Emily Dickinson Lexicon
Lexicon: Ishmael – italic
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Ishmael, proper n. [Heb. 'God will hear'.]
Son of Abraham by Hagar; [fig.] man of the wilderness; main character in Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby Dick; (see Genesis 16-17; ED's letters).
island (-s), n. [see isle + land.]
Atoll; [fig.] mound; knoll; small rise of land; elevated plot of earth surrounded by wetlands; [metaphor] grave site; person dead and buried; individual isolated from others by death.
isle (-s), n. [ME < OFr < L. insula, island.] (webplay: wait).
Island; area of land surrounded by water.
isolate, adj. [Fr. isoler.]
Detached; alone; separate; unconnected; solitary; unknown.
isolation, n. [see isolate, v.]
Solitude; condition of standing alone; separation from things and persons; condition of standing apart.
Israel, proper n. [Heb. 'he perseveres with God', 'let God prevail'; see Jacob.]
Family of Jacob the patriarch; group named after the grandson of Abraham; posterity of Isaac and Rebekah through their son Jacob; descendants of Jacob's twelve sons and one daughter; people of the covenant; twelve tribes of the Old Testament (see Genesis 25, 32, 49); stubborn people led by Moses from Egypt to Canaan; (see Exodus 13; ED's letters).
issue (-s), n. [ME < OFr. < L. 'exit'.]
Outflow; flux; egress; passing of fluid; [sense play] sally; sortie; military movement; [fig.] bloodshed; [metaphor] important matter; critical material.
it (-s, -'s), pron. [OE hit; third person singular neuter pronoun.] (webplay: affair, arms, ascertained, asked, betrayed, charmer, Christ, clause, diligence, earth, figure, general, heart, indefinitely, Judas, life, matter, nails, name, person, question, rains, saint, sentence, sinner, snows, state, substitute, teeth).
- [Anaphoric reference, pointing back to a previously-mentioned noun in the text] that thing; the one mentioned.
- [Cataphoric reference, pointing forward to a subsequent noun in the text] the event; this thing.
- [Exophoric reference, pointing to a noun not mentioned directly in the text; “It sifts” = “Snow sifts”] this; the thing being described.
- [Phatic “dummy” subject; “It will be Summer” = “Summer will happen”] someday; at some time.
italic, adj. [Fr. < L. Italicus < Gk.]
- Right-sloping; cursive; hand-written; with inclining characters; [fig.] important; essential; significant; emphatic; underlined.
- Twisted; deformed; distorted; lined with age; wrinkled with suffering; [fig.] frowning; sorrowful.
italic, n. [see italic, adj.]
Grandeur; magnificence; renaissance; classical style; [fig.] re-living; nostalgia; outstanding memory.