I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Glossary

Taffeta

A silk-like fabric

Persimmon

A sweet fruit that looks like a large tomato

Calamitous

Involving catastrophe or disaster

Troubadour

A poet who puts their words to music

Boll

The rounded part of a cotton plant that contains the seed

Abacus

An apparatus used for counting and calculating

Mite

A very small amount

Rakish

Having or showing a dashing, disreputable appearance

Chinaberry

A type of deciduous tree from the mahogany family

Weevil

A small beetle known for killing crops

Impudent

To not show proper respect for others

Apparition

A ghost or ghostly image

Roustabout

An unskilled worker

Indignity

Treatment or situations that make someone feel shame or a loss of dignity

Hominy

A type of hard corn used to make grits

Sobriquet

A person’s nickname

Chifforobe

A piece of furniture used to keep clothes, with separate spaces for drawers and hanging space

Gaffe

An unintentional mistake or blunder

Admonish

To warn or reprimand someone

Bombastic

High-sounding but lacking meaning or substance

Quadroon

A person who is one-quarter black

Siditty

Snobbish or pretentious (also spelled as "seddity")

Appellation

A name or title

Foreman

A boss man or worker that is in charge of others

Quandary

A state of confusion about a situation or circumstance

Uppity

Self-important or arrogant

Morose

Sullen and ill-tempered

Inequity

Injustice or lack of fairness

Benign

Gentle and kind

Moors

A stretch of open, uncultivated land

Impish

Naughty or mischievous

Mumbledypeg

An old children’s game played with pocketknives

Mote

A tiny piece of matter

Commensurate

Proportional

Comeuppance

A punishment that someone has earned or deserves; just desserts

Bowers and scrappers

Hard workers or servants

Ecumenical

A word denoting unity among different Christian churches

Teenincy

A Southern slang word meaning "tiny"

Onerous

Requiring an oppressive and difficult amount of work and effort

Enweaved

To work through

Cyclopean

Relating to the eye of Cyclops, the one-eyed monster

Farcical

Absurd, ridiculous, or fake

Calaboose

A prison

Varlet

A dishonest, unprincipled man

Peckerwood

A slang word for "poor white person"

Stratagem

A plan or scheme

Djinn

A genie

Didoes

Impish tricks or deeds

Pinochle

A card game

Nisei

A second-generation Japanese American

Rarefied

Distant from the lives and experiences of pedestrian people

Florid

A red, flushed complexion

Arabesque

An ornament design with origins in Arabic and Moorish culture

Recrimination

An accusation given in response to an accusation from someone else

Bilked

To cheat or bamboozle someone out of money

Lucullan

Extremely luxurious

Liveried

To be uniformed

Mercados

A Spanish word meaning "market"

Cantina

In Spanish-speaking countries, a bar

Bedizened

Decorated gaudily

Blasé

Uninterested or indifferent towards something because one has seen it often before

Oedipial skein

A confusing knot of mother-son relations

Pavane

A courtly dance from the 16th or 17th century

Obeisance

Deferential respect

Claque

A group of people hired to support from the sidelines

Supercilious

Acting or appearing as if one is better than others

Tripartite

To have three parts

Malaise

A general feeling of discomfort or uneasiness whose source is unclear

Brouhaha

A noisy and dramatic response to something