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Department : English.
Program : BS English bridging morning (3rd - B)
Subject : Postmodern fiction.
Assignment : Words meanings and usage in context.
Institution : NUML maim campus Islamabad.
Submitted to : Ma’am Uzma Abid Ansari
Section : B
Submitted by : Sadam Hussain.

Roll No : SMB-21169

System ID : S-21- 22925

 One Hundred Years of Solitude chapter 3rd Vocabulary
Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Words Meanings and usage in context (from the book)

offshoot Ursula admitted him grudgingly, conquered once more by the
obstinacy of her husband, who could not tolerate the idea that
an offshoot of his blood should be adrift, but he imposed the
condition that the child should never know his true identity.†

offshoot = a shoot (branch) growing from a larger stem of a plant;

or anything that originated from something else — such as an
idea, company, or branch of a family tree
relegate At that time there was so much activity in the town and so much
bustle in the house that the care of the children was relegated to a
secondary level.†

relegated = assigned to a less important position or classification

insomnia They had indeed contracted the illness of insomnia.

insomnia = inability to sleep

docile They were both so docile and willing to help that Ursula took them
on to help her with her household chores.†

docile = easily led or managed — perhaps submissive or well-

behaved
attenuate Fascinated by an immediate reality that came to be more fantastic
than the vast universe of his imagination, he lost all interest in the
alchemist's laboratory, put to rest the material that had
become attenuated with months of manipulation, and went back
to being the enterprising man of earlier days when he had decided
upon the layout of the streets and the location of the new houses
so that no one would enjoy privileges that everyone did not
have.†

attenuated = reduced in strength, amount, or size

vagabond Several months later saw the return of Francisco the Man, as
ancient vagabond who was almost two hundred years old and
who frequently passed through Macondo distributing songs that
he composed himself.†

vagabond = a person who wanders from town to town with no

 fixed home or job
perversion But Jose Arcadio did not return, nor did they come with the snake-
man, who, according to what Ursula thought, was the only one
who could tell them about their son, so the gypsies were not
allowed to camp in town or set foot in it in the future, for they
were considered the bearers of concupiscence and perversion.†

perversion = the conversion of something so it is not what it

should be — especially a sexual practice considered unacceptable
by society
explicit Then he was more explicit.‡

explicit = clear and with enough detail so there is no confusion

or:

expressing or displaying sexual activity or violence in a detailed

manner
emancipated Emancipated for the moment at least from the torment of fantasy,
Jose Arcadio Buendia in a short time set up a system of order and
work which allowed for only one bit of license: the freeing of the
birds, which, since the time of the founding, had made time merry
with their flutes, and installing in their place musical clocks in
every house.†

emancipated = released from slavery or servitude; or

(metaphorically) from social restraints
synchronous Until the beginning of adolescence they were
two synchronized machines.†

synchronized = caused to happen at the same time or in a

coordinated sequence; or set clocks/watches to show the same
time
(editor's note: The suffix "-ive" converts a word to a verb. This is
the same pattern you see in words like apologize, theorize,
and dramatize.)
precise She tried to be more precise, however, saying that she was going
to spend her last years with a first cousin who lived in Riohacha.‡
precise = exact (accurate)

or:

meticulous (careful about details)

progressive There was no mystery in the heart of a Buendia that was
impenetrable for her because a century of cards and experience
had taught her that the history of the family was a machine with
 unavoidable repetitions, a turning wheel that would have gone on
spilling into eternity were it not for the progressive and
irremediable wearing of the axle.‡

progressive = gradually advancing or becoming more severe

or:

favoring liberal political change; or a person with such beliefs

chord They were wondrous clocks made of carved wood, which the
Arabs had traded for macaws and which Jose Arcadio Buendia had
synchronized with such precision that every half hour the town
grew merry with the progressive chords of the same song until it
reached the climax of a noontime that was as exact and
unanimous as a complete waltz.†

chords = a combination of three or more notes that blend

harmoniously when sounded together
climax They were wondrous clocks made of carved wood, which the
Arabs had traded for macaws and which Jose Arcadio Buendia had
synchronized with such precision that every half hour the town
grew merry with the progressive chords of the same song until it
reached the climax of a noontime that was as exact and
unanimous as a complete waltz.‡

climax = the most exciting or important part of a story, musical

piece, or other thing that has a series of events
unanimous They were wondrous clocks made of carved wood, which the
Arabs had traded for macaws and which Jose Arcadio Buendia had
synchronized with such precision that every half hour the town
grew merry with the progressive chords of the same song until it
reached the climax of a noontime that was as exact
and unanimous as a complete waltz.†

unanimous = with everyone in agreement

corpulent He had shot up so fast that in a short time the clothing left behind
by his brother no longer fit him and he began to wear his father's,
but Visitacion had to sew pleats in the shirt and darts in the pants,
because Aureliano had not sequined the corpulence of the
others.†

corpulence = having excessive body fat

oblige The marriage and the decision to spend a few months in Macondo
to please his wife had obliged him to postpone it.‡

obliged = require (obligate) to do something

 or:

grant a favor to someone

or:

grateful or indebted
diagonal She wore a diagonally striped dress that had been dyed black,
worn by use, and a pair of scaly patent leather boots.†

diagonally = a straight line connecting opposite corners of a

rectangle; or any slope that could connect the corners of an
imaginary rectangle that has one side parallel to the floor
carnivorous She wore a scapular with the images worn away by sweat, and on
her right wrist the fang of a carnivorous animal mounted on a
backing of copper as an amulet against the evil eye.†

carnivorous = feeding on animals

cease It was extremely pleasant and so chaste in its way that
Ursula ceased her vigilance.†

ceased = stopped or discontinued

whitewash Ursula had the bills taken down, stuck to great cakes
of whitewash, and the house was painted white again.‡

whitewash = cover up (a wrong or error)

gall But Fernanda felt so moved that she thought she would go mad
when Meme awoke at midnight with her head splitting with pain
and drowning in vomited gall.‡

gall = impertinence or impudence (rude and bold)

pernicious They threw cow gall onto the courtyard and, rubbed hot chili on
the walls, thinking they could defeat her pernicious vice with
those methods, but she showed such signs of astuteness and
ingenuity to find some earth that Ursula found herself forced to
use more drastic methods.†

pernicious = harmful or something spreading harm — especially in

a gradual or subtle way
astute They threw cow gall onto the courtyard and, rubbed hot chili on
the walls, thinking they could defeat her pernicious vice with
those methods, but she showed such signs of astuteness and
ingenuity to find some earth that Ursula found herself forced to
use more drastic methods.†
 astuteness = intelligence and perception
(Editor's note: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun
that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in
words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.)
ingenuity They threw cow gall onto the courtyard and, rubbed hot chili on
the walls, thinking they could defeat her pernicious vice with
those methods, but she showed such signs of astuteness
and ingenuity to find some earth that Ursula found herself forced
to use more drastic methods.†

ingenuity = ability to solve problems in smart creative ways

fluent It was soon revealed that she spoke Spanish with as
much fluency as the Indian language, that she had a remarkable
ability for manual work, and that she could sing the waltz of the
clocks with some very funny words that she herself had invented.†

fluency = able to easily comprehend and express; or expressed

smoothly — especially in a foreign language
intermittent One night about the time that Rebeca was cured of the vice of
eating earth and was brought to sleep in the other children's
room, the Indian woman, who slept with them awoke by chance
and heard a strange, intermittent sound in the corner.†

intermittent = stopping and starting

exile The federalist fervor, which the exiles had pictured as a powder
keg about to explode, had dissolved into a vague electoral
illusion.†

exiles = to force someone to live outside of their homeland; or

living in such a condition

or more rarely: voluntary absence from a place someone would

rather be
fatalistic His sister stayed because her fatalistic heart told her that the
lethal sickness would follow her, no matter what, to the farthest
corner of the earth.†

fatalistic = one who believes that all events are predetermined in

advance and human beings are powerless to change them
inexorable But the Indian woman explained that the most fearsome part of
the sickness of insomnia was not the impossibility of sleeping, for
the body did not feel any fatigue at all, but its inexorable evolution
toward a more critical manifestation: a loss of memory.†

inexorable = unstoppable
critical Those fickle tricks of memory were even more critical when the
 killing of the workers was brought up.‡

critical = important, serious, or dangerous

or:

finding fault and telling others; or tending to have unfavorable

opinions

or:

relating to thoughtful judgement of what is good and bad about

something — possibly from people whose job is to share their
expert opinions in a given industry
manifest It did not occur to him that this was the first manifestation of a
loss of memory, because the object had a difficult name to
remember.†

manifestation = demonstration (something made obvious or

shown)
(editor's note: The suffix "-tion", converts a verb into a noun that
denotes the action or result of the verb. Typically, there is a slight
change in the ending of the root verb, as in action, education,
and observation.)
recollect He had discovered that the more he drank the more he thought
about Remedios, but he could bear the torture of
his recollections better.†

recollections = memories
(editor's note: The suffix "-tions", converts a verb into a plural
noun that denotes results of the verb. Typically, there is a slight
change in the ending of the root verb, as in actions, illustrations,
and observations.)
lucid Actually, in spite of the fact that everyone considered him mad,
Jose Arcadio Segundo was at that time the most lucid inhabitant
of the house.

lucid = clear thinking

on the On the contrary, they were happy at not sleeping because there
contrary was so much to do in Macondo in those days that there was barely
enough time.†
on the contrary = an expression used to intensify denial of an idea
narrator They would gather together to converse endlessly, to tell over and
over for hours on end the same jokes, to complicate to the limits
of exasperation the story about the capon, which was an endless
game in which the narrator asked if they wanted him to tell them
 the story about the capon, and when they answered yes, the
narrator would say that he had not asked them to say yes, but
whether they wanted him to tell them the story about the capon,
and when they answered no, the narrator...†

narrator = someone who tells a story—especially the main voice in

a documentary, or a character who talks directly to the audience
in a movie, play or other performance
dispose At dawn the guests, soaked in champagne, sacrificed six cows and
put them in the street at the disposal of the crowd.†

disposal = command
(editor's note: When something is "at someone's disposal" it is "at
their command," or "available for their use." They can use it as
they please.)
entreat The entreaties were useless.†

entreaties = earnest requests

sentinel That was why they took the bells off the goats, bells that the Arabs
had swapped them for macaws, and put them at the entrance to
town at the disposal of those who would not listen to the advice
and entreaties of the sentinels and insisted on visiting the town.†

sentinels = a person who stands guard or looks out for something

perimeter In that way they kept the plague restricted to the perimeter of the
town.†
perimeter = the outer edge
quarantine So effective was the quarantine that the day came when the
emergency situation was accepted as a natural thing and life was
organized in such a way that work picked up its rhythm again and
no one worried any more about the useless habit of sleeping.†

quarantine = isolation to prevent the spread of infectious disease

respective Then he marked them with their respective names so that all he
had to do was read the inscription in order to identify them.†

respective = relating separately to the people or things just

mentioned
exemplary The sign that he hung on the neck of the cow was
an exemplary proof of the way in which the inhabitants of
Macondo were prepared to fight against loss of memory: This is
the cow.†

exemplary = serving as an example — especially a good one

thus Thus it was discovered that Jose Arcadio Buendia's devilish jargon
was Latin.‡
 thus = therefore (for that reason; or what follows is so because of
what was just said)

or:

in the way mentioned or shown

remediable Much time had passed when she saw the last yellow butterfly
destroyed in the blades of the fan and she admitted as
an irremediable truth that Mauricio Babilonia had died.†

irremediable = not capable of being fixed

(Editor's note: The prefix "ir-" in irremediable means not and
reverses the meaning of remediable. This prefix is sometimes used
before words beginning with "R" as seen in words
like irrational, irregular, and irresistible.)
vigilant But she did not leave off her vigilance until the apprenticeship was
over and the Italian left Macondo.†

vigilance = careful watch

recourse Having lost her courage, in a miserable state of demoralization,
Meme had no other recourse but to bear up under it.†

recourse = a different way to accomplish something when the

preferred way doesn't work
alternative By means of that recourse the insomniacs began to live in a world
built on the uncertain alternatives of the cards, where a father
was remembered faintly as the dark man who had arrived at the
beginning of April and a mother was remembered only as the dark
woman who wore a gold ring on her left hand, and where a birth
date was reduced to the last Tuesday on which a lark sang in the
laurel tree.†

alternatives = possibilities
irrevocable He himself, facing a firing squad, would not understand too well
the concatenation of the series of subtle but irrevocable accidents
that brought him to that point.†

irrevocable = incapable of being undone

compassion Jose Arcadio Buendia found him sitting in the living room fanning
himself with a patched black hat as he read
with compassionate attention the signs pasted to the walls.†

compassionate = feeling or showing sympathy for another's

suffering
The end