Jorge Luis Borges, "El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan" (Vocabulario)

 

abolir: abolish, do away with

acaballado: horse‑like

acechar: to stalk

acervo: heap, hoard

adivinanza: riddle

adjudicar: to assign (fig. to put)

afán: effort

ajedrez: chess;

ajedrecista, expert chess player

alameda: tree‑lined walk or avenue

albacea: the executer of an estate

alfarero: pottery maker

aniquilar: ‑ to anihalate

arrojar: to throw

arrozal: rice fíeld artífice:

artisan atareado: weighted down, busy

bifurcarse: to fork

calígrafo: expert in writing (caligraphy)

chelín: shilling

chisporroteo: sparkling, sputtering

coalescente: joining, melting together

conjeturar: to imagine

cumbre: peak

declive: downhill slope

disiparse: to dissipate, disappear

divagación: mental digression

docto: learned

empañado: fogged up

empeñarse: to insist on

empresa: undertaking, company, business firm

empuñar: to grasp

encrucijada: intersection

erguirse: to rise

escudriñar: to examine carefully

estrépito: noise

execrar: to condemn

fénix: Phoenix (myth. bírd reborn from own ashes)

fresno: ash

harto: sufficiently

herrumbrado: rusty

horca: gallows

inviolado: intact

jarrón: large vase; (-ón = augmentative)

jarro laqueado: painted with laquer

luciérnaga: lightning bug

ochavado: eight‑sided

poniente: west (wind)

pululación: sensation of movement

postergar: postpone

rayar: to cross out, make a line on

recóndito: hidden

redacción: version

renegrido: dark colored

renombre. fame

sofísticamente: falsely

subalterno: secondary

tejado: roof

tenue: faint, subdued

tibieza: luke-warmness

tubo: telephone receiver (Arg.)

vaiven: coming and going motion (va y viene)

verosímil: credible, having verosimilitude

vertiginoso: dizzy, whirling; that which produces dizziness