After class today, Christopher and I did some more investigation regarding Nick's "brooding on the old unknown world." Below are the results of our findings, which may help to further illuminate the passage and in turn, help to make connections elsewhere in the text.
While "brood" can be a noun (and even an adjective), in the passage it is used as a verb, which has the following definitions:
brood |broōd|
verb
1 [ intrans. ] think deeply about something that makes one unhappy : he brooded over his need to find a wife.
2 [ trans. ] (of a bird) sit on (eggs) to hatch them. ( ! )
• (of a fish, frog, or invertebrate) hold (developing eggs) within the body.
3 [usu. foll. by over] (of silence, a storm, etc.) hang or hover closely : a winter storm broods over the lake.
ORIGIN Old English brōd, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch broed and German Brut, also to breed . Sense 1 of the verb was originally used with an object, i.e. [to nurse (feelings) in the mind] (late 16th cent.), a figurative use of the notion of a hen nursing chicks under her wings.
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