noun :a structure built along or at an angle from the shore of navigable waters so that ships may lie alongside to receive and discharge cargo and passengers
From: What You Pawn I Will Redeem
“Back on the wharf, I stood near the Bainbridge Island Terminal and tried to sell papers to business commuters boarding the ferry.”
glossary: noun:(from m-w.com) a collection of textual glosses or of specialized terms with their meanings.
BUT–what are glosses?
gloss: noun: (from m-w.com, 3rd meaning of the word, definition 1a) a brief explanation (as in the margin or between the lines of a text) of a difficult or obscure word or expression
That means that a glossary is a collection of explanations of difficult words.
Regalia; plural noun; the decorations, insignia, or ceremonial clothes of any office or order, or
rich, fancy, or dressy clothing; finery.
From What You Pawn I Will Redeem by Sherman Alexie : “So we headed over that way, feeling like warrior drunks, and we walked past this pawnshop I’d never noticed before. And that was strange, because we Indians have built-in pawnshop radar. But the strangest thing of all was the old powwow-dance regalia I saw hanging in the window.”
The word regalia means a clothing or something of the type that is used for ceremonial events such as graduations or in this case, a traditional Indian dance. The narrator, Jackson Jackson, saw a regalia in the window of the pawnshop.
Jalousie; noun; a blind with adjustable horizontal slats for admitting light and air while excluding direct sun and rain.
From “A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner- “And as soon as the old people said, “Poor Emily,” the whispering began. “Do you suppose it’s really so?” they said to one another. “Of course it is. What else could..” This behind their hands; rustling of craned silk and satin behind jalousies closed upon the sun of Sunday afternoon as the thin, swift clop-clop-clop of the matched team passed: “Poor Emily.”
After searching this word, what I came to understand is that it is used to imply that the people of the town talked behind Emily’s back. They said “poor emily” behind closed blinds, not to talk about her in public.
Temerity: (noun): the quality of being confident and unafraid of danger or punishment especially in a way that seems rude or foolish
From the story “A Rose for Emily”; “A few of the ladies had the temerity to call, but were not received, and the only sign of life about the palace was the Negro man-a young man then–going in and out with a market basket.”
Now the sentence is clear to me that after Emily’s father death she also departed from her love due to which she kept herself in isolation. So only few ladies attempted to call her inorder to show sympathy, or give the company, but Emily didn’t responded them.
Peculiarity – noun; 1) the quality or state of being peculiar – adjective – different from the usual or normal
From the story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne “It was all as lonely as could be; and there is this peculiarity in such a solitude, that the traveler knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead; so that, with lonely footsteps, he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude.” (paragraph 8)
Now I understand that he know it’s going to be a lonely trip but something special is waiting ahead of him after he pass through this road.
Elixir: noun : a sweetened liquid usually containing alcohol that is used in medication either for its medicinal ingredients or as a flavoring.
From the “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin. “Go away. I am not making myself ill.” No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window. (paragraph 16).
I understand that Louise Mallard had a heart trouble and this substance can possibly help cure her condition, she was drinking it fast as it had alcohol in it and it caused the affect that she could see her whole life through the window.
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