Mieville, China. Perdido Street Station. New York: Delrey, 2000. 623 p.
Eructation: “The act or an instance of belching.” Seems to mean “eruption,” as well, in its use.
“Slice marks spread like small veins from the main eructations of ugly healing.” (42)
Femto-: A prefix meaning one-quadrillionth (10 x -15). Mieville seems to use it in place of the prefix “micro-,” to create words unique to his fictional world of Bas-Lag (femtoscopes, etc.).
“Representations of forces and lines of power, of femtomorphic resonances and energy fields were beginning to leap into his consciousness.” (44)
Sciolist: “An amateur who engages in an activity without serious intentions and who pretends to have knowledge.”
“‘Be a dilettante, a sciolist, a swindler . . . So long as you return me to the sky, Grimnebulin.’” (45)
Aspis: A Greek word for “viper.” Mieville uses it to describe a small flying carnivorous reptilian creature; he may be drawing on the use of the word to describe a small two-footed dragon in medieval folklore, such as is described here.
Dheri: Another Mieville creature that flies. No luck finding a possible origin word for this one.
“Flying ants and wasps, bees and bluebottles, butterflies and mosquitoes fought airborne war against a thousand predators, aspises and dheri that snapped at them on the wing.” (55)
Gonoph: “A pickpocket or thief.”
Mieville is one of those authors (ah, listen to me generalize there) who liberally tosses archaic, esoteric, and created words into his text — to help create the sense of a different world entirely, I’m guessing. Gene Wolfe’s best at this, that I’ve read, I’d say. Mieville’s not bad, but he repeats himself a bit too often and seems to try a little too hard — and I’m getting the sense that often, his odd words are only synonyms for words used in the same sentence.
“Gonophs and cutpurses slipped predatory through the crowds like fish through weeds.” (72)
Teratology: “The biological study of birth defects.” In older use, it can also mean the study of any natural wonders, miraculous creations, strange beings, biological mutations and deformities — “freaks of nature,” both biological and otherwise, it seems like. An essay on the evolution of the word and study can be found here.
OMG, best word ever! There is a word for this! I always think the oddities that the human body is capable of manifesting — and surviving — are astonishing. Now I have a word for the study of such things. Hoopla.
“Not interested in this. Teratology more your thing. Meet you at the entrance in two hours?” (74) — the characters are discussing a carnival freak show.
Punter: The OED offers a variety of slang definitions of this word, several of which match Mieville’s uses. These include”The victim of a swindler or confidence trickster,” ” A customer, a client; (sometimes) spec. a prostitute’s client,” “A spectator, a member of an audience,” and “Simply: a person. Sometimes depreciative.” The last is apparently a primarily Scottish usage.
“At some tents they were stopped by attendants, who waited until a sufficient number had congregated before unveiling their hidden pieces. At others the punters walked right in, and shouts of delight and shock and disgust would emanate from within the grubby canvas.” (77)
Comprador: “1. An intermediary; a go-between. 2. A native-born agent in China and certain other Asian countries formerly employed by a foreign business to serve as a collaborator or intermediary in commercial transactions.”
Mieville seems to be using the word to imply a sellout to one’s own people.
“The Fat Sun and Three Quills parties; Diverse Tendency, whom Lin called ‘comprador scum’; the liars and seducers of the Finally We Can See party; the whole pompous bickering brood like all-powerful six-year-olds in a sandpit.” (82)
Peristaltic: “Applied to the peculiar wormlike wave motion of the intestines and other similar structures, produced by the successive contraction of the muscular fibers of their walls, forcing their contents onwards.”
“Oblivious to their journey, the grubs circumscribed their little prison with peristaltic motion.” (89)
Oleaginous: “1. Of or relating to oil. 2. Falsely or smugly earnest; unctuous.”
“Something swirled oleaginously through a huge vat of liquid mud; she saw toothy tentacles slapping at her and scouring the tank.” (90)
Grot: According to the OED, “A fragment, particle, atom.”
“The translucent colours spilt in uneven grots down the white that glinted like the inside of a shell.” (99)
Spiv: “Chiefly British Slang 1. One, usually unemployed, who lives by one’s wits. 2. One who shirks work or responsibility; a slacker.”
Wide-boy: According to the OED, “one who lives by his wits, often dishonestly; one who engages in petty-criminal activities” — “spiv” is a synonym.
“If he flashed money on the spot, he could seem like a spiv or a wide-boy.” (133)
Nous: “1. Philosophy a. Reason and knowledge as opposed to sense perception. b. The rational part of the individual human soul. c. The principle of the cosmic mind or soul responsible for the rational order of the cosmos. d. In Stoicism, the equivalent of Logos. e. In Neo-Platonism, the image of the absolute good, containing the cosmos of intelligible beings. 2. Chiefly British Good sense; shrewdness.”
“‘That is possible, but you employ me for my scientific nous, and I’m telling you that it’s my professional opinion that that won’t happen.’” (142)
Sortilege: “1. The act or practice of foretelling the future by drawing lots. 2. Sorcery; witchcraft.”
“‘Do you have powerful sortilege in the Cymek?’” (143)
Bathetic: “Characterized by bathos,” “sentimental,” with “bathos” being “1. a. An abrupt, unintended transition in style from the exalted to the commonplace, producing a ludicrous effect. b. An anticlimax. 2. a. Insincere or grossly sentimental pathos. b. Banality; triteness.”
“Isaac burst into laughter at the bathetic demand.” (148)
Contumely: “1. Rudeness or contempt arising from arrogance; insolence. 2. An insolent or arrogant remark or act.”
“‘Yeah, well, you thought wrong, didn’t you, old son? You’re nothing but a fucking dreg, and I . . .’ Isaac broke off from his contumely and stared in astonishment.” (151)
Zoetrope: “An optical toy, in which figures made to revolve on the inside of a cylinder, and viewed through slits in its circumference, appear like a single figure passing through a series of natural motions as if animated or mechanically moved.”
“This was no zoetrope with an endlessly repeated little visual anecdote: this was a juddering bombardment of infinitely varied moments.” (158)
Oneiric: “Of, relating to, or suggestive of dreams.”
Argot: “A specialized vocabulary or set of idioms used by a particular group” — I’ve looked this one up before, I think. Maybe I’ll remember it this time.
“Others seemed references: oneiric nods to solid places, cities and towns and villages as real as New Crobuzon, with architecture and argots that Isaac had not seen or heard.” (159)
Chary: “1. Very cautious; wary. 2. Not giving or expending freely; sparing.”
“He stumbled slowly, nervously across the room, seeming to hang back, chary of seeing what he was seeing.” (161-162)
Pusillanimous: “Lacking courage; cowardly.”
“He did, however, wave behind him in a pusillanimous motion that he could convince himself was contemptuous, but could just about pass for gratitude and farewell.” (169)
Chthonic: “Of or relating to the underworld.”
“This was not a city ruled by witches; this was not a chthonic burrow; the season’s changes did not bring an onslaught of superstitious repression; New Crobuzon did not process its citizenry through zombie factories; its Parliament was not like Maru’ahm’s, a casino where laws were stakes in games of roulette.” (178)
Autopoiesis: According to BusinessDictionary.com, “A theory that living systems are ’self producing’ mechanisms which maintain their particular form despite material inflow and outflow, through self-regulation and self-reference. Proposed by Chilean scientists Humberto Maturana (1928-) and Francisco Varela (1946-2001) in late 1960s or early 1970s, it combines the concepts of homeostasis and systems thinking.” The word literally means “self-creation.”
“Isaac spent many hours watching the chrysalis, but he could only imagine the struggle of autopoiesis within.” (213)
Deracinate:“1. To pull out by the roots; uproot. 2. To displace from one’s native or accustomed environment.”
“Yagharek was a deracinated outsider in New Crobuzon.” (214)
Abseil: “To rappel.”
“A militia squad abseiled through the hot air into the streets of Dog Fenn.” (261)
Desquamate: “To shed, peel, or come off in scales. Used of skin.”
“Paint and plaster bubbled, desquamating grotesquely, as the massive houses became homes for more and more of New Crobuzon’s swelling population.” (272)
Etiolate: “1. Botany To cause (a plant) to develop without chlorophyll by preventing exposure to sunlight. 2. a. To cause to appear pale and sickly. b. To make weak by stunting the growth or development of. 3. v.intr. Botany To become blanched or whitened, as when grown without sunlight.”
“The atmosphere in the room seemed monochrome, or disturbed in some way, the light etiolated and cowed.” (285)
Cushty: According to the OED, “British slang. Good, wonderful; fine; brilliant. Freq. as a general term of approval or agreement. Also as adv.”
“‘Don’t you worry about me, mate. I’ll be cushty.’” (368)
Rambustious: “Uncontrollably exuberant; unruly.”
“She was a brilliant linguist, who had become bored with what she had called Isaac’s ‘rambustiousness,’ and had broken his heart.” (380)
Sastrugi: Plural of “sastruga,” “A long wavelike ridge of snow, formed by the wind and found on the polar plain.”
Mieville uses it here for sand, it seems.
“Yagharek saw cactacae with big rakes and wooden paddles carefully sculpting the sastrugi that mimicked the rippling dunes made by the wind.” (453)
Curboille: No idea. This word does not appear to exist on the Web, though the word “curboilli” looks like it’s used to describe a type of armor in high-fantasy roleplaying games.
“It was a burnished brown, layers of stiff carboille, wax-boiled leather engraved with spiral designs.” (430)
Catoblepas: According to Wiki, “a legendary creature from Ethiopia, described first by Pliny the Elder and later by Claudius Aelianus. It is said to have the body of a buffalo and the head of a hog. Its back has scales that protect the beast, and its head is always pointing downwards. Its stare or breath could either turn people into stone, or kill them.”
“‘This belt?’ He tapped it nonchalantly. ‘Catoblepas hide. Killed it in the outskirts of Tesh. Didn’t look at that, neither, or I’d be dead.’” (431)
Striae: Plural of “stria,” “1. A thin, narrow groove or channel. 2. A thin line or band, especially one of several that are parallel or close together.”
“In the striae of dirty air above the city’s core, the slake-moths danced.” (435)
Caliginous: “Dark, misty, and gloomy.”
“The shadows that clung to him extended perhaps an inch from his skin, discolouring the air that surrounded him like a caliginous halo.” (472)
Glabrous: “Having no hairs, projections, or pubescence; smooth.”
Mieville seems to be using it to mean “slick” or “slimy.”
“His foot slithered with the glabrous mess.” (485)
Viscid: “1. Thick and adhesive. Used of a fluid. 2. Covered with a sticky or clammy coating.”
“The slake-moth ran its hands through the viscid scum that had been its eggs.” (485)
Dosser: “Slang. Someone who sleeps in any convenient place.”
“He might stare at them and clock their faces, or report to his superiors at Sly or Spit Bazaar Stations, or at Perdido Street Station itself, that three stupid dossers had blundered their way onto the rails and were heading for disaster.” (520)
Opprobrium: “1. Disgrace arising from exceedingly shameful conduct; ignominy. 2. Scornful reproach or contempt: a term of opprobrium. 3. A cause of shame or disgrace.”
“They could not let the opprobrium grow and become confrontation.” (521)
Skew-whiff: According to the OED, “Askew, awry.”
“He sat with his back against the wall, shaking quietly, his smooth faceplate skewwhiff and falling from his head.” (577)
