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Stenka25 Posted 5 years ago
Vocabulary

Meaning of CROWD and others

Meaning of CROWD and others


The passage below is from Fathoms: The World in the Whale Hardcover by Rebecca Giggs.


The story of whalefall—I found it emotional. Whalefalls outvied the crowd’s loss, describing instead, a great, pluripotent detonation of life striking from a whale’s demise. In the flatlining of a whale, in the falling apart of its colossal body, this story seeded the rise of organisms more spellbinding and weirder than any I had ever heard of, or dimly pictured before.


A whale fall occurs when the carcass of a whale has fallen onto the ocean floor. And it sparks animate thriving of some dependent animals in deep sea.


I have a few questions on the passage above.

First, emotional. The word seems to mean ‘sentimental’. Am I right?


Second, it’s the hardest part. The meaning of ‘outvied the crowd’s loss’.

First of the 2nd, I’m not sure the meaning of ‘the crowd’s loss’. Does ‘the crowd’ means people or whale or what? I’m not sure.

Second of 2nd, I’m not sure the meaning of ‘outvie’. Literally it means ‘outdo’, but in the context of ‘outvied the crowd’s loss’, I cannot figure out its meaning.


Lastly, DESCRIBE. Since the object of DESCRIBE is ‘a great, pluripotent detonation of life’, I think I can substitute TRIGGER for DESCRIBE. Am I right? If not, can you give me more suitable word?


Thanks a lot.


  

Top answer

I only ridicule this writing because you are an English learner, and I want you to be fully aware that what you are reading is not normal. It will harm your sense of idiom and present distorted word meanings to no good effect. Virginia Woolf she ain't.

— Anonymous

  • I only ridicule this writing because you are an English learner, and I want you to be fully aware that what you are reading is not normal.
  • It will harm your sense of idiom and present distorted word meanings to no good effect.
  • Virginia Woolf she ain't.
  • Stenka25 A whale fall occurs when the carcass of a whale has fallen onto the ocean floor.
  • I was wondering about that.
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2 Answers
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I only ridicule this writing because you are an English learner, and I want you to be fully aware that what you are reading is not normal. It will harm your sense of idiom and present distorted word meanings to no good effect. Virginia Woolf she ain't.

Stenka25A whale fall occurs when the carcass of a whale has fallen onto the ocean floor.

I was wonde

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Stenka25Lastly, DESCRIBE. Since the object of DESCRIBE is ‘a great, pluripotent detonation of life’, I think I can substitute TRIGGER for DESCRIBE. Am I right? If not, can you give me more suitable word?

Like the rest of the passage, the writer's meaning is unclear here. However, I wonder if describe is meant to go with The story of whalefall?

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