Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe: Part One

by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Aristotle and Dante are two teenagers with classical names and loner attitudes. When their paths cross, they develop a friendship that will change their lives.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. cope
    come to terms with
    I could cope with that.
  2. eternal
    continuing forever or indefinitely
    "You have time," she said. “There’s plenty of time.” The eternal optimist.
  3. optimist
    a person disposed to take a favorable view of things
    "You have time," she said. “There’s plenty of time.” The eternal optimist.
  4. suffocate
    struggle for breath; have insufficient oxygen intake
    When my mom had her Catholic-Church-lady friends over, I felt like I was suffocating.
  5. recall
    summon knowledge from memory
    “As I recall you didn’t seem all that thrilled when you opened your father’s gift.”
  6. sentimental
    marked by tender, romantic, or nostalgic emotion
    I was smiling too. “Dad got it at his first concert.”
    “I was there. I remember. It’s old and ratty.”
    “I’m sentimental.”
  7. endure
    put up with something or somebody unpleasant
    I loved the different rules of summer. My mother endured them.
  8. flick
    a motion picture
    Or maybe everyone had died like in one of those sci-fi flicks, and I was the last boy on earth.
  9. pseudo
    not genuine but having the appearance of
    I didn’t like the fact that I was a pseudo only child.
  10. mascot
    a person or animal adopted by a group as a symbolic figure
    I’m really into dogs, but sometimes I got the feeling I was nothing more than the family mascot.
  11. conscience
    motivation deriving from ethical or moral principles
    “Because your father has a conscience,” she said.
  12. budding
    beginning to develop
    Yeah, sure, they were budding Walt Whitmans, the two of them.
  13. infest
    occupy in large numbers or live on a host
    Yeah, and a guy is about as smart as a piece of dead wood infested with termites.
  14. pronounce
    speak or utter in a certain way
    And then I pronounced my grandfather’s name with this really formal Mexican accent, "Aristotiles. And my real first name is Angel.”
  15. lecture
    a long speech that scolds or reprimands
    We’d both grown up with lectures that sounded more or less like this: You’re a boy!
  16. easygoing
    relaxed and informal in attitude or standards
    He was young and handsome and easygoing and it seemed like a part of him was still a boy.
  17. clutter
    fill a space in a disorderly way
    There was stuff everywhere. Clothes spread all over the floor, a pile of old albums, books scattered around, legal pads with stuff written on them, Polaroid photographs, a couple of cameras, a guitar without any strings, sheet music, and a bulletin board cluttered with notes and pictures.
  18. cassette
    a flat case holding magnetic tape for playing sound or video
    “Real vinyl. None of this cassette crap.”
    “What’s wrong with cassettes?”
    “I don’t trust them.”
  19. resignation
    acceptance of an unpleasant but inevitable situation
    He said that with a kind of resignation.
  20. inscrutable
    difficult or impossible to understand
    “Well, me, I figured my dad out—not my mom. My mom is the biggest mystery in the world. I mean, she’s predictable when it comes to parenting. But really, she’s inscrutable.”
  21. blankly
    without expression
    I looked at him blankly.
  22. systematic
    characterized by order and planning
    I was impressed by the fact that Dante could be so systematic in the way he organized everything in his room.
  23. synonym
    a word that expresses the same or similar meaning
    It meant something that could not easily be understood. I wrote down all the synonyms in my journal.
  24. confess
    admit to a wrongdoing
    I don’t know why, but I just needed to confess that fact to my parents.
  25. convincing
    causing one to believe the truth of something
    I could almost see his mind working as he thought of a convincing argument.
  26. occurrence
    an instance of something happening
    This was not a common occurrence.
  27. agnostic
    a person who claims the existence of God is unknowable
    “So you’re an agnostic?”
  28. mural
    a painting that is applied to a wall surface
    "Look at this,” he said, “It’s a mural by Orozco.”
  29. comprehend
    get the meaning of something
    That finger had touched my mother in tender ways I did not fully comprehend.
  30. telescope
    a magnifier of images of distant objects
    One night, when there was no moon in the night sky, Dante’s mom and dad took us out into the desert so we could use his new telescope.
  31. pollution
    contamination of the natural environment
    Light pollution. That’s what Dante called it. Dante seemed to know a great deal about light pollution.
  32. premise
    a statement that is held to be true
    “You know, wearing shoes is an unnatural act. That’s my basic premise.”
  33. philosopher
    a specialist in the investigation of existence and knowledge
    “Your basic premise?” Sometimes he talked like a scientist or a philosopher.
  34. founding
    the act of starting something for the first time
    "You know, the founding principle.”
  35. lunatic
    an insane person
    “Did anybody ever tell you that sometimes you talk like a lunatic who speaks perfect English?”
  36. javelin
    a spear thrown as a weapon or in competitive field events
    “It’s a version of throwing the javelin, right?”
  37. establish
    set up or found
    “It is too a real sport. I’m real. You’re real. The tennis shoes are real. The street is real. And the rules we establish—they’re real too. What more do you want?”
  38. flinch
    draw back, as with fear or pain
    Dante didn’t even flinch, certain that he could defend his position.
  39. obscenity
    an offensive or indecent word or phrase
    They just left, mumbling obscenities under their breaths.
  40. pacifist
    someone opposed to violence as a means of settling disputes
    “And I didn’t know you were a pacifist.”
Created on Mon Sep 18 10:59:53 EDT 2017 (updated Fri Oct 06 16:24:10 EDT 2017)

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