Now, it's time for vocabulary! :)

privy

(followed by `to') informed about something secret or not generally known

NOTES:

Nick is using "privy" as an adjective here but it can also be a noun meaning "a room or building equipped with one or more toilets." With that double meaning, Nick could be seen as making fun of both his own passive nature and the nature of the secrets that were shared with him.

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in college I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men.

feign

make a pretence of

NOTES:

Nick admits to feigning actions and emotions in order to avoid listening to the seemingly fake revelations of others. Another reason he might not have wanted to hear these secrets is that doing so places him in the position of being responsible for someone else's happiness. Fitzgerald includes this admission here to set the readers up for the contrasts in Nick's relationship with Gatsby.

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

Most of the confidences were unsought--frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon--for the intimate revelations of young men or at least the terms in which they express them are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions.

levity

a manner lacking seriousness

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

Most of the confidences were unsought--frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a hostilelevity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon--for the intimate revelations of young men or at least the terms in which they express them are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions.

elation

a feeling of joy and pride

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

No--Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-windedelations of men.

solemn

characterized by a firm and humorless belief in the validity of your opinions

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

I was rather literary in college--one year I wrote a series of very solemn and obvious editorials for the "Yale News"--and now I was going to bring back all such things into my life and become again that most limited of all specialists, the "well-rounded man."

fractiousness

the trait of being prone to disobedience and lack of discipline

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed.

wistfulness

a sadly pensive longing

NOTES:

The last three words were used in descriptions that show Nick's scornful attitude towards Tom Buchanan. Even in describing Tom's wistfulness, Nick adds the adjectives "harsh" and "defiant". By noting that Tom wanted his approval, Nick is suggesting that, back in college, he was the better man, and he is even more so now that is openly disapproving of Tom in his book.

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

We were in the same Senior Society, and while we were never intimate I always had the impression that he approved of me and wanted me to like him with some harsh, defiant wistfulness of his own.

imperceptible

impossible or difficult to perceive by the mind or senses

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

At any rate Miss Baker's lips fluttered, she nodded at me almost imperceptibly and then quickly tipped her head back again--the object she was balancing had obviously tottered a little and given her something of a fright.

reciprocal

concerning each of two or more persons or things; especially given or done in return

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

Her grey sun-strained eyes looked back at me with polite reciprocal curiosity out of a wan, charming discontented face.

compel

force somebody to do something

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

Before I could reply that he was my neighbor dinner was announced; wedging his tense arm imperatively under mine Tom Buchanan compelled me from the room as though he were moving a checker to another square.

unobtrusive

not obtrusive or undesirably noticeable

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

Sometimes she and Miss Baker talked at once, unobtrusively and with a bantering inconsequence that was never quite chatter, that was as cool as their white dresses and their impersonal eyes in the absence of all desire.

inconsequence

having no important effects or influence

NOTES:

Although details of Daisy and Jordan's "bantering inconsequence" are not given here, examples of it are seen throughout the dialogues that Fitzgerald intentionally creates as the writer and that Nick somehow remembers and repeats as the first-person narrator.

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

Sometimes she and Miss Baker talked at once, unobtrusively and with a bantering inconsequencethat was never quite chatter, that was as cool as their white dresses and their impersonal eyes in the absence of all desire.

extemporize

perform without preparation

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

She was only extemporizing but a stirring warmth flowed from her as if her heart was trying to come out to you concealed in one of those breathless, thrilling words.

subdued

in a softened tone

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

A subdued impassioned murmur was audible in the room beyond and Miss Baker leaned forward, unashamed, trying to hear.

sedative

tending to soothe or tranquilize

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

I saw that turbulent emotions possessed her, so I asked what I thought would be some sedativequestions about her little girl.

libel

a false and malicious publication printed for the purpose of defaming a living person

NOTES:

An overheard rumor is not libel; it could be slander, but the rumor is about an event that's supposed to be happy not hurtful. As a Yale graduate who used to write for the college's newspaper, Nick would know the different intents attached to rumor, libel and slander. But he deliberately exaggerates here to be funny and to emphasize that he is not ready for marriage.

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

"That's right," corroborated Tom kindly. "We heard that you were engaged."
"It's libel.

peremptory

offensively self-assured or given to exercising usually unwarranted power

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as if his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his peremptory heart.