David Foster Wallace - Both Flesh and Not: Essays

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Readers familiar with David Foster Wallaces work know that he possessed an insatiable love for words and their meanings. On his computer he constantly updated a list of words that he wanted to learn, culling from numerous sources and writing brief definitions and usage notes. A selection from this vocabulary list appears before each essay of Both Flesh and Not.

It was one of the great thrills of Wallaces life to be invited to serve on the Usage Panel of The American Heritage Dictionary. The definitions in his vocabulary list reprinted here are quoted or paraphrased from that excellent reference work.

abattoirslaughterhouse or slaughterhousish abrogate (adj.)abolished or annulled by authority abscissionact of cutting off plants shedding leaves and stems accoutre (v.)to outfit and equip, especially for military duty aceroseneedlelike, as in pine needles, etc. acetousvin-egary Achatesa loyal friend; faithful companion to Aeneas in The Aeneidadnexal (adj. of adnexa)accessory or adjoining anatomical parts; e.g., ovaries & uterus adumbrate (v.)to give a sketchy outline of; to disclose vaguely or partly; q.v. adumbration adversative (both n. and adj.)word that expresses opposition or antithesis: the adversative con junction but; he put out a string of adversatives adzaxlike carpentry tool aerobeorganism requiring oxygen to live affined (adj.)linked by very close relationship; q.v. affinity affraynoisy quarrel or brawl afterclapunexpected, often unpleasant sequel to a matter that had I been considered closed akimbohands on hips and elbows out alastoravenging deity or spirit albescent (adj.)becoming white or pale aldosteronehormone that regulates salt-v.-water balance of body aldosteronismdisorder that causes weakness, cardiac irregularities, etc. alembicchemists device w/two vessels connected by tube for distilling liquids aliblehaving nutrients, nourishing aliform (adj.)shaped like a wing alpenhornhorn so huge you have to lay the front on the ground; a [huge] pipe that looked like an alpenhorn altricialhelpless, naked, and blind when hatched; altricial birds alveolarpart of the jaw that contains the tooth sockets amalgamalloy of mercury with silver or tin amandinemeans theres almonds in a dish or as garnish for dish: trout amandine amaurosisloss of vision w/o damage to eye; (adj.) amaurotic ambeersaliva w/tobacco juice ambeerspittle colored w/tobacco amentiainsufficient mental development amontilladopale dry sherry from Spain amphoratwo-handled jug w/slender neck used by Greeks and Romans to carry wine and oil anabaticrelating to rising wind currents (speed, or direction upward?) anaclisispsychological dependence on others; anaclitic anchoritereligious hermit androgynean androgynous person anentregarding, concerning, w/r/t anfractuousfull of twists and turns; tortuous anlageaxiom, fundamental principle, foundation for further development annealto strengthen or toughen via heat via process for tempering glass anosmialoss of sense of smell antimacassardoily for head/arms on armchair antipodalsituated on opposite sides of world antipodedirect or diametrical opposite antrorsedirected forward and upward, as in the hairs on certain plants aodaitraditional Vietnamese womans dress: long tunic thats split along sides and worn over loose trousers aperient (adj.)acting as gentle laxative apocarpousflower with two or more distinct pistils, like roses apocryphalof dubious authorship or reliability; fictitious; wildly apocry phal rumors apophasisallusion to something by denying that it will be mentioned: I will not bring up my opponents shady financial history

A LMOST ANYONE WHO LOVES tennis and follows the mens tour on television has, over the last few years, had what might be termed Federer Moments. These are times, watching the young Swiss at play, when the jaw drops and eyes protrude and sounds are made that bring spouses in from other rooms to see if youre OK. The Moments are more intense if youve played enough tennis to understand the impossibility of what you just saw him do. Weve all got our examples. Here is one. Its the finals of the 2005 U.S. Open, Federer serving to Andre Agassi early in the fourth set. Theres a medium-long exchange of groundstrokes, one with the distinctive butterfly shape of todays power-baseline game, Federer and Agassi yanking each other from side to side, each trying to set up the baseline winner until suddenly Agassi hits a hard heavy cross-court back hand that pulls Federer way out wide to his ad (= his left) side, and Federer gets to it but slices the stretch backhand short, a couple feet past the service line, which of course is the sort of thing Agassi dines out on, and as Federers scrambling to reverse and get back to center, Agassis moving in to take the short ball on the rise, and he smacks it hard right back into the same ad corner, trying to wrong-foot Federer, which in fact he doesFederers still near the corner but running toward the centerline, and the balls heading to a point behind him now, where he just was, and theres no time to turn his body around, and Agassis following the shot in to the net at an angle from the backhand side and what Federer now does is somehow instantly reverse thrust and sort of skip backward three or four steps, impossibly fast, to hit a forehand out of his backhand corner, all his weight moving backward, and the forehand is a topspin screamer down the line past Agassi at net, who lunges for it but the balls past him, and it flies straight down the sideline and lands exactly in the deuce corner of Agassis side, a winnerFederers still dancing backward as it lands. And theres that familiar little second of shocked silence from the New York crowd before it erupts, and John McEnroe with his color mans headset on TV says (mostly to himself, it sounds like), How do you hit a winner from that position? And hes right: given Agassis position and world-class quickness, Federer had to send that ball down a two-inch pipe of space in order to pass him, which he did, moving backward, with no setup time and none of his weight behind the shot. It was impossible. It was like something out of The Matrix. I dont know what-all sounds were involved, but my spouse says she hurried in and there was popcorn all over the couch and I was down on one knee and my eyeballs looked like novelty-shop eyeballs.