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Ella Minnow Pea: List 1

Eighteen-year-old Ella Minnow Pea fights to save her family, friends, and neighbors after the local government forbids the use certain letters of the alphabet in written and spoken communications.

This list covers "July 23"–"August 8."

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
40 words 243 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

  1. apprise
    inform somebody of something
    Much has happened during your one-month sojourn off-island. Perhaps your Village neighbors have apprised you.
  2. cenotaph
    monument to honor those whose remains are interred elsewhere
    On Monday, July 17, a most intriguing thing took place: one of the tiles from the top of the cenotaph at town center came loose and fell to the ground, shattering into a good many pieces.
  3. contingent
    a gathering of persons representative of some larger group
    Olive, whom the laundress corps elected to attend as our representative/observer, given the need for a nearly full contingent of workers at the launderette on this particular day, returned much later than expected to report the have-and-say of the lengthy session, specifically with regard to the aforementioned issue and question before the Council.
  4. beneficence
    the quality of being kind or helpful or generous
    This explanation seemed quite the logical one to me, as well as to my fellow laundresses, with the single exception of one Lydia Threadgate who holds the Council in bloated esteem due to a past bestowal of Council- beneficence, and who would not be dissuaded by a healthy dose of our dull-brass-and-pauper’s-punch brand of logic.
  5. reprisal
    a retaliatory action against an enemy
    However, in the end, our assessments and opinions counted for (and continue to count for) precious little, and we have kept our public speculation to a minimum for fear of government reprisal, so charged with distrust and suspicion have the esteemed island elders (and elderess) become following last year’s unfortunate visit by that predatory armada of land speculators from the States...
  6. paltry
    not worth considering
    With the Council in high conference for the succeeding forty-eight hours, the washboard brigade made at least two pilgrimages to town center, there to gaze up at the much revered cenotaph and its salt-wind-eroded statuary likeness of our most venerated Mr. Nevin Nollop—the man for whom this island nation was lovingly named—the man without whom this shifting slab of sand and palmetto would hold paltry placement in the annals of world history.
  7. lexical
    of or relating to words
    How different the world would be today if not for the sentence which the lexically gifted Mr. Nollop issued forth! How we cherish his contribution to the English-speaking world of one short sentence that employs with minimal repetition each of the twenty-six letters of our alphabet!
  8. imposing
    befitting an important, distinguished, or powerful person
    Yet remember that here we made up for the lack of global acclaim by honoring him with this imposing statue.
  9. summarily
    quickly and without following customary procedures
    Pop volunteered to repair the tile and return it to its rightful place. His offer was summarily rejected.
  10. manifestation
    an indication of the existence of some person or thing
    There was, without doubt, purpose to the tumble: this event constituting, in my belief, a terrestrial manifestation of Mr. Nollop’s wishes.
  11. discern
    perceive, recognize, or detect
    Mr. Nevin Nollop speaks to us from beyond the grave, my fellow Nollopians. We will listen with open ears, discern his intent, and follow those wishes accordingly.
  12. empyrean
    of or relating to the sky or heavens
    On Wednesday, July 19, the Council, having gleaned and discerned, released its official verdict: the fall of the tile bearing the letter “Z” constitutes the terrestrial manifestation of an empyrean Nollopian desire, that desire most surely being that the letter “Z” should be utterly excised—fully extirpated—absolutively heave-ho’ed from our communal vocabulary!
  13. excise
    remove by erasing or crossing out or as if by drawing a line
    On Wednesday, July 19, the Council, having gleaned and discerned, released its official verdict: the fall of the tile bearing the letter “Z” constitutes the terrestrial manifestation of an empyrean Nollopian desire, that desire most surely being that the letter “Z” should be utterly excised—fully extirpated—absolutively heave-ho’ed from our communal vocabulary!
  14. extirpate
    destroy completely, as if down to the roots
    On Wednesday, July 19, the Council, having gleaned and discerned, released its official verdict: the fall of the tile bearing the letter “Z” constitutes the terrestrial manifestation of an empyrean Nollopian desire, that desire most surely being that the letter “Z” should be utterly excised—fully extirpated—absolutively heave-ho’ed from our communal vocabulary!
  15. superfluous
    serving no useful purpose; having no excuse for being
    Henceforth, use of the arguably superfluous twenty-sixth letter will be outlawed from all island speech and graphy.
  16. reprimand
    an act or expression of criticism and censure
    They are as follows: to speak or write any word containing the letter “Z,” or to be found in possession of any written communication containing this letter, one will receive for a first offense, a public oral reprimand either by a member of the island Law Enforcement Brigade (known with trembling affection as the L.E.B.) or by member of its civilian-auxiliary.
  17. complacency
    the feeling you have when you are satisfied with yourself
    That having absented himself from the lives of his fellow islanders for lo these one hundred and seven years, the Great Nollop now rouses himself briefly from his eternal snooze to examine our language and our employment of it, and in so doing rouses us from our own sleepy complacency by taking this only marginally important letter from us.
  18. epistle
    a specially long, formal letter
    For, with the exception of the use of the letter in reference to itself and its employment in the word “lazy” affixed in permanence to its partner “dog,” I have, in scanning the text of my epistle to you thus far, discovered only three merest of uses: in the words “gaze,” “immortalized,” and “snooze.”
  19. edict
    a formal or authoritative proclamation
    The edict is to take effect at the moment of midnight cusp on August 7/8.
  20. fealty
    the loyalty that one owes to a country, sovereign, or lord
    What it holds for us, I do not know, but I shall give this thing the benefit of cautious initial fealty.
  21. sapience
    ability to apply knowledge, experience, or understanding
    The Council, in its ridiculous wisdom, will be assigning to dust bins and community pyres centuries of the finest examples of sapience and sagacity—volume upon volume of history, literature, and thought promulgated through the medium of this cherished language of kings and knaves, scholars and clowns, to be replaced, dear Cuz, by the anemic and uninquiring ramblings of this flock of humans-become-ground-pecking sarilla geese...
  22. promulgate
    state or announce
    The Council, in its ridiculous wisdom, will be assigning to dust bins and community pyres centuries of the finest examples of sapience and sagacity—volume upon volume of history, literature, and thought promulgated through the medium of this cherished language of kings and knaves, scholars and clowns, to be replaced, dear Cuz, by the anemic and uninquiring ramblings of this flock of humans-become-ground-pecking sarilla geese...
  23. importunity
    insistent solicitation and entreaty
    For unlike our feathered neighbors who protest the tiniest importunities against their dignity, we will keep our beaks clamped tightly shut, not emitting even so much as a peep of dissatisfaction.
  24. fetter
    a shackle for the ankles or feet
    For it stands to rob us of the freedom to communicate without any manner of fetter or harness.
  25. preeminence
    high status importance owing to marked superiority
    We are a well-educated, well-versed, and well-spoken people whom Mr. Nollop has taught to elevate language to a certain preeminence unmatched by our vocabu-lazy American neighbors across the sound.
  26. redress
    act of correcting an error or a fault or an evil
    Installed for life, with complex legal procedures for official recall, copies of which will soon be disappearing from the shelves of our island libraries (if they haven’t already!), this council has set us up for a most difficult period without any avenue for redress.
  27. littoral
    of or relating to a coastal or shore region
    Nollop “Im”-Pass is mired again from last week's heavy rains, and the Littoral Loop has yet to be reopened following the early summer inundata. (I would avoid the Littoral Loop, in any event, as it is, while scenic, the longest distance between two points known to man.)
  28. pedestrian
    lacking wit or imagination
    And please understand my unwillingness to trespass upon the Pony Expresspath; the sprinting Pony brother-couriers are Mercury-swift these days, and I would prefer that my obituary not read, “She was ingloriously run over by a fleet-footed fourteen-year-old. ” If I am to have any choice in the matter, I would choose a less pedestrian death, thank-you-very-much.
  29. missive
    a written message addressed to a person or organization
    You will notice that with the exception of the use of the letter “Z” in the anserous term “vocabu-lazy, ” the affectionately familiar “Cuz,” and the mischievously manufactured “bezide,” the letter is employed nowhere else in this missive.
  30. moratorium
    a legally authorized postponement
    I trust that having read it, you will put quick flame to it for it will have been received after the onset of this peculiar prohibition, and I do not wish to place you or your mother in any jeopardy whatsoever, for I understand there will be no moratorium, and no lenience shown any offender over the age of seven.
  31. confluence
    a coming together of people
    It has been an odd gathering—a warm confluence of kindred souls—yet in terms of the pervasive atmosphere, conversely, even perversely funereal.
  32. jocular
    characterized by jokes and good humor
    His jocular carpenter-mates Buzz and Zeke ask that they now be called, respectively, Lil’ Tristan and Prince Valiant-the-Comely.
  33. ostracism
    the state of being banished or excluded
    Hundreds of words await ostracism from our functional vocabularies: waltz and fizz and squeeze and booze and frozen pizza pie, frizzy and fuzzy and dizzy and duzzy, the visualization of emphyzeema-zapped Tarzans, wheezing and sneezing, holding glazed and anodized bazookas, seized by all the bizarrities of this zany zone we call home.
  34. ineffable
    defying expression or description
    For we cannot even write of its history. Because to write of it, is to write it. And as of midnight, it becomes ineffable.
  35. pall
    a sudden feeling of dread or gloominess
    As your family’s parties go, I’m sure it was a memorable one, although the hovering pall must have sent folks home a little earlier than usual.
  36. proscribe
    command against
    Mother spent much of the school day in halt and stammer lest she speak the proscribed letter and find herself brought up on charges.
  37. caesura
    a pause or interruption
    Perhaps they will eventually disappear altogether, and the accompanying halts and stammers as well: those troublesome, maddening pauses that at present invade and punctuate through caesura all manner of discourse.
  38. wont
    an established custom
    I understand his hives will soon be destroyed, his livelihood ripped from him. For the bees speak the offending letter as their wont.
  39. obeisance
    dutiful or submissive behavior
    Such a perturbulent distraction it is to a community attempting to follow edict with obeisance!
  40. blatant
    without any attempt at concealment; completely obvious
    Use of such asterisk will carry the same penalty as would use of the prohibited letter itself, for one is blatant stand-in for the other with meaning wholly transparent.
Created on Mon Jan 31 13:36:57 EST 2022 (updated Thu Feb 10 10:13:26 EST 2022)

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