Glossary for "Lighting Out for the Territory"

"Lighting Out for the Territory" by the Roy Morris, Jr., is a good book (see my review) but it may test your vocabulary. So as a public service, here are the definitions of some words you'll find in this book about Mark Twain:

• Frangible: Brittle
• Tosspot: a habitual drinker
• Transgressive: involving a violation of accepted or imposed boundaries,
• Penurious: extremely poor
• Choleric: bad-tempered or irritable
• Impecunious: Having little or no money

It's funny that Morris uses "impecunious" early in the book to describe Twain's brother Orion, because later on he quotes Twain mocking a writer for such an obscure word.

Then there's "abjurious," which Morris uses in this sentence: "For once in her life with the abjurious Orion, Molly could live in high style, and she made the most of her position as the wife of the acting governor of Nevada."

Unfortunately, though I've looked and looked, but I can't find a definition of "abjurious."


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