal pores, which have sometimes been interpreted as homologous with the anus of bilaterian animals (worms, humans, snails, fish, etc.). Furthermore, they possess a third tissue layer between the endoderm and ectoderm, another characteristic reminiscent of the Bilateria. However, molecular data has contradicted this view, although only weakly. Therefore, this is an active area of research.

Although most ctenophores swim, one group creeps along the bottom of the seas. Most of these species live on other animals, for instance with echinoderms, sponges, or benthic cnidarians. Many ctenophores, like various other planktonic organisms, are bioluminescent, able to give off light.

Until fairly recently, no fossil ctenophores were known. Like most pelagic cnidarians, the bodies of ctenophores are made up mostly of water, and the chances of leaving a recognizable fossil are very slim. Two species of fossil ctenophore have now been found in the Late Devonian, in the famous Hunsrückscheifer slates of southern Germany (Stanley and Stürmer, 1983, 1987). Both owe their preservation to rapid precipitation of pyrite in the tissues, and both are quite similar to living ctenophores in the order Cydippida (the "sea gooseberries.") Other ctenophore-like forms have been found in the Cambrian-age Burgess Shale of the Canadian Rocky Mountains and Chengjiang Formation of Southern China. These forms differ from living ctenophores in several ways, thus obscuring their phylogenetic affinities.

Little is currently known about the basic biology of most ctenophores; indeed, the individual in these pictures has not even yet been formally described and named, despite being large, spectacularly colored, and common. These photographs were made available to the UCMP by Underwater World, Queensland, Australia.

And since they mention the Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rockies: www.burgess-shale.bc.ca/

[spoon]

Who here would really love Mr Mieville to post a drawing of his "avanc"?
I don't really need one; it's best to let the reader develop their own interpretation of said beast. But, man oh man, how much anticipation I felt everytime the thing was mentioned after the translation from the anophele? account. Descriptions of such a beast are best left to it's effect on the characters: legendary, elusive, behemothic (real word? Who cares?).

[Curufea]

I imagine if you do a search on the internet for "leviathan" you will come up with some pretty interesting images as to what an Avanc may look like.