Category: Entry 3

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.

Disdain: (noun) a feeling of contempt for someone or something regarded as unworthy or inferior, scorn.

Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary (online)

I encountered this word in the reading The Ride by JL Williams on page 408 paragraph 2. “On every train car, every day, there is at least one person who irritates the rest of us, who makes us feel like we are visitors in their living room, irritants that they feel the need to convey their disdain for while we share a confined space for a limited time.” Here Williams is trying to say how there will be people on public transportations who seem to want to show the rest are inferior. As if everyone else is a guest in this “irritants” house. For example, it is rare to see someone with power dressed in a stained T-shirt and wasted shoes. They will also have the most comfortable seat and personal space. That’s why later in paragraph 4 the passenger takes up two seats on a busy and full train car. I now understand fully how the word disdain contributes to the context of this sentence.

Diana Galvez

According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, the word hiss is identified as a verb. It means “to make a small sibilant sound”. On page 361, it states,” Impatient, so impatient, so like the water that’s hissing and tumbling in the pot, demanding immediate attention.” The author Tahira used this word to emphasize how impatient Kasim was being at the moment, comparing him to the sounds in the surroundings.

has·ten (intransitive verb)

The word hasten was found in the story, Brave We Are by Tahira Naqvi in class on September 13. What this word means is to move or act quickly as stated in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. On the last page of the story, on the last paragraph from the left column, it states, “No!” I hasten with denial.” Now knowing what the word means, I understand now that the women acted quickly to say no to her son with denial. Which also helps to picture how and in the tone she said it as well.

“Brave We Are” by Tahira Naqvi uses a wide range of vocabulary. For instance, the word hybrid stuck out to me because it was very repetitive throughout the story. Kasim kept asking his mother for the definition of it and kept getting frustrated because his mother would try to avoid the question or work her way around it. She finally replied ” it’s sort of a mixture, a combination of different sorts of things”. She clearly had the right idea but wasn’t quite sure what it meant. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary the word hybrid is a noun defined as “an offspring of two animals or plants of different races. With this definition we can see that she wasn’t completely wrong she just did not specific definition.

According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, indecipherable is defined as incapable of being deciphered. While I was reading “Brave We Are” by Tahira Naqvi the word appears on the first page in the fifth paragraph as stated, “He slides against the kitchen counter and hums, his fingers beating an indecipherable rhythm on the Formica”. At first glance I thought it meant knowledgeable. Now knowing what the word means, I can understand what the passage means in better detail. The hums and the fingers beating created this unrecognizable rhythm to the listener.

Embellish(verb)

According to the dictionary”Marriam Webster “The word Embellish mean”to make beautiful with ornamentation”.

On the class we learn the article “Brave we Are” by Tahira Naqvi, which is about a immigrant women in the U.S,based on the quote page377″Today I’am making spaghetti the way my mother makes it in Lahore, like pulao, the way I used to make it after I got married and was just learning to cook husband who had selective food . That was about the only thing I could make then so I worked hard to embellish and innovate.”

In this quote the word “embellish” help me to have more understanding that, when she got married she just learn cooking to her husband and she want make the food more beautiful, and make it something different. that’s why she worked so hard for.

In this week’s reading brave we are by Tahira Naqvi found an interesting word that I haven’t heard in while, the word was “forlornly” were “a small piece of biscuit lies before him on the table and he fusses with it …” was used to describe Kasim’s actions at the table. According to Merriam Webster dictionary the word means sad and lonely because of isolation. I feel like I like this word since it isn’t used that much and it could be use to describe something thats very coum in todays’s society. I feel like I understand the part of the text better now and how it was intended to describe Kasim’s actions. I will for sure try to use that word more often.

Dangling: to hang loosely (adjective)

This is the meaning of the word dangling according to Merriam Webster dictionary. I saw this word when I was reading Brave We Are on Wednesday September 12th, 2018. The sentence was on page 362 of the pdf I was reading. The sentence said “The idea has proved ticklish, he smiles, crumbs from the Stella Doro dangling on the sides of his face.” I understood what this word meant because he was eating cookies which the face is prone to getting crumbs on while eating. The crumbs were on the side of his face and mouth hanging there which could easily fall down from there when chewing or talking.