The Great Gatsby

Vocabulary

Week 1

Chapter 1

Privy• Adjective• (usually followed by ‘to’)

participating in the knowledge of something secret

“…it came about that in college I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men” (1).

Supercilious

• Adjective• Behaving or looking as if

superior to others“Now he was a sturdy straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner” (7).

Week 2

Chapters 2-4

Vitality

• Noun• Liveliness; energy

(physical/mental); spirit; vigor

“…but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smoldering” (25).

Haughty

• Adjective• Arrogant, snobbish“Throwing a regal homecoming glance around the neighborhood, Mrs. Wilson gathered up her dog and her other purchases, and went haughtily in” (28).

Strident

• Adjective• Loud, harsh, grating, or

shrill“…each time I tried to go I became entangled in some wild, strident argument which pulled me back, as if with ropes, into my chair” (35).

Vehement• Adjective• Strongly passionate or filled

with emotion, often with anger

“As soon as I arrived I made an attempt to find my host, but the two or three people of whom I asked his whereabouts stared at me in such an amazed way, and denied so vehemently any knowledge of his movements…” (42).

Subterfuge• Noun• A plan that hides the true

purpose; deceptive scheme“…I suppose she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young in order to keep that cool, insolent smile turned to the world and yet satisfy the demands of her hard, jaunty body” (58).

Part 3

Chapters 5-6

Scrutinize

• Verb• To examine details with

careful attention“I took him into the pantry, where he looked a little reproachfully at the Finn. Together we scrutinized the twelve lemon cakes from the delicatessen shop” (84).

Nebulous

• Adjective• Hazy, vague, indistinct

Klipspringer is described as wearing trousers of a “nebulous hue” on page 94.

Laudable

• Adjective• Praiseworthy

“This was his [a reporter asking about Gatsby] day off and with laudable initiative he had hurried out ‘to see’” (97).

Ineffable • Adjective• Incapable of being

expressed in words

“A universe of ineffable gaudiness spun itself out in his brain while the clock ticked on the washstand and the moon soaked with wet light his tangled clothes upon the floor” (99).

Double Rainbow!

Robust

• Adjective• Strong and healthy

“The transactions in Montana copper that had made him [Dan Cody] many times a millionaire found him physically robust on the verge of soft-mindedness…” (99).