Author: Kameza Harun

On page 408, of the story “The Ride” by JL Williams from the Novel, Legacies, I encountered the word umbrage. According to Merriam-Webster, umbrage is a noun which means a feeling of pique or resentment at some often fancied slight or insult. When I first encountered the word, I was not sure of the meaning of it. It actually is a new word I have never seen in any stories or articles that I read. Originally I thought it meant anger based off of the context clues I was reading. The reason for that is because within the paragraph it talks about a lady who would “…clubbed us all to death with it”. From this description I thought the word was describing a person showing anger and deep hatred. After finding the actual definition, I realized it is not anger but actually resentment. The narrator is describing what they portray the characters of the story to be when on the train ride and in this case she is someone who gives off a displeasing attitude off of anything insulting. I now understand the word better after finding the definition and rereading the text because I can understand how she can be feeling resentment because she comes off as harsh.

The word pensive is defined as suggestive of sad thoughtfulness or musingly dreaming thoughtful according to Merriam-Webster dictionary. The word pensive is an adjective used in the story, “The Turbid Ebb and Flow of Misery” by Margaret Sanger. On September 5th, 2018, I stumbled upon this word during a reading discussion we had. It was stated on page 107, “One by one worried, sad, pensive, and aging faces marshaled themselves before me in my dreams, sometimes appealingly, sometimes accusingly”. When I first came across the word, I was not sure what the word was saying. I used context clues and assumed it had something to do with dreaming, but, I had thought pensive meant in terms of speaking because the narrator was describing her thoughts being in her dreams as if they were speaking to her. After actually looking up the definition to the word I realized it did deal with dreams but, the dreams were sad and they were only thoughts, not actually people or things speaking. I understand the word more clearer now as it is a synonym of being sad as mentioned in the text. The narrator is basically describing her dreams in more ways than just sad by using the word pensive. She uses other words such as worried and aging to depict how she is feeling.

According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of “articulate” means to express oneself readily, clearly and effectively, also to be expressed in such a manner. The word “articulate” is categorized as a part of speech being an adjective. On August 30th, 2018, the word articulate was present in the reading we discussed in class entitled, “Coming To An Awareness Of Language Malcolm X”. Originally, when the reading was being read in class and I stumbled upon the word, I was not well adversed with the meaning. In paragraph 8 it stated the word used into a sentence, “In the street, I had been the most articulate hustler out there I had commanded attention when I said something”. When I stumbled upon this word, at first I thought it meant that Malcolm X appeared to act demanding and affirmative showings signs of no fear and respect to those he dealt with. I thought the same applied to the word articulate within the sentence. Since he was a hustler, it involved being harsh despite circumstances. My context clues made me assume this was the definition for the word. After actually searching up the word, I realized the word articulate was not necessarily a harsh tone, it is meant to be conveyed clearly and effectively in the manner that deems fit. I understood the necessity for this word to comprehend the passage because this word explains a brief backstory of who Malcolm X was. Synonyms such as “fluent” or “eloquent” helped me to better understand the context of the word read. It made me understand Malcolm’s X frustration from his letter writing versus his street slang terms, one was more harder to articulate than the other. The letters were not as easy to express for him rather than his street terms to hustlers.