Gone With the Wind Vocab, Lesson 1

Lesson 1

This begins some fun, for me, with vocabulary. The words are not necessarily unknown to me, but are less commonly used. When I read Gone With the Wind in early 2008, for the first time, I decided to write down words I wanted to know better.

basque p 5—About Scarlet O’Hara: The dress set off to perfection the seventeen-inch waist, the smallest in three counties, and the tightly fitting basque
—a Victorian-era bustier, a sort of corset

mettlesome p 6—About the Tarleton twins: They were all healthy, thoughtless young animals, sleek, graceful, high-spirited, the boys as mettlesome as the horses they rode, mettlesome and
—spirited, courageous

approbation p 16—Stuart had courted India Wilkes with the approbation of both families and the entire County. The County felt the perhaps the cool and contained India Wilkes would have a quieting effect on him.
—formal approval; sanction

skylark p 20—but regretfully refused to elect them, because the Tarletons to lickered up too quickly and liked to skylark
—from running up and down the rigging on a ship: to frolic, sport

importunate p 28—never so importunate as the younger Fontaine boys, but, still, never the week went by that Ashley did not come calling at Tara
—troublesomely urgent : overly persistent in request or demand

temerity p 32—the temerity to think of Gerald O’Hara as a ridiculous little figure
—suggesting boldness arising from rashness and contempt of danger; audacity

code duello p 47—poker and horse racing, red-hot politics and the code duello, States’ Rights and damnation to all Yankees, slavery, and King Cotton, contempt for white trash and exaggerated courtesy to women.
—rules of dueling

poteen p 49—“Never mix cards and whisky unless you were weaned on Irish poteen,” Gerald told Pork grave the same evening as Pork assisted him to bed.
—illicitly distilled whiskey, typically from potatoes

manumitted p 51—Old Angus had never manumitted a single slave and had committed the unpardonable social breach of selling some of his negroes to passing slave traders
—to release from slavery