Verb
- Move in an energetic or noisy matter.
Noun
- Excited activity and movement.
” ‘A bunch at the back. On the sit-down part.’ ‘A bustle? It had a bustle?’ ” – (Morrison, pg21, PDF) – Beloved
Category Archives: Glossary
Petticoat
Noun
- A woman’s light, loose undergarment hanging from the shoulders or the waist, worn under a skirt or dress.
“Nor herself time to take off her petticoat, and considering she had begun undressing before she saw him on the porch, that her shoes and stockings were already in her hand and she had never put them back on; that he had looked at her wet bare feet and asked to join her; that when she rose to cook he had undressed her further; considering how quickly they had started getting naked, you’d think by now they would be. But maybe a man was nothing but a man, which is what Baby Suggs always said. ” (Morrison, pg 13, PDF) – Beloved
Anathema
Puritan
Noun
- A member of a 16th and 17th century protestant group in England and New England opposing as unscriptural the ceremonial worship and the prelacy of the church of England.
- One who practices or preaches a more rigorous or professedly purer moral code than that which prevails.
” ‘Such company, thou wouldst say,’ observed the elder person, interrupting his pause. ‘Well said, Goodman Brown! I have been as well acquainted with your family as with ever a one among the Puritans; and that’s no trifle to say.” (Hawthorne, 18, PDF) – Young Goodman Brown
Lamentations
Glossary Write-Up
1. Derision
2.Bedstead
3.Bemused
4.Testily
5.Chaste
6.Sulk
7.Spry
8.Kinsfolk
9.Episcopal
10.Inextricable
11.Snuffling
12.Behest
13.Revulsion
14.Perversity
15.Timorous
The words I have learned throughout this semester build my vocabulary and most of all provide a better understanding of the material being read. Defining words and replacing meaning is essential for breaking down any complex or hard to read passage. So I want to commend professor Rosen for that. Thank You.
Pleating
pleatin’
1. a fold of definite, even width made by doubling cloth or the like upon itself and pressing or stitching it in place.
2. to fold or arrange in pleats.
” ‘Cause he’s dead,’ says she, just as quiet and dull — and fell to pleatin’ her apron.”
“A Jury of Her Peers” By Susan Glaspell (pg 262)
Glossary – Anthology
I will be honest and say that I thought that this assignment would be really helpful in expanding my vocabulary, but most of the words that I found that I didn’t understand I don’t think that I would really get to apply on a day to day basis. I actually put a couple of words that I already knew the meaning to because I thought that maybe if I listed them, that it would encourage me to use them more often (Capricious and monotonously). I do agree that taking time to look up words that one doesn’t understand can help in making better sense of the text.
I also find the importance of having an extensive vocabulary and it’s something that I try to work on myself.
This type of exercise can definitely help with that. I subscribe to a.word.a day.com to help with that, it’s a great tool to use and the set up is such like the assignment we had to do on a weekly basis. It explains the word and puts it into a sentence so that way you can see in which context it was used.
Overall, I found this to be helpful and informative.
Capricious
Capricious: changing often and quickly; especially : often changing suddenly in mood or behavior.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/capricious
Used In “The Shawl”in the eleventh paragraph at the bottom.
We survived off him as if he were a capricious and dangerous line of work. I suppose we stopped thinking of him as a human being, certainly as a father.
I thought this to mean that his mood was always changing in volatile ways.
Tubercular
Tubercular : of, relating to, or affected with tuberculosis
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tubercular
Used in “The Shawl” by Louise Erdrich in the fifth paragraph.
His father’s chest was broad and, although he already spat the tubercular blood that would write the end of his story, he was still a strong man.
This is referring to the fact that his father suffered from tuberculosis , which a disease that affects the lungs.
