American Gods Archives - Dogberry Patch

Vocab: elided – to supress, alter, strike out, or omit

Jun 022013

American Gods.
Neil Gaiman.

He was not the first whose return she had initiated; and she knew that, soon enough, the million-year stare would fade, and the memories and the dreams that he had brought back from the tree would be elided by the world of things you could touch.
Page: 385

Word: elide: Definition:
1a : to suppress or alter (as a vowel or syllable) by elision
1b : to strike out (as a written word)
2a : to leave out of consideration : omit
2b : curtail, abridge
Pronunciation: \i-?l?d\
Examples:
– some unnecessary verbiage will need to be elided, but otherwise the article is publishable
– the product presentation was not elided—it’s always only 15 minutes long
Origin: Latin elidere to strike out, from e- + laedere to injure by striking
First Known Use: 1796

I do remember seeing this word once and a while. Seems like it should be spelled eleeeeded but the many ‘e‘s have been elided and replaced with a single ‘i‘.

Source: Merriam-Wwbster.com
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Vocab: Prosector, Prosecutor, and Persecutor

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May 242013

American Gods.
Neil Gaiman.

He was as naked and as open as a corpse on a table, and dark Anubis the jackal god was his prosector and his prosecutor and his persecutor.
Page: 356

Word: prosector

Pronunciation: proh-sek-ter
Definition:

a person who dissects cadavers for the illustration of anatomical lectures or the like.
a person who performs autopsies to establish the cause of death or the nature and seat of disease.

Origin: 1855–60; Late Latin: anatomist, literally, one who cuts in public (or beforehand), equivalent to Latin pr?sec ( ?re ) to cut out (body organs) in public sacrifice

Clever use of 3 such similar words; especially one I had never seen before. Made me read it a number of times.

Source: Dictionary.com
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Vocabulary: Rue – Anger became Rue

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May 162013

American Gods.
Neil Gaiman.

Wednesday looked angry, and then the anger became rue, and he said, “Shadow, give the man the keys to the Winnebago.” Shadow passed the car keys to Whiskey Jack.
Page: 264

Word: rue: Definition: regret, sorrow
Origin: Middle English rewe, from Old English hr?ow; akin to Old High German hriuwa sorrow
First Known Use: before 12th century

The only context I ever remember hearing the word is as a verb, ie, “He will rue the day that…” In the story it is used as a noun, but apparently is still interchangeable with the more common ‘regret’.

Source: Merriam-Webster Online
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Going Nowhere & Getting There Anyway

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May 162013

American Gods.
Neil Gaiman.

“We lost them”…
“How?”
“I don’t know. We set up a roadblock, there was nowhere they could have gone and they went there anyway.”
Page: 258

Sometimes the book’s story line seemed to follow this same path. Not in a bad way, just that the story went places I was not expecting and in ways unfathomable.

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Glowing Gods

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May 092013

American Gods.
Neil Gaiman.

How much time do you ‘devote’ to the glowing screen? The TV is called an idiot box. What do we call the computer monitor?

I’m the idiot box. I’m the TV. I’m the all-seeing eye and the world of the cathode ray. I’m the boob tube. I’m the little shrine the family gathers to adore.”
“You’re the television? Or someone in the television?”
“The TV’s the altar. I’m what people are sacrificing to.”
“What do they sacrifice?” asked Shadow.
“Their time, mostly,” said Lucy. “Sometimes each other.” She raised two fingers, blew imaginary gun smoke from the tips. Then she winked, a big old I Love Lucy wink.
Page: 132

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