"Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," Vocabulary from the short story

As you read Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" (etext found here), learn this word list for the short story. Here are links to our lists for texts by Hawthorne: Dr. Heidegger's Experiment, The Scarlet Letter
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. venerable
    impressive by reason of age
    That very singular man, old Dr. Heidegger, once invited four venerable friends to meet him in his study.
    "Venerable" also means "profoundly honored"--this definition might have fit the four friends at some points in their lives, but as the following descriptions show, all have lost respect through their own actions. From Dr. Heidegger's perspective, both definitions fit, as seen in his addressing them as "my respectable old friends."
  2. melancholy
    grave or even gloomy in character
    They were all melancholy old creatures, who had been unfortunate in life, and whose greatest misfortune it was that they were not long ago in their graves.
  3. mendicant
    a pauper who lives by begging
    Mr. Medbourne, in the vigor of his age, had been a prosperous merchant, but had lost his all by a frantic speculation, and was now little better than a mendicant.
  4. brood
    the young of an animal cared for at one time
    Colonel Killigrew had wasted his best years, and his health and substance, in the pursuit of sinful pleasures, which had given birth to a brood of pains, such as the gout, and divers other torments of soul and body.
    "Brood" is used figuratively here, since what Colonel Killigrew had given birth to are pains and torments. This can humorously suggest the nature of actual children, but there is another double meaning that connects the colonel's brooding to his melancholy: "think moodily or anxiously about something."
  5. obscure
    not famous or acclaimed
    Mr. Gascoigne was a ruined politician, a man of evil fame, or at least had been so till time had buried him from the knowledge of the present generation, and made him obscure instead of infamous.
  6. scandalous
    giving offense to moral sensibilities
    As for the Widow Wycherly, tradition tells us that she was a great beauty in her day; but, for a long while past, she had lived in deep seclusion, on account of certain scandalous stories which had prejudiced the gentry of the town against her.
  7. festoon
    decorate or adorn
    It was a dim, old-fashioned chamber, festooned with cobwebs, and besprinkled with antique dust.
    "Festoon" is used ironically here--while there are actual strings around the room, these strings are not intentionally placed to decorate. Instead, they give the room a neglected feeling that parallels the joyless lives of the five friends. The stringy cobwebs also suggest that the experiment could be a trap that Dr. Heidegger spins to watch his friends make fools of themselves.
  8. ponderous
    having great mass and weight and unwieldiness
    The greatest curiosity of the study remains to be mentioned; it was a ponderous folio volume, bound in black leather, with massive silver clasps.
  9. forbear
    resist doing something
    But it was well known to be a book of magic; and once, when a chambermaid had lifted it, merely to brush away the dust, the skeleton had rattled in its closet, the picture of the young lady had stepped one foot upon the floor, and several ghastly faces had peeped forth from the mirror; while the brazen head of Hippocrates frowned, and said,--"Forbear!''
    "Forbear" is also a variation of "forebear" which means "a person from whom you are descended"--this definition could be intended as a pun, because Hippocrates is seen as the father of western medicine. Dr. Heidegger respects this professional forbear with the bronze bust, yet ignores the wisdom of the ancient Greek doctor with his practice of magic. This belief in magic could have produced the potion that killed Dr. Heidegger's bride and made her unable to bear children.
  10. eccentricity
    strange and unconventional behavior
    Now Dr. Heidegger was a very strange old gentleman, whose eccentricity had become the nucleus for a thousand fantastic stories.
  11. veracious
    habitually speaking the truth
    Some of these fables, to my shame be it spoken, might possibly be traced back to my own veracious self; and if any passages of the present tale should startle the reader's faith, I must be content to bear the stigma of a fiction monger.
    The narrator uses the adjective "veracious" to describe his nature, but the author uses it ironically, since he had created this narrator to give his story a feeling of truth, when it is actually fiction that knowingly includes scenes that are difficult to believe.
  12. peevish
    easily irritated or annoyed
    "Nonsense!'' said the Widow Wycherly, with a peevish toss of her head. "You might as well ask whether an old woman's wrinkled face could ever bloom again.''
  13. imbibe
    take in liquids
    At first, it lay lightly on the surface of the fluid, appearing to imbibe none of its moisture.
  14. singular
    beyond or deviating from the usual or expected
    Soon, however, a singular change began to be visible.
  15. cordial
    diffusing warmth and friendliness
    As the liquor diffused a pleasant perfume, the old people doubted not that it possessed cordial and comfortable properties; and though utter sceptics as to its rejuvenescent power, they were inclined to swallow it at once.
    "Cordial" is also a noun that means "strong highly flavored sweet liquor often drunk after a meal"--intended as a pun, this definition is supported by the description of the water from the Fountain of Youth as a liquor that Dr. Heidegger had poured into champagne glasses, whose immediate effect is "not unlike what might have been produced by a glass of generous wine."
  16. peril
    a state of danger involving risk
    "Before you drink, my respectable old friends,'' said he, "it would be well that, with the experience of a lifetime to direct you, you should draw up a few general rules for your guidance, in passing a second time through the perils of youth.
  17. repentance
    remorse for your past conduct
    The doctor's four venerable friends made him no answer, except by a feeble and tremulous laugh; so very ridiculous was the idea that, knowing how closely repentance treads behind the steps of error, they should ever go astray again.
  18. impute
    attribute to a cause or source
    The liquor, if it really possessed such virtues as Dr. Heidegger imputed to it, could not have been bestowed on four human beings who needed it more wofully.
  19. dotage
    mental infirmity as a consequence of old age
    They looked as if they had never known what youth or pleasure was, but had been the offspring of Nature's dotage, and always the gray, decrepit, sapless, miserable creatures, who now sat stooping round the doctor's table, without life enough in their souls or bodies to be animated even by the prospect of growing young again.
  20. suffusion
    the process of permeating something with a substance
    There was a healthful suffusion on their cheeks, instead of the ashen hue that had made them look so corpse-like.
  21. exhilaration
    the feeling of lively and cheerful joy
    Meanwhile, the three gentlemen behaved in such a manner as proved that the water of the Fountain of Youth possessed some intoxicating qualities; unless, indeed, their exhilaration of spirits were merely a lightsome dizziness caused by the sudden removal of the weight of years.
  22. simper
    smile in an insincere, unnatural, or coy way
    As for the Widow Wycherly, she stood before the mirror courtesying and simpering to her own image, and greeting it as the friend whom she loved better than all the world beside.
  23. complaisant
    showing a cheerful willingness to do favors for others
    "Certainly, my dear madam, certainly!'' replied the complaisant doctor; "see! I have already filled the glasses.''
  24. effervesce
    become bubbly or frothy or foaming
    There, in fact, stood the four glasses, brimful of this wonderful water, the delicate spray of which, as it effervesced from the surface, resembled the tremulous glitter of diamonds.
  25. gleam
    shine brightly, like a star or a light
    It was now so nearly sunset that the chamber had grown duskier than ever; but a mild and moonlike splendor gleamed from within the vase, and rested alike on the four guests and on the doctor's venerable figure.
    "Gleam" also has these definitions: 1) appear briefly; 2) be shiny, as if wet; 3) an appearance of reflected light--all are suggested by the vase's contents (which also gleam with magical properties). The connection of this gleam to sunset and moonlight emphasizes the temporary nature of life; the use of a vase strengthens this point, because that usually evokes the image and nature of flowers.
  26. exulting
    joyful and proud especially because of triumph or success
    "We are young! We are young!'' they cried exultingly.
  27. efface
    remove completely from recognition or memory
    Youth, like the extremity of age, had effaced the strongly-marked characteristics of middle life, and mutually assimilated them all.
  28. exuberant
    joyously unrestrained
    They were a group of merry youngsters, almost maddened with the exuberant frolicsomeness of their years.
  29. infirmity
    the state of being weak in health or body
    The most singular effect of their gayety was an impulse to mock the infirmity and decrepitude of which they had so lately been the victims.
  30. shriveled
    lean and wrinkled by shrinkage as from age or illness
    Yet, by a strange deception, owing to the duskiness of the chamber, and the antique dresses which they still wore, the tall mirror is said to have reflected the figures of the three old, gray, withered grandsires, ridiculously contending for the skinny ugliness of a shrivelled grandam.
    Although the author uses "withered" to describe the old men and "shriveled" to describe the old woman, the two adjectives are synonymous.
  31. alight
    settle or come to rest
    The precious Water of Youth flowed in a bright stream across the floor, moistening the wings of a butterfly, which, grown old in the decline of summer, had alighted there to die.
  32. fleeting
    lasting for a markedly brief time
    They gazed at one another, and fancied that each fleeting moment snatched away a charm, and left a deepening furrow where none had been before.
  33. dolefully
    with sadness; in a sorrowful manner
    "Are we grown old again, so soon?'' cried they, dolefully.
  34. transient
    lasting a very short time
    The Water of Youth possessed merely a virtue more transient than that of wine.
    Compare with "fleeting"--the adjectives are synonymous, but each would not fit as well in the other's example sentence. "Fleet" also means "fast" so a moment is fleeting because it's passing quickly. The prefix "trans" means "over" and often connects to a transition from one state or place to another, which is what the water did to the four friends for a very short time (and is suggested by the life cycle of a butterfly).
  35. delirium
    a usually brief state of excitement and mental confusion
    Well--I bemoan it not; for if the fountain gushed at my very doorstep, I would not stoop to bathe my lips in it--no, though its delirium were for years instead of moments.
Created on Sun Apr 13 12:34:37 EDT 2014 (updated Tue Apr 22 12:28:37 EDT 2014)

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