The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried : Vocabulary 1. Makeshift – adjective – page 3 “Each carried a green plastic poncho that could be used as a raincoat or groundsheet or makeshift tent.” Def : a temporary expedient or substitute 2. Sullen – adjective – page 12 “He was aware of how quiet the day was, the sullen paddies, yet he could not bring himself to worry about matters of security.” Def : showing irritation or ill humor by a gloomy silence or reserve 3. Villes – noun – page 68 “Always raising hell and light up villes and bring smoke to bear every which way.” Def : combining form extracted from place names 4. Ordnance – noun – page 75 “What is with all the ordnances?” Def : cannon or artillery 5. Diddly – adverb – noun 75 “He didn’t say diddly.” Def : no value, nothing of worth 6. LP – noun – page 76 “What they need is to go out and listen to LP.” Def : a phonograph record 7. LZ – noun – page 78 “It took nearly an house to cut an LZ for the dustoff.” Def : Landing zone for aircraft.

8. Generalize – verb – page 81 “ How do you generalize?” Def : to infer (a general principle, trend, etc.) from particular facts, statistics, or the like. 9. AO – noun – page 87 “The AO lay along the South China Sea.” Def : To be account of. 10. Mundane – noun – page 89 “The border between trivia and bedlam, the mad and the mundane.” Def : of or pertaining to this world or earth as contrasted with heaven; worldly 11. Culottes – noun – page 90 “White culottes and this sexy pink sweater.” Def : women's trousers, usually knee-length or calf-length, cut full to resemble a skirt. 12. ARVN – noun – page 91 “The ARVNs were useless and outright dangerous.” Def : A soldier in the Vietnam War. 13. NCO – noun – page 91 “The highest ranking NCO was an E-16 named Eddie Diamond, whose pleasures ran from dope to Darvon.” Def : Noncommissioned Officer. 14. Vaporous – adjective – page 105 “Like spirits, vaporous and unreal.” Def : so thin as to transmit light 15. Digressions – noun – page 107 “All these digressions, they just screw up your story’s sound.”

Def : Pauses and stops. 16. Greenie – noun/adjective – page 109 “I was you, though, no way I’d mess around with any Greenie types, not for nothing.” Def : Slang. an amphetamine pill, esp. one that is green in color. 17. Hootch – noun – page 111 “She moved her hand in a gesture that encompassed not just the hootch but everything around it.” Def : liquor illicitly distilled and distributed. 18. Rigidly – adverb – page 203 “I just went through the motions, rigidly, by the numbers, without any heart or real emotions.” Def : stiff or unyielding; not pliant or flexible; hard: a rigid strip of metal. 19. Gyroscope – noun – page 205 “The hours go by and your lose your gyroscope; your mind starts to roam.” Def : an apparatus consisting of a rotating wheel 20. Napalm – noun – page 241 “A nurse, fried by napalm.” Def : a highly incendiary jellylike substance used in fire bombs, flamethrowers, etc.