"How It Feels to Be Colored Me"

Zora Neale Hurston did not finish high school until her late 20s, and she was closing in on 40 by the time she graduated from Barnard College. Despite her struggles, she went on to success as a writer and anthropologist. Her upbeat spirit is evident in her personal essay.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 11 Unit 5's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: The Harlem Renaissance, The New Negro, To Usward, Lift Every Voice and Sing, On 'From the Dark Tower' , How It Feels to Be Colored Me, Sweat, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Mother to Son, critical reviews
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. extenuating
    partially excusing or justifying
    I am colored but I offer nothing in the way of extenuating circumstances except the fact that I am the only Negro in the United States whose grandfather on the mother's side was not an Indian chief.
  2. first-nighter
    someone habitually a spectator at the openings of theatrical productions
    My favorite place was atop the gatepost. Proscenium box for a born first-nighter.
  3. compliment
    a remark expressing praise and admiration
    Usually the automobile or the horse paused at this, and after a queer exchange of compliments, I would probably "go a piece of the way" with them, as we say in farthest Florida.
  4. bribe
    payment made to corrupt a person in a position of trust
    They liked to hear me "speak pieces" and sing and wanted to see me dance the parse-me-la, and gave me generously of their small silver for doing these things, which seemed strange to me, for I wanted to do them so much that I needed bribing to stop.
  5. deplore
    express strong disapproval of
    They deplored any joyful tendencies in me, but I was their Zora nevertheless.
  6. oleander
    an ornamental but poisonous flowering shrub having narrow evergreen leaves and clusters of fragrant white to pink or red flowers: native to East Indies but widely cultivated in warm regions
    I left Eatonville, the town of the oleanders, as Zora.
  7. pigmentation
    coloration of living tissues
    Even in the helter-skelter skirmish that is my life, I have seen that the world is to the strong regardless of a little pigmentation more or less.
  8. Hegira
    the flight of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 which marked the beginning of the Muslim era; the Muslim calendar begins in that year
    I do not always feel colored. Even now I often achieve the unconscious Zora of Eatonville before the Hegira.
  9. surge
    rise and move, as in waves or billows
    Among the thousand white persons, I am a dark rock surged upon, and overswept, but through it all, I remain myself.
  10. ebb
    the outward flow of the tide
    When covered by the waters, I am; and the ebb but reveals me again.
  11. rambunctious
    noisy and lacking in restraint or discipline
    This orchestra grows rambunctious, rears on its hind legs and attacks the tonal veil with primitive fury, rending it, clawing it until it breaks through the jungle beyond.
  12. exulting
    joyful and proud especially because of triumph or success
    I follow those heathen--follow them exultingly.
  13. assegai
    the slender spear of the Bantu-speaking people of Africa
    I dance wildly inside myself; I yell within, I whoop; I shake my assegai above my head, I hurl it true to the mark yeeeeooww!
  14. veneer
    coating consisting of a thin layer of wood
    I creep back slowly to the veneer we call civilization with the last tone and find the white friend sitting motionless in his seat, smoking calmly.
  15. saunter
    walk leisurely and with no apparent aim
    When I set my hat at a certain angle and saunter down Seventh Avenue, Harlem City, feeling as snooty as the lions in front of the Forty-Second Street Library, for instance.
  16. raiment
    especially fine or decorative clothing
    So far as my feelings are concerned, Peggy Hopkins Joyce on the Boule Mich with her gorgeous raiment, stately carriage, knees knocking together in a most aristocratic manner, has nothing on me.
  17. fragment
    a piece broken off or cut off of something else
    I am merely a fragment of the great Soul that surges within the boundaries.
  18. deny
    refuse to let have
    How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company?
  19. miscellany
    a collection containing a variety of sorts of things
    But in the main, I feel like a brown bag of miscellany propped against a wall.
  20. first water
    the highest quality gems
    A first water diamond, an empty spool, bits of broken glass, lengths of string, a key to a door long since crumbled away, a rusty knife blade, old shoes saved for a road that never was and never will be, a nail bent under the weight of things too heavy for any nail, a dried flower or two still a little fragrant.
Created on Mon Nov 17 07:04:07 EST 2014 (updated Mon Nov 17 09:21:22 EST 2014)

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