May 2007

Notable and Quotable: Katherine Anne Porter

Born in May 1890, Pulitzer Prize winner Katherine Anne Porter wrote about the nature of evil and the darker side of humanity. A master of the short story, her words appear at 18 entries in the Unabridged Dictionary to illustrate words used in context. Here's a sampling.

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derisory adjective
"scornful derisory smiles"

drunken adjective
"when he was drunken, he was vulgar and silly"

faith noun
"she visits the prisoners of her own political faith"

fat adjective
"the unreasonably fat woman with legs like tree trunks"

femme fatale noun
"the glittering eye of a femme fatale in any Hollywood film"

hate verb
"harsh faces and hating eyes"

huddle verb
"a long gray cat huddled watchfully in the window"

insolent adjective
"vile food, vile beyond belief, slapped down before their sunken faces by insolent waiters"

secretive adjective
"his blue eyes were guarded and secretive"

stubborn adjective
"had a stubborn profile, like a willful horse"

wary adjective
"girls like her . . . , wild and lost and lonely, full of distrust, letting him approach with a wary look in their eyes as if they would dash away before he could touch them"

whinny noun
"gave a kind of whinny between hysteria and indignation"


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