The Color Purple Glossary

Glossary of Terms

Announcement

Flyer; advertising handout. Albert has several flyers of Shug in the back of his car.

Button

Clitoris or g-spot

Cookstove

Cooker

Cuss

To curse, criticize, or insult

Daidie

Diaper

Git big

Get pregnant

Hansker

Handkerchief

Hant

Ghost; something that haunts

Headrag

Cloth tied around the skull, with a knot at the base, allowing a small flap to hang down over the neck

Her friend

Euphemism for menstruation

Juke joint

A social gathering-place like a bar, for music and especially blues music, particularly in the early decades of the twentieth century, mainly frequented by African Americans in the southeastern United States

Kinfolks

Relatives

Miration

Admiration

Niggerish

Angry or aggressive

Old Maker

God

Pick his box

To scratch a record. Swain picks his box at Harpo's as the resident DJ.

Rassle

Wrestle

Sass

Confrontational attitude (n); to argue with, provoke, or confront (v)

Spose

Supposed to

Teefs

teeth

Virgin

Someone who has not yet experienced a certain transformative event; to Shug, a virgin is someone who has never had an orgasm

Yourn

Your own