Tag Archives: word #4

Excruciating

Excruciate (adjective):                                                                                                                                      Causing great pain or anguish agonizing.                                                                                                  Very intense extreme

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

From: A Hunger Artist                                                                                                       “Sometimes there were nightly groups of watchers who carried out their vigil very laxly, deliberately sitting together in the distant corner and putting all their attention into playing card there, clearly intending to allow the hunger artist a small refreshment, which according to their way of thinking, he could get from some secret supplies. Nothing more excruciating to hunger artist than such watchers”                                                                                                                               This sentence means that people still thought that hunger artist has some secret ways of having some snakes because people believed no one could bear the hunger for a long time of period. Yet, hunger artist was a true artist who can never break his honesty although people force him to eat during his hunger game. And he was very upset with people who thought he was having secret ways of getting food, which he never did and never will.

Ebro

Ebro, noun: The second largest river in Spain, rising in the Cantabrian Mountains and flowing southeast to the Mediterranean.

Source: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/ebro

We encountered this word only once while reading “Hills like White Elephants.” It appears about halfway through the story, in the context of the setting. The Ebro is a set piece in this story meant to signify that it takes place in Spain.

“The girl stood up and walked to the end of the station. Across, on the other side, were fields of grain and trees along the banks of the Ebro. Far away, beyond the river, were mountains. The shadow of a cloud moved across the field of grain and she saw the river through the trees.”

Breadths

  • Breadths (noun): distance from side to side : width
    • Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/breadths
    • Taken from The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
      • “I know a little of the principle of design, and I know this thing was arranged on any laws of radiation, or alternation, or repetition, or symmetry, or anything else that I’ve heard of. It is repeated, of course, by the breadths, but not otherwise.”
    • The wallpaper that torments the narrator is the focal point of the story. In her writing she constantly describes what she sees in the wallpaper. The wallpaper per se is a colorful canvas left for her tormenting imagination. By describing these repetitive pattern by the breadths, the reader is able to paint the picture of what she sees.

Vindicated

Vindicated (verb) – to free from allegation or blame

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

From “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner

I came across this word while reading “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner. It appears in the reading when the author is describing Emily’s relationship life and her current circumstances, it caught my interest because I’ve heard the word before but I didn’t really know what it meant so it made me curious to find out what the writer was trying to illustrate in the story and to better understand the text.

“so when she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated; even with insanity in the family she wouldn’t have turned down all of her chances if they had really materialized.”

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 are describing being clear of blame.

Conspicuous

Conspicuous

Adjective- obvious to the eye or mind or attracting attention 

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

This word was found in The Yellow Wallpaper on the second line of page 5. “But in the places where it isn’t faded and where the sun is just so- I can see a strange,provoking formless sort of figure, that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design.”

The word really does fit into the quote well and reading it back knowing the definition helps to make the part of the story clear. The wallpaper was so obnoxious to her and she couldn’t help not to look and give it her attention.

Congenial

Congenial (adjective) – pleasant; especially agreeably suited to one’s nature, tastes, or outlook.

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

From: “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gillman

“So I take phosphates or phosphites—whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to “work” until I am well again. Personally, I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good.”

Here, the author is saying that the narrator likes do work that they enjoy, find to be pleasant and that suits them. In this case, the narrator likes to do work that provides excitement and change.

 

Ceased

Cease (verb) to come to an end, to bring an activity or action to an end discontinue                   a) the fighting gradually ceased                                                                                                                     b) they have been ordered to ceaseand desist

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

This word is from “A Rose for Emily” by Willian Faulkner, “When we next saw Miss Emily, she had grown fat and her hair was turning gray. During the next few years it grew grayer and grayer until it attained an even pepper-and-salt iron-gray, when it ceased turning”

When Emily was young, beautiful, and kind, all the town guys had a crush on her, yet, years after everyone was curious about what has happened to Emily, what was her end like. Everyone was curious, mostly woman were curious about seeing Emily’s old version like, old woman with gray hair, fat face etc.