Chapter 86 - The Tail — Vocabulary
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale by Herman Melville — key words and definitions
Vocabulary Words from Chapter 86 - The Tail
- crescentic
- Shaped like a crescent or half-moon.
- triune
- Consisting of three parts united in one; threefold.
- tendinous
- Relating to or resembling tendons; sinewy and tough.
- confluent
- Flowing together; merging into one.
- infantileness
- A quality of being infant-like; effortless ease or simplicity.
- Titanism
- Enormous power or strength, referencing the Titans of Greek mythology.
- undulates
- Moves with a smooth, wave-like motion.
- prehensile
- Capable of grasping or seizing, especially by wrapping around an object.
- lobtailing
- The action of a whale repeatedly slapping the water surface with its tail flukes.
- flukes
- The two flat, broad lobes of a whale's tail.
- spiracle
- The blowhole on the top of a whale's head through which it breathes.
- proleptic
- Anticipating future events; relating to the representation of something as existing before it actually does. (Used in literary analysis of this chapter.)
- spasmodically
- In sudden, brief, irregular bursts; convulsively.
- leviathan
- A great sea creature; used throughout Moby-Dick as an alternate name for the whale.
- inscrutable
- Impossible to understand or interpret; mysterious.