• Eradicate (transitive verb): to do away with as completely as if by pulling up by the roots
  • Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eradicate
  • Taken from: Introduction by: Martha Johnson-Olin (Author)
    • “Some versions position this competition between the mothers. The stepmother tries to eradicate the influence of the first wife, and the stepsisters serve as extensions of her will.”
  • As the author broke down the article in sections to simplify and explain the components of a Cinderella story, she mentioned rivalry between the female’s in the story. She utilized the word eradicate, or completely destroy, to emphasize the intense level of discord and hatred between the mothers and stepmothers. The word eradicate was the instrument used to stress the battle for dominance.

Transcend (verb) – to rise above or go beyond the limits of

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transcend

From “There Was Once” by Margaret Atwood

I came across this word while reading “There Was Once” by Margaret Atwood. It appears towards the end of the reading as the author talks about word usage, it caught my interest because I had an idea of what it meant but didn’t know it’s exact definition so it threw off my understanding of what the reader was trying to say.

“Another thing. Good and wicked. Don’t you think you should transcend those puritanical judgmental moralistic epithets? I mean, so much of that is conditioning, isn’t it?”

After reading the definition of the word I better understand the context of how the author was using it in that part of the text. As seen in the quote, they used it to describe how they should improve on the words they used previously by using better words to express their message. The words “good” and “wicked” weren’t good enough so they decided to go above and beyond to use better words, or to “Transcend” their word use.

Malign: (adjective) evil in nature, influence, or effect: injurious

“And then, my best idea came to me as I looked at my cup of cocoa. Like the prince trapped inside the body of a frog, that humble white cup, so maligned by the everyday, so misrepresented as a mere vessel, was a work of art waiting to occur.”

Word from Bia Lowe’s I Always Write About My Mother When I Start to Write

The use of the word was to show how neglected and mistreated the cup is. The only purpose of it being a container and nothing else, when in the narrators view it shows more potential and can be used for something else. From what I can understand, the purpose of this word is to express something or someone in a negative light.