Nine Stories: "Just Before the War with the Eskimos" by J.D. Salinger

by J.D. Salinger
To settle a dispute, Ginnie accompanies her classmate Selena home, where she ends up speaking with Selena’s older brother, Franklin.

Here are links to our lists for other short stories in Nine Stories: A Perfect Day for Bananafish,
Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut, Just Before the War with the Eskimos, The Laughing Man, Down at the Dinghy, For Esmé–with Love and Squalor, Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes, De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period, Teddy

Here is a link to our lists for J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. ostensibly
    from appearances alone
    Ginnie openly considered Selena the biggest drip at Miss Basehoar’s—a school ostensibly abounding with fair-sized drips—but at the same time she had never known anyone like Selena for bringing fresh cans of tennis balls.
  2. edification
    uplifting enlightenment
    (At dinner one night, for the edification of the entire Mannox family, Ginnie had conjured up a vision of dinner over at the Graffs’; it involved a perfect servant coming around to everyone’s left with, instead of a glass of tomato juice, a can of tennis balls.)
  3. conjure
    summon into action or bring into existence
    (At dinner one night, for the edification of the entire Mannox family, Ginnie had conjured up a vision of dinner over at the Graffs’; it involved a perfect servant coming around to everyone’s left with, instead of a glass of tomato juice, a can of tennis balls.)
  4. finality
    the quality of being definitely settled
    ‘They don’t cost you anything. I have to pay for every single little—”
    “All right, all right,” Selena said, loudly and with finality enough to give herself the upper hand.
  5. clemency
    leniency and compassion shown toward offenders
    Selena’s attitude defied clemency.
    “No,” Ginnie said. “I have to go to the movies tonight. I need it.”
  6. hostile
    characterized by enmity or ill will
    In hostile silence, the girls stared out of opposite windows until the cab pulled up in front of Selena’s apartment house.
  7. brisk
    quick and energetic
    Just barely leaving the cab door open, she walked briskly and obliviously, like visiting Hollywood royalty, into the building.
  8. oblivious
    lacking conscious awareness of
    Just barely leaving the cab door open, she walked briskly and obliviously, like visiting Hollywood royalty, into the building.
  9. self-conscious
    excessively aware of your appearance or behavior
    At fifteen, Ginnie was about five feet nine in her 9-B tennis shoes, and as she entered the lobby, her self-conscious, rubber-soled awkwardness lent her a dangerous amateur quality.
  10. amateur
    lacking professional skill or expertise
    At fifteen, Ginnie was about five feet nine in her 9-B tennis shoes, and as she entered the lobby, her self-conscious, rubber-soled awkwardness lent her a dangerous amateur quality.
  11. indicator
    a device for showing the operating condition of some system
    It made Selena prefer to watch the indicator dial over the elevator.
  12. virtually
    in essence or in effect but not in fact
    “She virtually has pneumonia, and if you think I’m going to enjoy disturbing her just for money...”
  13. aplomb
    great coolness and composure under strain
    Selena delivered the incomplete sentence with all possible aplomb.
  14. sentimentality
    extravagant or affected feeling or emotion
    Ginnie was, in fact, slightly put off by this information, whatever its degree of truth, but not to the point of sentimentality.
  15. emphasize
    stress or single out as important
    “I never in my life would’ve thought you could be so small about anything,” said Selena, who was just angry enough to use the word “small” but not quite brave enough to emphasize it.
  16. vacant
    not containing anyone or anything; unfilled or unoccupied
    He sat down on the vacant end of the sofa.
  17. appeal
    attractiveness that interests or pleases or stimulates
    There was a real appeal in his noisy voice, as if Ginnie, by her answer, could save him from some particularly isolating form of pioneering.
  18. sparse
    not dense or plentiful
    He had a couple of days’ growth of sparse, blond beard.
  19. inflection
    the patterns of stress and intonation in a language
    “Goddam if I know,” he said, his inflection implying that the answer to that question was hopelessly obscure.
  20. obscure
    not clearly understood or expressed
    “Goddam if I know,” he said, his inflection implying that the answer to that question was hopelessly obscure.
  21. unveil
    remove the cover from
    Selena’s brother carried his wound slightly forward from his chest and unveiled it for Ginnie’s benefit.
  22. dispassionate
    unaffected by strong emotion or prejudice
    “I know your sister,” he said dispassionately.
  23. resent
    feel bitter or indignant about
    Apparently without resenting Ginnie’s tone, Selena’s brother turned back to his finger.
  24. slump
    assume a drooping posture or carriage
    He sat up a trifle straighter—or rather, slumped a trifle less.
  25. crevice
    a long narrow opening
    He inserted the nail of his uninjured index finger into the crevice between two front teeth and, removing a food particle, turned to Ginnie.
  26. vaudeville
    a genre of variety show with songs, comic acts, etc.
    He continued to smoke in this “French-inhale” style. Very probably, it was not part of the sofa vaudeville of a showoff but, rather, the private, exposed achievement of a young man who, at one time or another, might have tried shaving himself left-handed.
  27. larynx
    the structure containing the vocal cords
    He spoke exclusively from the larynx, as if he were altogether too tired to put any diaphragm breath into his words.
  28. anathema
    a formal ecclesiastical curse accompanied by excommunication
    “Oh, God. This person who’s been sharing my apartment for months and months and months—I don’t even want to talk about him...This writer,” he added with satisfaction, probably remembering a favorite anathema from a Hemingway novel.
  29. competent
    properly or sufficiently qualified, capable, or efficient
    His hands were large. They looked neither strong nor competent nor sensitive.
  30. microscopic
    so small as to be invisible without a magnifying device
    I’m kind and decent enough—I’m the original Good Samaritan—to take him into my apartment, this absolutely microscopic little apartment that I can hardly move around in myself.
  31. decency
    the quality of conforming to rules of propriety and morality
    “And the result of all my kindness and decency,” he went on, “is that he walks out of the house at five or six in the morning—without so much as leaving a note behind-—taking with him anything and everything he can lay his filthy, dirty hands on.”
  32. sibilant
    of speech sounds forcing air through a constricted passage
    He paused to drag on his cigarette, and exhaled the smoke in a thin, sibilant stream from his mouth.
  33. insincere
    lacking the quality of being open and truthful
    “I’m sorry to’ve kept you waiting,” Selena said insincerely, “but I had to wait for Mother to wake up.... Hello, Eric.”
  34. paraphernalia
    equipment consisting of miscellaneous articles
    She bent over and picked up her tennis paraphernalia.
  35. dispose
    throw or cast away
    A few years before, it had taken her three days to dispose of the Easter chick she had found dead on the sawdust in the bottom of her wastebasket.
Created on Thu Oct 19 13:10:03 EDT 2017 (updated Mon Apr 08 16:30:15 EDT 2019)

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