Category Archives: Glossary

Glossary

Demurred

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Demurred (intransitive verb): 1 archaic: delay, hesitate

2: to file a demurrer

3: to take exception: object—often used with to or at (Merriam-Webster)

Found on Page 53, paragraph 2 of “The Cottagette”–>One day he came around early and asked me to go up Hugh’s Peak with him. It was a lovely climb and took all day. I demurred a little, it was Monday, Mrs. Fowler thought it was cheaper to have a woman come and wash, and we did, but it certainly made more work.

I believe this word in the quote means that Malda hesitated to go out with Mr. Matthews because she was mostly concerned about the home being washed by another woman. Previously, it states that Malda preferred to wash the dishes by herself, so bringing someone else to the house made her apprehensive because she did not know how this woman was going to clean her home.

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Glossary

Domesticity

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Domesticity (noun): life inside a home: the activities of a family or of the people who share a home (Merriam-Webster)

Found on Page 50, paragraph 11 of “The Cottagette”–>”Don’t be foolish, child,” said Lois, “this is serious. What they care for most after all is domesticity. Of course they’ll fall in love with anything; but what they want to marry is a homemaker.”

I believe this word in the quote means that Lois was telling Malda that in order for Ford Matthews to love her or marry her, she would always have to be a woman that was fervently involved in the duties of a homemaker such as cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, and doing anything that involved the needs of the family.

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Glossary

POWWOW

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Powwow (Young Goodman Brown/Paragraphs (43, 52, 56)
noun
Pronunciation: Pau – Wau

-A social gathering of Native Americans that usually includes dancing.
-A meeting for people to discuss something.
-A Native American Priest/Medicine Man.

Context:
-Paragraph 43: They tell me that some of our community are to be here from Falmouth and beyond, and others from Connecticut and Rhode Island; besides several of the Indian powwows….
-Paragraph 52: Come witch, come wizard, come Indian powwow….
-Paragraph 56: Scattered, also, among their pale-faced enemies, were the Indian priests, or powwows….

Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/powwow

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Glossary

Gushed out

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I picked the word from first sentence of page 19: “Gregor gushed out these words”
Gush
: to flow out very quickly and in large amounts

: to produce a large amount of (a quickly flowing liquid)

: to speak in an extremely enthusiastic way

The meaning in this context is that Gregor spelled out these words.

Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gush

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Glossary

Firmament

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” While he gazed upward, into the deep arch of the firmament, and..” (47)
Firmament is the curve of the sky thought of as a solid object.
Firmament
fir·ma·ment
noun

1) The heavens or the sky, especially when regarded as a tangible thing.
2) A sphere or world viewed as a collection of people.
“one of the great stars in the American golfing firmament”
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Glossary

Obstinate

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Obstinate (The story of “The Metamorphosis”)
Adjective
To firmly or stubbornly adhering to one’s purpose.
Person can be characterized by inflexible persistence or an yielding attitude.

But since he had been in work he had become more obstinate and would always insist on staying longer at the table, even though he regularly fell asleep and it was then harder than ever to persuade him to exchange the chair for his bed.
 This is when someone stick to what they believe in, refusing to change on how they feel about their opinion. This can cause the person to come off as stubborn. It may be hard to change this person gut feeling.
Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/obstinate
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Glossary

Serpentine

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Serpentine(The story of “Young Goodman Brown”) by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Noun
-It can be considered as a snake.
Adjective
-It can be mottled or spotted like a snake skin
-A thing in the shape of a winding curve or line, in particular
He had cast up his eyes in astonishment, and looking down again, beheld neither Goody Cloyse nor the serpentine staff, but his fellow-traveller alone, who waited for him as calmly as if nothing had happened.
It is something that looks like a rock or a stone and feels like snake skin. It can come in many different shapes or forms, it looks very earthly and may be green.

Source: www.google.com search engine “Serpentine”

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Glossary

Pious

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  • Pious – adjective -deeply religious; devoted to a particular religion; falsely appearing to be good or moral via merriam-webster.com
  • Encountered in the short story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne,  paragraph forty-seven.
  • “Once the listener fancied that he could distinguish the accents of t owns – people of his own, men and women, both pious and ungodly, many of whom he had met at the communion table, and had seen others rioting at the tavern.” – Narrator
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Glossary, Week 4

Soughing

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Sough – to make a moaning or sighing sound.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sough

Used in “The Metamorphosis”, on page 20; middle of the second paragraph.

He was still occupied with this difficult movement, unable to pay attention to anything else, when he heard  the chief clerk exclaim a loud  “Oh!”, which sounded like soughing in the wind.

At first, I thought the word “sough” meant to bury something. The word in the sentence describes how the chief clerk says “Oh”. I pictured it to sound somewhat breathless and scared as he saw Gregor in his terrifying state.

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Glossary

Revulsion

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Revulsion (noun) – a sense of utter distaste or repugnance.

This was found in “The Metamorphosis,” on page 34, in the second paragraph. “On the contrary, as a family there was a duty to swallow any revulsion for him and to be patient, just to be patient.”

Gregor’s family knew that they had a duty to ignore any distaste they might feel towards him since his transformation and to just have patience.

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