Miévillians discussion
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Glossary of unusual words to be found in CM's writings
More fulgurites: 
What they look like before they're "harvested" :
Palustrine: from Latin palus — marshWhich rather makes a palustrine wetland redundant.
Now I have to see if I can find the discussion I had with a PSS reader who complained about all the words he made up, and I found sources for her whole list.
vodyanoi: from Slavic mythology, "Vodyanoy is said to appear as a naked old man with a greenish beard and long hair, with his body covered in algae and muck, usually covered in black fish scales. He has webbed paws instead of hands, a fish's tail, eyes that burn like red-hot coals. He usually rides along his river on a half-sunk log, making loud splashes." (Wikipedia)
Khepri: "is a god in ancient Egyptian religion….he is [sometimes] represented as a human male with a scarab as a head."(Wikipedia)
Garuda: "a large mythical bird or bird-like creature that appears in both Hindu and Buddhist mythology." (Wikipedia)
Stevedore: one who loads or unloads ships in port; a dockworker. This led me to the verb "to steeve", meaning to tightly pack cargo, particularly in a ship's hold. I'll have to use that one in everyday conversation...
I can't believe these two are still up for grabs!Puissant – not especially obscure, but overused in “The Scar” to a distracting degree:
Possessed of or wielding power; having great authority or influence; mighty, potent, powerful.
(I've noticed he uses "cleave" and "cleavage" a lot too, but I really don't think that's obscure.)
Palimpsest – everyone’s favourite of Mieville’s favourite words?
1. Paper, parchment, or other writing material designed to be reusable after any writing on it has been erased.
2. A parchment or other writing surface on which the original text has been effaced or partially erased, and then overwritten by another; a manuscript in which later writing has been superimposed on earlier (effaced) writing.
hmm. There was another palimpsest meaning that applied in Railsea.Ah: "something having usually diverse layers or aspects"
Cecily wrote: "I can't believe these two are still up for grabs!Puissant – not especially obscure, but overused in “The Scar” to a distracting degree:
Possessed of or wielding power; having great authority or i..."
We left those especially for you, bc we just knew you'd enjoy letting off steam about them, Cecily! After all, I've already flogged poor old CM for puissant; I've had my catharsis. :D
Derek wrote: "vodyanoi: from Slavic mythology, "Vodyanoy is said to appear as a naked old man with a greenish beard and long hair, with his body covered in algae and muck, usually covered in black fish scales. H..."
Heh, your post with pics made me realize I must have used exclusively Wikipedia pics for my review! I think CM likes to take bits of existing culture and bend them a bit to his will...
Yeah, I think CM likes to extend the meaning of palimpsest to anything layered. :P ...but that is sort of implied in Cecily's post, implied by "superimposed", I'd say.
He did make up chymical and elyctrical though. Or shall we say changed the original words a la Neal Stephenson.
Ah, hah! Here's the list that my friend (who shall be kept nameless) complained about. It's no wonder I couldn't find it in Perdido Street Station—it was actually discussion of my review of The Human Blend, where I complained that unlike CM, Alan Dean Foster just makes up words."karcist, shambolic, shazbah, dreamshit, very-tea, garuda, xenian, handlingers, femtomorphic, aspises, dheri, wyrman, mechanicity, sentientomorphism, xenothropological, mafadet, drud, femtoscopes, fizzbolt, ructions, bathetic, posset, ersatz, chivvied, bonces"
And my response (at the time - I've learned some of the suspect ones since, as seen above):
"OK, I don't think it's fair to complain about made-up words for made-up species - so that covers, at least, dheri, garuda, handlinger, aspis, mafadet, drud, and wyrman. Similarly, shazbah, dreamshit, very-tea (and that one's a very clever pun) and fizzbolt (I think - could be wrong about that one) are all street names for new drugs.
"xenian, xenothropological, sentientomorphism and femtomorphic are all words built on the best of principals from latin or greek roots that are all used in exactly the same way as existing English words. So yes, he's made them up, but he's made them up in completely proper and believable ways. 'Xeno-', in greek is usually "foreign", but also "alien". So 'xenian' is exactly 'alien', and xenothropology is precisely the word that will be used when we do start studying creatures from other worlds.
"Shambolic is certainly new (m-w.com says 1970), but not created by Miéville.
"Ruction (disturbance), bathetic (from bathos, exactly like pathos/pathetic), posset (a drink), chivvied (chased - and apparently from 'Chevy Chase' - the place, not the actor), bonce (very common English slang for 'head') and ersatz (German - artificial) should all be in your dictionary (they are in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary). And mechanicity might not appear directly in a dictionary but clearly derives from 'mechanism'. I found one online definition ('"mechanicity": Inborn pattern of behavior often responsive to specific stimuli.'), but no source for that. I'd say, too, that not every word that doesn't appear in any dictionary is necessarily made up. If 'elasticity' is the property of being elastic; then 'mechanicity' should be the property of being mechanical (and you really don't want me to start into the relationship between '-ic' and '-ical'!)
"So, really, all I'm prepared to concede is "karcist", which I still can't figure out."
Wyrm : The word for dragon in Germanic mythology and its descendants is worm (Old English: wyrm, Old High German: wurm, Old Norse: ormr), meaning snake or serpent. In Old English wyrm means "serpent", draca means "dragon".(Wikipedia)
On fully rereading that review, it's worth referencing here, because it's far more about Miéville's use of words than Foster's book! (review)
Traveller wrote: "He did make up chymical and elyctrical though. "I deny it! At least in the case of "chymical". He might be responsible for extending that archaism to "elyctrical", but I'm sure I can find prior reference to "chymical".
Derek wrote: "Ah, hah! Here's the list that my friend (who shall be kept nameless) complained about. It's no wonder I couldn't find it in Perdido Street Station—it was actually discussion of my review of The Hum..."Glad you're enjoying yourself!
Gee, ruction, bathetic and erzats have been part of my core vocab ever since I can remember... but like I said, different people have different core vocabs, so what might be a relatively esoteric/(or conversely, everyday) term for me, might not be for the next person.
I do suspect that people who accuse CM of making up words are a bit shy to use Google...
Like you said in your previous post, of course garuda is not entirely made up, though CM does adapt the original mythical creatures like garuda, vodyanoi and khepri to creatures specific to his own worlds. Very much like the remade.
The latter is of course, a made-up term for something very specific to Bas-lag, and even more interesting, the term : fReemade. Ha, CM loves playing with language, imagery/metaphor and semiotics.
Ersatz is a word I've been familar with for many, many years, but I can understand why someone would think it made up if used as a noun. As for ruction, I'd not come across it before, but its meaning is actually quite intuitive. I agree that one accusing Miéville of making stuff up is probably being lazy; he's just obscure, and that evident to anyone who cares to do a minute's research.
Karst topography is a geological formation shaped by the dissolution of a layer or layers of soluble bedrock, usually carbonate rock such as limestone or dolomite, but also in gypsum. It has also been documented for weathering-resistant rocks, such as quartzite, given the right conditions. (Wikipedia)
Godspit Whaddayaknow... apparently there is such a thing... http://www.reverbnation.com/godspitband
;)
Traveller wrote: "...I do suspect that people who accuse CM of making up words are a bit shy to use Google..."Ha ha. Very true.
Karcist: This one is quite fascinating, but anyway, it seems to indicate some sort of sorcerer or diviner. I found a reference to it in a 'black magic' book, that I am unable to copy and paste from, in which it seems to be some kind of intermediary with the spirit world, but also, from another source: Sword and sorcery author Lin Carter routinely used the term "karcist," used in the Grand Grimoire, as a synonym for "magician", "sorcerer" in several of his works. In Thongor in the City of Magicians he uses it to indicate a mage requested to serve as "controller" of a magic ritual enacted by a cabal of his colleagues.
I also found:
"Aspidomancy: A little known form of divination practised in the Indies, as we are told by some travellers. Delancre says that the diviner or sorcerer (also called a Karcist)traces a circle, takes up his position therein seated on a buckler, and mutters certain conjurations. He becomes entranced and falls into an ecstasy, from which he only emerges to tell things that his client wishes to know, and which the devils has revealed to him." -- L. Spence Encyc. Occult, 1920
"Sitting on a shield, within the magic circle, and pronouncing conjurations, the karcist falls into a trance during which he makes mantic revelations. This is aspidomancy." -- H.E. Wedeck Treasury of Witchcraft xii, 1961
...and from another source, it seems to be some kind of priest:
There, with the right arm bared to the shoulder, having armed himself with a blade of fine steel, and having kindled a fire of white wood, the Karcist shall recite the following words in a hopeful and animated manner:--
INITIAL OFFERING
I immolate this victim to Thee., O grand ADONAY, ELOIM, ARIEL and JEHOVAM, to the honour, glory and Power of Thy Name, which is superior to all Spirits. O grand ADONAY I Vouchsafe to receive it as an acceptable offering. Amen.
Here he must cut the throat of the kid, skin it, set the body on the fire and reduce it to ashes, which must be collected and cast towards the rising of the sun,
..and then I also found this: http://karcistschronicle.blogspot.com/
Weird, man, weird.
So now, Derek, I am itching to know in which sense CM used it. You say it's sitting somewhere in PSS?
EDIT: Okay, I found it: in around location 400: In these and all the other architectural crevices, the Brock Marsh dwellers pursued their trades: physicists; chimerists; biophilosophers and teratologists; chymists; necrochymists; mathematicians; karcists and metallurgists and vodyanoi shaman; and those, like Isaac, whose research did not fit neatly into any of the innumerable categories of theory.
and also: they walked, “this is Brother Sanchem Vansetty, one of our most able karcists.” Rescue and Stem-Fulcher nodded greetings.
The karcist was Vansetty, the guy who helped them get in contact with the devil, so.. quite fitting use of the word, I'd say... :D
That's fantastic! Nice research.Of course, it leaves me with so many more questions, like "is aspidomancy somehow related to aspis?" I can't see how, but it seems unlikely to be coincidence.
Ha ha, Derek, what a treat you are! You should have been a linguist, you know that?
Well, not a linguist—I've never had much talent for other languages. A philologist, maybe. That's all about written language.
Here's one I came across:Phlogiston: an obsolete theoretical fire-like element released during combustion; material fire.
In context it's perhaps a byword for napalm or similar substance. Then again, maybe not...
Ok, here's one, a verb, adumbrate1. to produce a faint image or resemblance of; to outline or sketch
2. to foreshadow; prefigure.
3. to darken or conceal partially; overshadow
It comes from The Scar in the voice of Tanner as he is swimming around fairly early in the book:
What manner of things were those shadows he sometimes glimpsed, behind the tightly tethered guard sharks, unclear through what must be adumbrating glamours? (p. 111).
Traveller wrote: "Like you said in your previous post, of course garuda is not entirely made up, though CM does adapt the original mythical creatures like garuda, vodyanoi and khepri to creatures specific to his own worlds. Very much like the remade. "I was struck by that picture of the Garuda — the wikipedia description actually focused on much more bird-like creatures, while the picture was probably less bird-like than the ones in PSS.
Backing up a bit, and going off on a tangent that really belongs in the PSS discussion I've often wondered if the other species are in fact "remade", from a much earlier era. There are many hints in PSS that their technology — both magical and scientific — was much more advanced once.
I had wondered that too, Derek. What happened? I would love a prequel.
Ruth wrote: "Ok, here's one, a verb, adumbrate1. to produce a faint image or resemblance of; to outline or sketch
2. to foreshadow; prefigure.
3. to darken or conceal partially; overshadow
It comes from The S..."
Now, this is interesting to me. I'm very glad you mentioned this word, Ruth, because I actually thought I knew the word, but obviously not really. I had come into contact with the word previously, in the context of negative or less desirable parts of a text being obscured, as in "an adumbrated text" which would mean, for instance, the sanitized way in which fairy-tales are presented by Disney.
Funny how we sometimes think we know a word and then you find out you didn't at all!
This is one of the reasons why I love interacting on this site. I learn something new every day. :)
Re the idea that the "other" races of Bas-lag might be remades too-that's an interesting thought, one that suggests they were genetically engineered, though? Quite similar to what Gene Wolfe does in his "New Sun" universe.
That's what I love so much about Miéville's use of language. The "adumbrated text" is the first meaning, above, and CM's "adumbrating glamours" would be primarily the last, and maybe the first. But "What manner of things … he sometimes glimpsed" also implies meaning #2: it's what I said in the review I reference—he delights in using odd words in a way that reflects all of their possible meanings.
Derek wrote: "That's what I love so much about Miéville's use of language. The "adumbrated text" is the first meaning, above, and CM's "adumbrating glamours" would be primarily the last, and maybe the first. But..."Yeah, exactly! That's why I put all three def's, I couldn't decide which one fit the best.
I just saw this article (http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2013... the picture, even though it is a fish not a frog,said vodyanoi to me.
Ruth wrote: "I just saw this article (http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2013... the picture, even though it is a fish not a frog, said vodyanoi to me...."LOL, what a hoot!~ you're right! That looks just like a real-life version of a vodyanoi... that's priceless, the article as well. XD
Notes from the Railsea discussion:parvenu predators: parvenu is not particularly uncommon, at least as CM's vocabulary goes, but talking about "parvenu" predators was the first clue that these were really alien, and not natural. Here he uses parvenu literally ("newcomer"), but also there's something of the idiomatic sense "a person from usually a low social position who has recently or suddenly become wealthy, powerful, or successful but who is not accepted by other wealthy, powerful, and successful people".
Moldywarpe: (thanks to Allen, who I'm sure will be along…) “"mole" is from the Middle English molle which in turn is related to another Middle English word, mold-warpe, which means "earth-thrower." So, Chaucer meets Mieville :)”
Plastozoic: Well, he must have made this one up—but it's pretty obviously "the plastic age".
Philosophy: Here, CM has rather abused a simple word. Philosophy could be described as a search for the abstract, but Railsea's philosophies are very concrete… while somehow still embodying the abstract.
My first few from Iron Council:batholith: a great mass of intruded igneous rock
peneplain: a land surface of considerable area and slight relief shaped by erosion
corrie: a "cirque", which in turn is defined as "a deep steep-walled basin on a mountain usually forming the blunt end of a valley".
tenebrae: "a church service commemorating the suffering and death of Christ." I'm guessing this is being extended to mean any memorial service.
hotchi: hotch means "wiggle, fidget, swarm". Has he just made an adjective of hotch?
and that's just to the third paragraph of chapter 1!
I knew it, I just knew it! (plastozoic) :)Here's a few from The Scar and Kraken:
alterity: the state or quality of being other; a being otherwise; otherness.
Gathering and hunting, little pockets of alterity, too, but most of all in the level Billy had come to live in a tilework of fiefdoms, theocratic duchies, zones and spheres of influences, over each of which some local despot, some criminal pope, sat watch.
antiphase: describing a boundary between an ordered phase and a disordered or random phase.
...though they shared the days and nights that grew long and short in antiphase.
arcanum: 1. a secret, mystery; 2. a secret and powerful remedy.
Their leader moved his hands in brute arcana till the iron became flaccid again, and they squeezed through.
:) He had a hard choice to make about "plastozoic". "-zoic" is the normal suffix indicating a geological age, and "plastic" is certainly the overriding characteristic of our current civilization, but there was no such word, or substance, when the -zoic suffix came into use.I believe the use of antiphase, here, is "A difference in phase (of two waves) of 180°". Nights grow longer as days grow shorter.
Well spotted with the plastozoic. Alterity is a word that one finds a lot in philosophy, sociology and psychology, to indicate "otherness" in social strata--also otherness in gender studies.
If you played computer role-playing or adventure games, you would have dealt with a lot of arcana (that which is known or understood by very few; mysterious; secret; obscure; esoteric: ) by now. Game developers seem particularly fond of the arcane. :D There is even a game with the title Arcanum.
And now you all know that my level of computer game playing is today's equivalent of Frogger. :)
Yep, and now you know my past hobby and still at times secretly indulged in little pleasure. :PBtw, CM is quite into video games, and I do sometimes spot some of that in his novels.
There is also a dinky (but fun!) SNES game by the title of Arcana. ;)Chine: In context, a geographical ridge or crest, but also used to refer to a backbone or a cut of meat which contains same.
One that hit me today was:col: "a saddle" (I'm pretty sure only in a topological sense — it's part of a mountain formation). China used "through a col", but I've always thought you go "over" a col. But I guess it works both ways.
Ruth wrote: "Here's a few from The Scar and Kraken:alterity: the state or quality of being other; a being otherwise; otherness...."
Alterity is also fundamental to the plot of The City & The City, along with related coinages: grosstopically (view spoiler)
topolganger (view spoiler)
insile Sort of the opposite of exiles
Derek wrote: "One that hit me today was:col: "a saddle" (I'm pretty sure only in a topological sense — it's part of a mountain formation). China used "through a col", but I've always thought you go "over" a ..."
Derek, I was under the impression a col (and a saddle) was akin toa pass: a depression, hence something one travels through between peaks rather than over as a hill.
mirific: working wondersGlucliche: The closest thing I have found is the German word "glückliche" (fortunate), which I have seen spelled as "glucliche", but it doesn't seem to apply to half-hyaena/half-bat creatures….
sussurator: from sussuration (a whispering sound, murmur)
hoboy: I loved this one. It's Shakespeare's haut-bois: an oboe. Making duck sounds.
cod-childish: Pseudo-childish? The best I can come up with is a similarity to "cod-philosophy", which wikipedia once defined, then merged with "pseudophilosophy", and eventually removed any definition of cod-philosophy! Apparently it once said "Cod philosophy, sometimes cod-philosophy, is a term for the personal philosophy of the masses, or the philosophical musings of one who has not formally studied philosophy. The word "cod" comes from first syllable of "codswallop", and so the term carries with it a negative connotation." However, the history page says that the codswallop derivation was false….
J. wrote: "Derek, I was under the impression a col (and a saddle) was akin to a pass: a depression, hence something one travels through between peaks rather than over as a hill. "It is—but do you not go "over" a pass? It's a matter of perspective.
I was about to argue with you most derisively on that score, derek, but these statistics have given me pause:http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?...
Not exactly exhaustive, but still telling.
I'm laughing here over your col argument; a word which I myself have never heard of before. I would suggest that if you go from one side of a pass to the other, you will be going over it, but if you went down or up horizontally to its sides, you'd be going through it? Just a fun observation here from the peanut gallery.I loved being reminded of those The City & The City terms, Cecily! Those are wonderful, aren't they? I'll bet if we re-read Embassytown we'd find similarly wonderful ones-- have we mentioned the immer yet? Immer in German means "always".
I'm wishing we'd started this thread earlier.
Yes, Gluckliche in German means happy or lucky or fortunate. Maybe it's the heyna's laughing that he is referring to here?
Derek, I love hoboy, which I seem to have missed when it came up, hohboy...
J. wrote: "I was about to argue with you most derisively on that score, derek, but these statistics have given me pause:http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?......"
Even the fact that you can find that sort of thing on the 'net gives me pause! I think I've found my new favorite toy! Very sporting of you to only go to 2000, though — 2000-2008 diverges again!
Strange though, that you didn't test the actual phrase from the book: the results are opposite: http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?...
What a wonderful thing you have shown us, J! A Ngram I love it!
Does it! Fascinating!Traveller, it's interesting what a different perspective will bring. I'd assumed Immer derived from immersion, as ships do not so much travel through the Immer as they are subsumed by it: the effects are felt within the interior of the ship despite the closed environment.
I suspect, given the meaning, that you're likely right, though.
Actually, (having once been a student of German) I was not completely convinced by the 'immer' argument. Taking it from immersion makes much more sense to me.
J. wrote: "Does it! Fascinating!Traveller, it's interesting what a different perspective will bring. I'd assumed Immer derived from immersion, as ships do not so much travel through the Immer as they are s..."
The reason why I'd assumed the German immer, although your explanation also makes sense, J., is because CM used another German phrase for another part of space, the manchmal. Manchmal means "sometimes" and "immer" means always. Geddit?
I actually think that CM was making a very clever double entendre there in the sense of that he used "immer" also in the sense of English "immerse", hence Avice is an "immerser". Man, I love that man's mind.
Miévillians
Books mentioned in this topic
Railsea (other topics)Railsea (other topics)
Iron Council (other topics)
Perdido Street Station (other topics)
The Human Blend (other topics)
So the idea of this thread is for members to use as a communal glossary to keep track of words we went to the trouble of looking up.
Please use and contribute to the thread as you feel fit, Mièvillians. :)
Pocosin is a term for a type of palustrine wetland with deep, acidic, sandy, peat soils. (*cough cough* I don't even know what 'palustrine' means, but nevermind... ) apparently this is what pocosin country looks like:
Spicate: arranged in the form of a spike
Marram grass:
Fulgurites:
Fulgurites (from the Latin fulgur meaning thunderbolt) are a variety of the mineraloid lechatelierite. They are natural hollow glass tubes formed in quartzose sand, silica, or soil by lightning strikes. They are formed when lightning with a temperature of at least 1,800 °C (3,270 °F) instantaneously melts silica on a conductive surface and fuses grains together; the fulgurite tube is the cooled product. This process occurs over a period of around one second, and leaves evidence of the lightning path and its dispersion over the surface.They are sometimes referred to as petrified lightning. (per Wikipedia)
Fulgurites: