deliquescent

I think this will be the last of my Satanic Verses posts. Towards the end of the book, Rushdie uses the word 'deliquescent' twice. What I substitute in in somthing like 'languid' or 'limp'. Let's see how close I get.

deliquesce:

To melt away or to disappear as if by melting.

deliquescent:

Relating to a solid substance that absorbs moisture from the air and becomes liquid.


Generally, I'm close to the target, but why didn't I hear the 'liquid' in that word?

revenant

Okay--still moving along slowly through The Satanic Verses, and have come across this word twice. I would have said that it meant something like 'haunted' or related to the spirit world, but I think I came across the phrase, 'revenant spirits', which would seem to be a bit redundant. Shall we see?

Well, it's related.

revenant:

One who returns after a lengthy absence. Which would make a phrase of Rushdie's like 'the revenant tide' make sense.

One who returns after death. Which would make my own understanding of the word comprehensible.

What strikes me now is that though these are two very different experiences, we can sometimes conflate the two, so that the unexpected appearance of someone long absent can feel like someone returning from the spirit world.

I've had that experience recently.