Holloway: Chapters 11–16

by Elana K. Arnold
Nora's Paris journey begins in 2021 with her mother's ashes after losing her during the pandemic. A dark holloway transports Nora back to 1946, but her goal remains: find a way to honor her mother — and heal herself — in a broken world.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Chapters 1–5, Chapters 6–10, Chapters 11–16, Chapters 17–20, Chapters 21–29
15 words 4 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. predilection
    a predisposition in favor of something
    I wonder what it is with these boys, if it’s a regional thing, as we’re so far from any big cities, or if it’s just a thing in their group of friends, this predilection for vintage gear.
  2. scrim
    anything that obscures or conceals
    But according to Ms. Callum’s marks, I should have also circled three others. The quiz blurred through the scrim of unspilled tears.
    “You scored my test wrong.”
  3. upshot
    a phenomenon that is caused by some previous phenomenon
    I don’t know what sort of conversation Gillian had with Ms. Callum, but the upshot was that I was exempted from the rest of that unit and went to the library to do free reading.
  4. exempt
    grant relief from a rule or requirement to
    I don’t know what sort of conversation Gillian had with Ms. Callum, but the upshot was that I was exempted from the rest of that unit and went to the library to do free reading.
  5. inoculate
    inject or treat with the germ of a disease to render immune
    Their goal all along was to inoculate everyone and make huge profits while injecting us with a dangerously untested chemical brew.
  6. knell
    the sound of a bell rung slowly to announce a death
    Down the way—a church spire, and from it, the crisp, clear ring of a bell. One, two, three, four, five, six.
    The final knell takes a long time to fade, its vibrations moving through me.
  7. brogue
    a thick and heavy shoe
    Up close, in the shadows of early evening, details of their dress: the sharp tilt of his hat’s brim; the double breast of his coat. The fine leatherwork of his brogues. Her stockings. The length of her skirt. The sunshine wave of her scarf.
  8. pipette
    a tube to measure or transfer precise volumes of liquid
    One of the glasses held water; each of the other three contained diluted food coloring in a primary color: always, from left to right, blue, red, yellow. Alphabetical. In each glass was a dropper. In front of them was a row of nine pipettes.
  9. influx
    the process of flowing in
    A cold influx, then, of liquid into a vein in my hand, up my arm—the path the liquid takes as it moves through my body’s venous network, a network I have never seen and yet which I believe in.
  10. acrid
    strong and sharp, as a taste or smell
    The cigarette emits a thin, acrid trail of smoke.
  11. comport
    behave in a certain manner
    Everyone here—both sane and otherwise—is dressed and comports themselves as if they, too, exist in the middle of the last century.
  12. preponderance
    a superiority in numbers or amount
    Everything around me, from the furnishings to the clothes that people wear to the preponderance of indoor smokers, seems to confirm what Adrien told me in the cave, what the man in Montignac repeated: that it’s 1946.
  13. intrinsic
    belonging to a thing by its very nature
    One does not see the yellowness of a lemon, as intrinsic as the color seems to be to its lemon-ness; a lemon doesn’t actually contain yellow but rather reflects wavelengths of light that one interprets as yellow.
  14. tenuous
    lacking substance or significance
    I think, therefore I exist. It’s enormous, the most foundational thing, according to Descartes. The only knowable thing. And maybe it could be enough, for a mind more brilliant than mine. But for me, it’s too tenuous all by itself. The scarf in my hair? I need it to exist, too.
  15. facet
    a distinct feature or element in a problem
    Even if I withheld the most glaring indication that I may have lost my mind—that I’ve traveled here from the future—I have no idea what other facets of my story might be unsafe to share.
Created on Fri Oct 02 21:47:55 EDT 2026 (updated Tue Oct 06 11:08:20 EDT 2026)

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