Everything Sad Is Untrue: List 3

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 149–248 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 77 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. bumpkin
    a person who is awkward, uncultured, or unsophisticated
    He kept saying she was a big bumpkin pumpkin and I don’t think she would have even done anything except he kept cackling in her ear.
  2. wallow
    roll around
    And definitely don’t be the leaf wallowing in it.
  3. cheeky
    offensively bold
    She was cheeky like our dad, and when grown-ups were around, she’d say things no six-year-old could possibly know and they’d all laugh.
  4. bashful
    self-consciously timid
    But when she’d cry about it, everybody was awkward, because the kid’s parents didn’t really care (and didn’t want people like us in their kid’s class), and the teacher was a bashful British lady who wasn’t going to take sides.
  5. pelt
    cast, hurl, or throw repeatedly with some missile
    Some kid pelts her with crayons.
  6. sever
    cut off from a whole
    At that moment, if you looked in her eyes, past the tears, I bet you wouldn’t even see the pain of a severed finger, but the shock of how cruel people can be.
  7. conversion
    a change of religion
    She came to England unwilling to hear Ellie’s (or Sanaz’s) conversion story. When they arrived in England, they found a church that welcomed them. That made them Christians.
  8. gird
    prepare oneself for action or a confrontation
    But we’re going to have to talk about it soon, so gird your loins, reader.
  9. potpourri
    a jar of mixed flower petals and spices used as perfume
    Probably every bedroom in their house has a bathroom with candles and potpourri and stuff.
  10. minion
    a servile or fawning dependent
    Then the clock strikes twelve and the king yawns. He summons his minions to carry him to bed.
  11. scimitar
    a curved saber used in Eastern countries
    They’re eyeing each other over his corpse and fingering their scimitars like it’s high noon in an Oklahoma boomtown, except in the desert.
  12. rigor mortis
    temporary stiffness of joints and muscles after death
    The rigor mortis of the Prophet whistles a gunslinger tune.
  13. faction
    a dissenting clique
    Burying him was the last thing the two factions would do together.
  14. apostle
    an ardent early supporter of a cause or reform
    He had the apostles and then later, the popes.
  15. frenzy
    state of violent mental agitation
    The smaller the army, the more it has to whip itself up into a frenzy.
  16. beget
    have children
    And people who are sayyed have these lists that go, “Muhammad begat this dude, who begat another dude, who begat so and so...”
  17. chador
    a cloth used as a head and body covering by Muslim women
    The old lady standing there was little, with a crooked back and a black chador framing her face, so you couldn’t even tell if she had hair.
  18. quirky
    strikingly unconventional
    You can’t say it’s a quirky thing she thinks sometimes, cause she went all the way with it.
  19. premise
    a statement that is held to be true
    You just accept the premise that yo’ mama is dumb and we move on from there.
  20. vile
    morally reprehensible
    A “najis” thing is a “vile” thing.
  21. loathsome
    highly offensive; arousing aversion or disgust
    To the Supreme Leader of Iran at that time, a najis sayyed would be a loathsome thing, a God-hater, a spoiled child, an insult to the Holy Prophet, someone whose badness it’s not even said what to do with.
  22. ransack
    search thoroughly
    In the middle of assignments, teachers would hold up a picture of a whiskey bottle and ask if anyone recognized it. An eager six-year-old might raise her hand, and come home to find a ransacked house and Daddy gone.
  23. expanse
    a wide and open space or area, as of land, sea, or sky
    In fact, if you stand in the wide flat expanse of an Oklahoma field you can watch a rain cloud roll in from miles and miles away, pulling a curtain of rain across the prairie toward you and your little body will collide with less than a trillionth of it.
  24. wilt
    become limp
    All the leaves wilted and shrank until they all disappeared into the broth.
  25. falafel
    fried croquette of mashed chickpeas and spices
    A god who speaks is like your best teacher, who tells Brandon Goff he has to leave the room if he’s going to call people falafel monkeys.
  26. intervention
    the act of getting involved
    When my mom describes it all, she skips over the interrogation and the panic and says it was a time of three miracles—three things that couldn’t have happened without the intervention of angels.
  27. sprig
    a small branch or stem, usually with leaves or flowers
    I would have maybe gotten a sprig of jasmine from the yard and kept it in my pocket.
  28. blasphemy
    profane language
    “And the mind can do anything. It can create anything. It is God, Khosrou. The mind is God.”
    “That’s blasphemy, Dad.”
  29. wraith
    a ghostly figure, especially one seen shortly before death
    It was late summer, when tornadoes ride up and down the state every night like wraiths, and sometimes attack the towns looking for hobbits, who are really just kids.
  30. shingle
    building material used as siding or roofing
    “If it gets under the shingles, it’ll flood the house.”
  31. waft
    be driven or carried along, as by the air
    That means little bits...wafting in the air have gone into your nose and down your throat, and your body is telling you whatever you do, don’t eat any more.
  32. conjure
    summon into action or bring into existence
    When I say we snuck into a plane, you probably conjure up whatever plane you saw last.
  33. contemplate
    consider as a possibility
    When he says to his dad, “How can you contemplate leaving me? Of the world’s flowers, my share is only thorns.”
  34. recede
    become faint or more distant
    Or in Final Fantasy where the whole world recedes and it’s just you and the bad guy in a space like an empty page.
  35. emir
    an independent ruler or chieftain
    It’s actually made of seven emirates, which are like states, but more like principalities, because they’re owned by seven princes called emirs.
Created on Wed Apr 07 09:54:12 EDT 2021 (updated Mon Apr 12 12:08:44 EDT 2021)

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