September 2007

Notable Quotable: William Faulkner

With the new school year upon us, literature students will once again be delving into the novels of American writer William Faulkner, born September 25, 1897. The Pulitzer Prize winner is known for his powerful use of language. He is quoted at more than seven dozen entries in the Unabridged Dictionary, and we've pulled out a few favorites.

Interested in finding words from a favorite author in the dictionary? It's easy. Select either the Unabridged or the Collegiate as a reference source, and click on Advanced Search. Type the last name of the author in the Author field, and click Search.

anywhen adverb, chiefly dialect
"will vote anywhen and anywhere"

chary adjective
"my business experience has taught me to be chary of committing anything of a confidential nature to any more concrete medium than speech"

effluvium noun
"emerging from the barber shop, his jowls gray with powder, moving in an effluvium of pomade"

eternality noun
"but to realize again the eternality, the deathlessness and changelessness of youth"

fatly adverb
"turned fatly and looked at him"

gob noun
"high fat clouds like gobs of whipped cream"

innocent adjective
"glass still innocent of water and soap"

laggard adjective
"her body slender and motionless for a moment as though waiting for some laggard part to catch up"

let noun ("obstruction")
"perennials reseeding themselves without outside meddling help or let"

loblolly noun, dialect ("mudhole")
"made loblollies by treading and treading in one spot"

mash verb, South & Midland
"mashing suddenly on the brake pedal"

mountain noun
"we were in what a Mississippian would call mountains but which New Englanders call hills"

no more adverb
"no more you'll have to, if you don't want"

paintless adjective
"the same weathered color as the paintless church"

patinaed adjective
"a leather snap purse patinaed like old silver"

root-bound adjective
"deep in shaggy untended lawns of old trees and root-bound scented and flowering shrubs"

spit noun
"followed him into the woods about one good spit from the door"

stagger noun
"fling saddle and bridle on the horse and ride . . . into the last stagger of exhaustion"

sweep noun
"a majestic sweep of flesh on either side of a small blunt nose"

swoon noun
"sat in a floating swoon of . . . erotic longing"

throw down verb ("discard, reject")
"her beau's gone and thrown her down"

the top of one's mind noun
"with the top of his mind he listened to them"

verity noun
"the old verities and truths of the heart, the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed — love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice"