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What are your favorite words from IJ?
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Author:  M. Psychosis [ Wed Sep 02, 2009 5:55 pm ]
Post subject:  What are your favorite words from IJ?

DFW has a fabulous vocabulary. I started keeping a list of my favorite new words from the novel. Here are a few.

homodont - only having one kind of tooth. I didn't even know this was possible, much less that there was a word for it.

figurant - 1. A member of a corps de ballet who does not perform solos. 2. A stage performer having no speaking part.

pedalferrous - So obscure that it does not appear in any online dictionary, but this is what I could piece together. It is related, I think, to pedalfer which means soil that is characterized by an abundance of aluminum and iron oxides. Pedalfers are common in humid regions and are deposited in the B horizon of ABC soils, through leaching. And a comment I found posted two years ago on Wordie says it is an adjectival form of the noun pedalfer, used within Infinite Jest antonymically in relation to denuded and fallow.

annular - ring-shaped. Knew this word already, but now it is a part of my everyday vocabulary instead of being a strictly special occasion kind of word.

What are your favorites? I wish I had written down more, but since I didn't, I will steal some of yours!

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