Vocabulary

The Chrysalids

Chapter 1Sunday precepts: rules to guide or direct human behavior

Definition of Man: the religious definition of a normally formed human being as David’s society believed it should be

Blasphemy: by the terms of David’s society, a malformed human being

Offence: a malformed animal or vegetable

Germinate: to begin to develop

Cleft: a crack, a split (for example: in wood)

Rote: a set, mechanical way of doing things (ie. Repeating the times tables in math)

Cold-poulticed: a soft, moist mixture of mustard and herbs, spread on a cloth, and applied to a sore or injury.

Chapter 2Nicholson’s Repentances: repentance means a turning away from the path of disobedience to the prescribed method of behavior. This book was obviously a guide to mortality for the people of Waknuk.

mutant: an animal or human that has some basic physical or mental alteration; a freak

deviation: a marked departure from the accepted pattern; in David’s society, mutants are deviations

midden: refuse heap or manure pile

leeward: the side away from the wind; a sheltered place

wattle: framework of twigs interlaced, used for roofs, walls and fences

wraith: a ghost

meticulousness: excessive attention to small details

Chapter 3norm: the standard, or the average; in this case, whatever was considered normal by the teachings of the Waknuk society

Implacable: that which cannot be pacified; relentless, without mercy

Chapter 4helve: the handle of an axe

sub judice: a case that is still before the court, awaiting a ruling, is said to be sub judice

spinney: a small area of brush or undergrowth

ethics: a set of moral principles stating how men must act

attested pedigrees: certified documents signed by witnesses to prove genuine the ancestral line of an animal

rick: a large stack, as of hay

dissemble: pretend

demise: discontinuance or ending of operation

peroration: concluding part of a speech

rectitude: uprightness; goodness, morality

pedant: a person who makes a display of his learning

trenchant: sharp, mentally alert, keen

Chapter 5

No vocabulary

Chapter 6

Abetting a concealment: helping to hide a deviate

Saprophytes: organisms that live off dead matter

Badlands: Waknuk’s name for country that was so affected by Tribulation that it was believed to be unreclaimable, or totally beyond hope of ever supporting life.

Chapter 7 has no vocabulary

Chapter 8

Poker-work texts: the practice of burning sayings or proverbs into wood or leather. These were the signs that hung in David’s home.

Funking: shrinking back because of fear or uncertainty.

Fruition: state of bearing fruit; hence, realization, as in one’s hopes or plans

Chapter 9

Echelon: an arrangement of men in a series of rows, but patterned like steps

Stoking: arranging sheafs of grain into mounds for drying and curing

Chapter 10 has no vocabulary

Chapter 11

Orthodoxy: sound and correct opinion; in this case, correct qualities

Amorphous splodge: shapeless splotch

Retroussé: turned-up

Tribunal: a court of justice; in this case, a court which rules on deviations

Propitious: favorable, promising

Abeyance: a condition of suspended activity

Propreitorial: arising from or showing awareness of ownership

Overt: open; not secret

Chapter 12

Sealand: probably what we know as New Zealand

Spoor: trail or track

Hobble the horses: tie or fasten their legs together loosely so that they can graze, but not run away

Imminent: threatening to occur immediately

Chapter 13

Disemboweled: torn open so the bowels come out

Sententiously: speaking as if one were a judge settling the question

Chapter 14

Symbiosis: a blending into one; close association

Aberrate: to deviate from the normal

Miscegenate: a mixture of types

Homogeneal: of a similar kind or nature

Consensus: agreement in opinion

Chapter 15

Has no vocabulary

Chapter 16

Tableau: sometimes called a living picture; usually, it is a group of people standing transfixed in reaction to some incident

Appliqué: an adornment sewn onto a dress

Treacle: viscous, sticky substance

Chapter 17

Apologia: a defense or justification of the way one conducts his life

Superior variant: a type of series; in this case, a type of human species that is better than others