Genesis Lit Circle

Lexicographer

Copulation: -noun
1) sexual intercourse.
2) a joining together or coupling.

Narrator:
“… poisonous frogs war-painted like skeletons, clutched in copulation,secreting their precious eggs onto dripping leaves” (5).

Contingency: -noun
1)dependence on chance or on the fulfillment of a condition; uncertainty; fortuitousness.
2)a contingent event; a chance, accident, or possibility conditional on something uncertain.
3)something incidental to a thing.

Leah:
“Mother tried to think of every contingency, including hunger and illness” (14).

Bougainvillea: -noun
1) any of several shrubs or vines of the genus Bougainvillea, native to South America, having small flowers with showy, variously colored bracts, and often cultivated in warm regions.

Adah:
“… billowy clouds of scarlet bougainvillea” (32).

Consorting: -verb
1)To keep company; associate.
2)To be in accord or agreement.

Leah:
“Father explained to us that he had gone plumb crazy, consorting with the inhabitants of the land” (38).

hyssop: -noun
1) any of several aromatic herbs belonging to the genus Hyssopus, of the mint family, esp. H. officinalis, native to Europe, having clusters of small blue flowers.
2) An unidentified plant mentioned in the Bible as the source of twigs used for sprinkling in certain Hebraic purificatory rites.

Adah:
“…purge me with hyssop” (56). / “Likely she would run through the fields dressed in sackcloth, hunting hyssop amongst the wild bulls” (56).

Nonchalant: -adjective
1) coolly unconcerned, indifferent, or unexcited; casual.

Adah:
“Leah, on account of her nonchalant dazzling scores on reading comprehension tests, and myself by association, as I am presumed to have the same brain insofar as the intact parts go” (56)

Putative: -adjective
1) thought, assumed, or alleged to be such or to exist.

Adah:
“We listened vaguely to Our Father’s tale of the putative Mercedes truck” (74).



Bemused: -adjective
1) bewildered or confused.
2) lost in thought; preoccupied.

Adah:
“‘That road,’ said our mother, bemused, gesturing with a lazy bent wrist out the window” (74).

disconsolate: -adjective
1) without consolation or solace; hopelessly unhappy; inconsolable.
2) characterized by or causing dejection; cheerless; gloomy.
Synonyms: heartbroken, dejected.
Adah:
“She [Leah] sat ramrod straight as if she were on television, going
for the sixty-four dollar question.
‘No,’ he said. ‘Each one wouldn’t last but two or three miles.’
‘Oh.’ Leach was disconsolate” (75).