"Shooting an Elephant"

Marie C.
24 words 20 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. Anglo-Indian
    a person of English citizenship born or living in India
    Feelings like these are the normal by-products of imperialism; ask any Anglo-Indian official, if you can catch him off duty.
  2. betel
    Asian pepper plant whose dried leaves are chewed with betel nut (seed of the betel palm) by southeast Asians
    No one had the guts to raise a riot, but if a European woman went through the bazaars alone somebody would probably spit betel juice over her dress.
  3. Buddhist
    one who follows the teachings of Buddha
    The young Buddhist priests were the worst of all.
  4. Burma
    a mountainous republic in southeastern Asia on the Bay of Bengal
    In Moulmein, in lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people – the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me.
  5. Burmese
    of or relating to or characteristic of Myanmar or its people
    Theoretically – and secretly, of course – I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British.
  6. conjurer
    someone who performs magic tricks to amuse an audience
    They were watching me as they would watch a conjurer about to perform a trick.
  7. conventionalize
    make conventional or adapt to conventions
    He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure of a sahib.
  8. coolie
    an offensive name for an unskilled Asian laborer
    He was an Indian, a black Dravidian coolie, almost naked, and he could not have been dead many minutes.
  9. despotic
    having the characteristics of a tyrannical ruler
    It was a tiny incident in itself, but it gave me a better glimpse than I had had before of the real nature of imperialism – the real motives for which despotic governments act.
  10. Dravidian
    a member of one of the aboriginal races of India
    He was an Indian, a black Dravidian coolie, almost naked, and he could not have been dead many minutes.
  11. flabbily
    in a flabby manner
    At last, after what seemed a long time – it might have been five seconds, I dare say – he sagged flabbily to his knees.
  12. garish
    tastelessly showy
    I looked at the sea of yellow faces above the garish clothes-faces all happy and excited over this bit of fun, all certain that the elephant was going to be shot.
  13. imperialism
    a policy of extending your rule over foreign countries
    For at that time I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked up my job and got out of it the better.
  14. innumerable
    too many to be counted
    The crowd grew very still, and a deep, low, happy sigh, as of people who see the theatre curtain go up at last, breathed from innumerable throats.
  15. mahout
    the driver and keeper of an elephant
    Its mahout, the only person who could manage it when it was in that state, had set out in pursuit, but had taken the wrong direction and was now twelve hours' journey away, and in the morning the elephant had suddenly reappeared in the town.
  16. miry
    swampy and muddy
    At the bottom, when you got away from the huts, there was a metalled road and beyond that a miry waste of paddy fields a thousand yards across, not yet ploughed but soggy from the first rains and dotted with coarse grass.
  17. Moulmein
    a port city of southern Myanmar on the Gulf of Martaban
    In Moulmein, in lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people – the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me.
  18. oppressor
    a person of authority who subjects others to undue pressures
    Theoretically – and secretly, of course – I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British.
  19. prostrate
    stretched out and lying at full length along the ground
    With one part of my mind I thought of the British Raj as an unbreakable tyranny, as something clamped down, in saecula saeculorum, upon the will of prostrate peoples; with another part I thought that the greatest joy in the world would be to drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priest's guts.
  20. raj
    British dominion over India (1757-1947)
    With one part of my mind I thought of the British Raj as an unbreakable tyranny, as something clamped down, in saecula saeculorum, upon the will of prostrate peoples; with another part I thought that the greatest joy in the world would be to drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priest's guts.
  21. sahib
    a title of respect for men in colonial India
    He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure of a sahib.
  22. senility
    the state of being infirm with age
    An enormous senility seemed to have settled upon him.
  23. supplant
    take the place or move into the position of
    I did not even know that the British Empire is dying, still less did I know that it is a great deal better than the younger empires that are going to supplant it.
  24. theoretically
    in theory; according to the assumed facts
    Theoretically – and secretly, of course – I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British.
Created on Wed Jun 29 10:06:32 EDT 2011 (updated Wed Jun 29 10:26:54 EDT 2011)

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