new words – brogan and moiling

Another two for the price of one sentence. It’s worth mentioning that all these posts so far have come from within only thirty pages or so of the same book.

Brogan – a coarse work shoe reaching to the ankle.

Moiling – the first definition is requiring hard work, but McCarthy uses the second definition: violently agitated, turbulent.

Moiling recalls roiling or boiling, either of which could have been used. But McCarthy’s style often calls for obscure or archaic words. Here is the sentence from The Orchard Keeper:

“When he came out on the road he turned down to the right, his brogans making small padding sounds in the red dust, his huge knobby-kneed trousers rolling and moiling about him urgently as if invested with a will and purpose of their own.”