Tag Archives: word #1

Eradicate

  • 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

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

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.

 

 

Magnificent

Magnificent (adjective)- marked by stately grandeur and lavishness.

Source: Merriam-Webster

I saw this word while reading the 1812 version of the Brothers Grimm story, Cinderella. Cinderella uses it in reference to the ball her stepsisters attended the night before.

The next morning the two sisters came to the kitchen. They were angry when they saw that she had sorted the lentils, for they wanted to scold her. Because they could not, they began telling her about the ball. They said, “Cinderella, it was so grand at the ball. The prince, who is the best looking man in the whole world, escorted us, and he is going to choose one of us to be his wife.”

“Yes,” said Cinderella, “I saw the glistening lights. It must have been magnificent.”

Here, Cinderella is saying the party was extravagant and high-class. Basically, she’s saying the party looked like a good time.

 

Sheen

Sheen (noun) –  a bright or shining condition

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

From ” I Always Write About My Mother When I Start to Write” by Bia Lowe

“I loved to watch her stand over the sink. The sheen of her slip in the bathroom light slid
over the curves of her body like my finger in a bowl of frosting.”

Bia Lowe uses this word to describe the brightness of her mother’s dress, which may be velvet, in the bathroom light and shows the reader that it is glowing. Sheen basically means bright or luster texture on the surface.

 

Image result for sheen meaning

Buoyed

Buoyed

Past tensed for buoy

Verb

This word is defined as to keep (someone or something) afloat.
“I let the water buoy up my weight”

i found this definition on https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/buoy

I came a upon this word in ” I Always Write About My Mother When I Start to Write” by Bia Lowe

The sentence that this word is in is ” I wanted to lay them, breathtaking, at her feet, and by doing so bind her heart to mine, ever after to be buoyed Up like a raft on a calmed ocean. ”

Now that I learned the real meaning of this word I truly understand the passage because in the sentence Bia talks about the raft being buoyed in a calmed ocean. Bia talks about being heart to heart to the mother so I see it as two people all alone with each other and every thing else just fades away. So Stating that she wanted to be like a raft floating in the ocean is like being deeply in love. It’s this feeling that no one else matters anymore.

“Deity”

Deity (plural)

Deity – A god or goddess.

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

I’ve encountered the word “Deity” on the reading called “I Always Write About My Mother When I Started to Write” written by author Bia Lowe. In the reading it is part of the sentences, “She was in every way my female deity.” This was found on the second paragraph, and on page 1 of the reading. After understanding what the word “Deity” means and refer to, I learn that the word was used in the reading to describe how much the author Bia Lowe respect, and loves her mother. “Deity” is a word to describe someone who is beautiful, strong, and powerful, resembling to a god or a goddess. Bia Lowe, believes that her mother beauty is beyond this world, and she emphasize that by describing her in details of how perfect, and beautiful her mother is. BY knowing that Bia Lowe describe her mother as a female “Deity”, this shows Bia obsession for her mother. Bia Lowe claiming “She was in every way my female deity.”, tells us that she is admiring her mother, as the perfect female figure upon all females. This is “Aphrodite” the goddess of “love” and “beauty”, this is what Bia would describe her mother to be.

Image result for goddess venus cartoon

 

Buoy

Buoy: (noun):  float 2; especially, nautical: a floating object moored to the bottom to mark a channel or something (such as a shoal) lying under the water.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/buoy

The word is from, Bio Lowe: I Always Write About My Mother When I Start To Write.

“I wanted to lay them, breathtaking, at her feet, and by doing to bind her heart to mine, ever after to be buoyed up like a raft on a calmed ocean.”

In this sentence the author is trying to expalin how he/she wanted to feel their mother close to her/his heart by thinking of the love towards the mother in the calm ocean.