Everything Sad Is Untrue: List 2

by Daniel Nayeri
In this novel, based on the author's real experiences, a young immigrant recounts his family's history.

This list covers pages 50–148 of the 2020 Levine Querido edition.

Here are links to our lists for the memoir: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4
35 words 90 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. straddle
    sit or stand astride of
    Cutting straight across the meadow was a secret tiny river no wider than the length of my arm. I could hop back and forth, or straddle it like a giant.
  2. skiff
    a small boat propelled by oars or by sails or by a motor
    I was once the prince of a great green city on the banks of a river one thousand times bigger than this, with skiffs and feluccas, and galleons sailing on it to bring my people silk, spices, and animals as you have never seen from the corners of the world.
  3. galleon
    a large square-rigged sailing ship with three or more masts
    I was once the prince of a great green city on the banks of a river one thousand times bigger than this, with skiffs and feluccas, and galleons sailing on it to bring my people silk, spices, and animals as you have never seen from the corners of the world.
  4. gully
    a deep ditch cut by running water
    My magic river was just a drainage gully.
  5. larder
    a small storeroom for storing foods or wines
    Her job was to fill two bowls with fresh yogurt from the sacks hanging in the basement larder, where the floor was packed dirt, and where the old cook kept his pickling jars.
  6. encroach
    impinge or infringe upon
    To see the khan’s horse rear up at an encroaching darkness that pounces on him like a pack of wolves.
  7. lapse
    pass into a specified state or condition
    Before she can finish each one, we are told “the morning overtook Scheherazade, who lapsed into silence,” leaving the king burning to hear the rest.
  8. leper
    one afflicted with a disease involving wasting of body parts
    He dances with every member of a village of lepers, and heals them with nothing more than a kind touch.
  9. fallow
    left unplowed and unseeded during a growing season
    The fields went fallow.
  10. steward
    one having charge of buildings or grounds or animals
    She had no one but the old cook, and the steward family who kept the orchards, and the harvesters who lived in the village.
  11. kin
    group of people related by blood or marriage
    But they couldn’t defend her against her own kin.
  12. parchment
    a superior paper resembling sheepskin
    Farhad held the creature in his calloused and dusty hands and pulled a roll of parchment from the tube tied around its leg.
  13. fester
    gnaw into; make resentful or angry
    His heart had festered with murder and jealousy—so little by little he boiled away all the loving parts.
  14. cleave
    separate or cut with a tool, such as a sharp instrument
    It was clear that Hassan did not need to cleave a mountain to win Aziz.
  15. indecent
    not in keeping with accepted standards of polite society
    Hassan kissed Aziz quickly, so the greengrocer across the street and his wife—who spoke to their individual cats more than to each other—would not spread rumors that the young couple were indecent.
  16. ferment
    go sour or spoil
    You have to seal them up tight like pickles and keep out impurities like how hurt you feel when you open them. Or they’ll ferment and poison your brain.
  17. seethe
    be in an agitated emotional state
    “If anything had gone wrong,” said Hassan, seething.
  18. shaft
    a column of light
    “A shaft of white light from the ceiling,” he would say, “but deep in the back of the shop, where there are no windows.”
  19. relish
    derive or receive pleasure from
    She ran across town, knowing the physician would relish every moment of Hassan’s wife begging for his life.
  20. profound
    of the greatest intensity; complete
    Or that a feud is a profoundly stupid thing.
  21. wiry
    lean but strong
    Wes was a wiry hillbilly.
  22. fellowship
    an association of people who share beliefs or activities
    So Bobby snuck up behind me again and snatched my cap again and ran out of the fellowship hall.
  23. bleary
    tired to the point of exhaustion
    One morning Sherry was at the door with another cat, this one trailed by a bunch of bleary kittens.
  24. sliver
    break up into small, thin, sharp bits
    Then she gives me a cardamom pound cake with slivered almonds on top.
  25. dappled
    having spots or patches of color
    I squinted at every dappled leaf in the mulberry wood, hoping to see leopard eyes looking back.
  26. conspire
    act in agreement and in secret towards a deceitful purpose
    For a moment like that all the universe would have to conspire to move all its pieces and line them up just so.
  27. samovar
    a metal urn with a spigot at the base
    After dinners, the family would sit in the open terrace with bowls of dried apricots, and pistachios, sugar candies, and a big samovar of black tea.
  28. cascade
    rush down in big quantities
    Sometimes it makes a tiny waterfall cascading next to a dirt staircase leading down to a new terrace of houses.
  29. conquest
    the act of defeating and taking control of
    After the Muslim conquest in the years around 750 AD, they all switched to Arabic.
  30. alchemy
    a pseudoscientific forerunner of chemistry in medieval times
    He was the guy who wrote the properties of things, like how aloe soothes skin, and ginseng gives you focus. It was like alchemy back then, but later people realized it was the first book of medicine.
  31. currant
    a small red or black berry used in jellies and jams
    In any Persian market, you can get cherry leather, or black currant.
  32. sheaf
    a package of several things tied together
    In my mind, Kaveh the librarian would sit in his library with a book in his lap and a stack of fruit leather next to him like sheafs of paper.
  33. imam
    the person who leads prayers in a mosque
    It wouldn’t spill on anything, and he could keep it shelved in between the covers of a book that had no pages after an imam had torn them out for offending Allah.
  34. inconsolable
    sad beyond comforting
    Sometimes, she would put her head on his shoulder—after a poem about birds or something—and cry inconsolable tears.
  35. stingy
    unwilling to spend
    When they get fruit chews, other kids usually say, “Don’t be stingy. I’ll get you one back tomorrow.”
Created on Wed Apr 07 09:53:51 EDT 2021 (updated Mon Apr 12 12:05:04 EDT 2021)

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