My Kinsman Major Molineux

1.       approbation (noun):

approval

“After the Kings of Great Britain had assumed the right of appointing the colonial governors, the measures of the latter seldom met with the ready and general approbation which had been paid to those of their predecessors […].”

2.     emanate (verb):

to flow or proceed forth from; to come from

“The people looked with most jealous scrutiny to the exercise of power, which did not emanate from themselves [...].”

3.     reprehension (noun):

the act of scolding or reprimanding someone

“[...] [T]hey usually rewarded the rulers with slender gratitude for the compliances, by which, in softening their instructions from beyond the sea, they had incurred the reprehension of those who gave them.”

4.     conveyance (noun):

a means or process of transportation

“It was near nine o’clock of a moonlight evening, when a boat crossed the ferry with a single passenger, who had obtained his conveyance, at that unusual hour, by the promise of an extra fare.”

5.     incontrovertible (adjective):

indisputable; not capable of being denied

“[...] [H]is stockings of blue yarn, were the incontrovertible handiwork of a mother or a sister [...].”

6.     cudgel (noun):

a type of club used as a weapon

“Under his arm was a heavy cudgel, formed of an oak sapling, and retaining a part of the hardened root [...].”

7.     incommode (verb):

to make uncomfortable; to distress

“[...] [H]is equipment was completed by a wallet, not so abundantly stocked as to incommode the vigorous shoulders on which it hung.”

8.     province-bill (noun):

paper money issued by the governing body of a pre-Revolutionary American colony, or province

9.     sexangular (adjective):

having six angles

10.  parchment (noun):

an early form of paper; here, a form of paper currency

“The youth, one of whose names was Robin, finally drew from his pocket the half of a little province-bill of five shillings, which [...] did but satisfy the ferryman’s demand, with the surplus of a sexangular piece of parchment, valued at three pence.”

11.    whither (adverb)

to what place

“[...] [I]t occurred to him, that he knew not whither to direct his steps [...].”

12.  mean (adjective):

lowly; shabby

“[...] [H]e paused, and looked up and down the narrow street, scrutinizing the small and mean wooden buildings, that were scattered on either side.”

13.  casement (noun):

a type of window or window-frame that is hinged on one side

“‘This low hovel cannot be my kinsman’s dwelling,’ thought he, ‘nor yonder old house, where the moonlight enters at the broken casement [...].’”

14.  periwig (noun):

a type of wig once highly fashionable for both men and women

“As Robin drew nigh, he saw that the passenger was a man in years, with a full periwig of gray hair [...].”

15.  sepulchral (adjective):

gloomy; associated with a tomb

“[...] [A]t regular intervals he uttered two successive hems, of a peculiarly solemn and sepulchral intonation.”

16.  Ramillies wig (noun):

a wig with a long braid in the back tied with a bow

“[...] [O]ne of the barbers, whose razor was descending on a well-soaped chin, and another who was dressing a Ramillies wig, left their occupations, and came to the door.”

17.   countenance (noun):

face; expression on someone’s face

“The citizen, in the meantime, turned a long-favored countenance upon Robin […].”

18.  obtruding (present participle verb)

becoming apparent in an intrusive way

“His two sepulchral hems, however, broke into the very centre of his rebuke, with most singular effect, like a thought of the cold grave obtruding among wrathful passions.”

19.  stocks (noun):

a device used to punish prisoners by holding their head and hands in place for public viewing

“[...] [I]f this be the respect you show for your betters, your feet shall be brought acquainted with the stocks by daylight, tomorrow morning!”

20. verily (adverb):

truly or certainly

“The man is old, or verily—I might be tempted to turn back and smite him on the nose.”

21.  whence (adverb):

from where

“At length, on the corner of a narrow lane, through which he was passing, he beheld the broad countenance of a British hero swinging before the door of an inn, whence proceeded the voices of many guests.”

22. provision (noun):

a supply of something; here, a supply of food

“[...] [T]he youth could not fail to recollect, that the last remnant of his travelling stock of provision had yielded to his morning appetite, and that noon had found, and left him, dinnerless.”

23. victuals (noun):

food

“But the major will make me welcome to the best of his victuals; so I will even step boldly in, and inquire my way to his dwelling.”

24. potation (noun):

a drink; here, a drink containing alcohol

25. taciturn (adjective):

not talkative, reserved

“Others, who had the appearance of men who lived by regular and laborious handicraft, preferred the insulted bliss of an unshared potation, and became more taciturn under its influence.”

26. Good Creature (noun):

alcohol, so-called the “Good Creature of God” by early Americans

27. Fast-day (noun):

a public holiday dedicated to fasting and prayer commonly observed in the American colonies to prevent misfortune and natural disasters

“Nearly all, in short, evinced a predilection for the Good Creature in some of its various shapes, for this is a vice to which, as Fast-day sermons of a hundred years ago will testify, we have a long hereditary claim.”

28. caravansary (noun)

an inn surrounding a courtyard that accommodates traveling caravans

29. Nicotian (adjective):

relating to tobacco

“The only guests to whom Robin’s sympathies inclined him, were two or three sheepish countrymen, who were using the inn somewhat after the fashion of a Turkish caravansary; they had gotten themselves into the darkest corner of the room, and, heedless of the Nicotian atmosphere, were supping on the bread of their own ovens [...].”

30. vale (noun):

valley

“The forehead bulged into a double prominence, with a vale between [...].”

31.  hitherto (adverb):

until this point; until now

“‘The man sees a family likeness! The rogue has guessed that I am related to the Major!’ thought Robin, who had hitherto experienced little superfluous civility.”

32. subscriber (noun):

someone to whom another person is bound to serve by contract for a period of time to pay off debt

33. bounden servant (noun):

someone who is bound by contract to serve another person for a period of time to pay off debt

“Left the house of the subscriber, bounden servant, Hezekiah Mudge—had on, when he went away, gray coat, leather breeches, master’s third best hat.

34. lineaments (plural noun):

distinctive facial features

“[...] [H]e determined to walk slowly and silently up the street, thrusting his face close to that of every elderly gentleman, in search of the Major’s lineaments.”

35. draught (noun):

British spelling of draft; drink

“‘Nay, the Major has been a-bed this hour or more,’ said the lady of the scarlet petticoat; ‘and it would be to little purpose to disturb him tonight, seeing his evening draught was of the strongest.’”

36. Moonshine of Pyramus and Thisbe (proper noun):

from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Moonshine is a character in a performance of a play called “Pyramus and Thisbe”

37. luminary (noun):

a bright celestial body, such as the sun or the moon

“A heavy yawn preceded the appearance of man, who, like the Moonshine of Pyramus and Thisbe, carried a lantern, needlessly aiding his sister luminary in the heavens.”

38. antipathy (noun):

strong dislike

“Nevertheless, the youth felt an instinctive antipathy towards the guardian of midnight order, which at first prevented him from asking his usual question.”

39. physiognomy  (noun):

facial features; the practice of judging character by facial features

“Robin gazed with dismay, and astonishment, on the unprecedented physiognomy of the speaker.”

40. visage (noun):

a person’s face or facial expression

“The effect was as if two individual devils, a fiend of fire and a fiend of darkness, had united themselves to form this infernal visage.”

41.  mouldering (present participle verb):

to slowly decay

42. shroud (noun):

a piece of cloth wrapped around a dead body before burial

“What if the object of his search, which had been so often and so strangely thwarted, were all the time mouldering in his shroud?”

43. supplications (plural noun):

a form of entreaty that conveys the spirit of prayer

“He heard the old thanksgiving for daily mercies, the old supplications for their continuance, to which he had so often listened in weariness, but which were now among his dearest remembrances.”

44. prepossessing (adjective):

attractive or interesting in appearance

“He was himself a gentleman in his prime, of open, intelligent, cheerful, and altogether prepossessing countenance.”

45. antipodes (noun):

something that is the opposite of another thing

“The shouts and laughter, the tuneless bray, the antipodes of music, came onward with increasing din [...].”

46. variegated (adjective):

displaying a variety of different colors, especially in an irregular fashion

“The single horseman, clad in a military dress, and bearing a drawn sword, rode onward as the leader, and, by his fierce and variegated countenance, appeared like war personified [...].”

47. mirth (noun):

amusement accompanied with laughter

“A mass of people, inactive, except as applauding spectators, hemmed the procession in, and several women ran along the side-walk, piercing the confusion of heavier sounds, with their shrill voices of mirth or terror.”

48. reviled (past participle verb)

criticized or condemned in a hostile manner

“Soon, however, a bewildering excitement began to seize upon his mind; [...] the spectre of his kinsman reviled by that great multitude, all this, and, more than all, a perception of tremendous ridicule in the whole scene, affected him with a sort of mental inebriety.”

49. cachinnation (noun):

inappropriately loud or convulsive laughter

“A sharp, dry cachinnation appealed to his memory, and, standing on tiptoe in the crowd, with his white apron over his head, he beheld the courteous little innkeeper.”

50. potentate (noun):

a powerful ruler

“On they went, like fiends that throng in mockery around some dead potentate, mighty no more, but majestic still in his agony.”