Author: aneel chinsamy

In the story “The Ride” by JL Williams, the phrase combative anticipation is used to describe the large woman taking over two seats on the train. For example, “Without ever acknowledging anyone directly, she wore a look of what might be described as “compative anticipation” on her face…” The word Compative means being ready or having the urge to fight and anticipation means being excited, knowing something is going to happen. Therefore, the author put these two words together to describe the woman because she was waiting for someone to ask her if they coud sit so she could yell at them.

According to Dictionary.com, the word achromatous means ” having little or inadequate color; lighter in collor than normal. I stumbled accross this word in Tahira Naqvi’s “Brave We are” when she was describing the seasons in the small town in Conneticut in which she lived in. Naqvi used a vast variety of words to create imagery for us to understand that sometimes the area was not so appealing. For example, “… when the tones on its canvas are achromatous and dark, to melancholy, to sadness. At first, I thought this word meant gloomy or mysteriouys looking. I then looked it up and realized it was neither, but it was a way to describe the canvas’s lack of color.

According to Dictionary.com, the word decoupage means “the art or technique of decorating something with cut-outs of paper, linoleum, plastic, or other flatmaterial over which varnish or lacquer is applied.” I came across this word in the story “Go Carolina” when David was explaining where his projects were stored in his therapy room. For example, “… and our decoupage projects were concealed beneath the sporting equipment we never asked for but always recieved”. I knew decoupage was describing the project in some way but I wasnt sure what it exactly meant until I looked it up.