Vocabulary 4 Flashcards
Marrow Thief Vocabulary
What is the definition of a pollinator?
Animal that transfers pollen among plants, allowing for fertilization that makes fruits and seeds.
Ontario pollinators include butterflies, bees, birds, and moths.
What is oneirology?
The scientific study of dreams.
Understanding how the brain works while dreaming is one of the goals of oneirology.
What is the origin of the word ‘tabernacle’ in French-Canadian culture?
A wooden box placed near a church altar, now a popular swear word.
After dropping her poutine, Marie yelled ‘Tabernacle!’.
Who are the Métis?
Descendants of Indigenous people and European settlers, primarily the French.
The infinity symbol on the Métis flag represents the immortality of the nation and the joining of cultures.
Define Indigenous.
Any group that descended from pre-occupation inhabitants of a region.
Indigenous people in Canada include the Inuit, Iroquois, Cree, and Anishinaabe.
What is Turtle Island in North American mythology?
A creation story emphasizing the turtle as a symbol of life, earth, and sacrifice.
After a world-ending flood, the earth is remade by placing sand on a turtle’s shell.
What is the definition of an elder?
Any person who is older than you and has seniority and authority.
Indigenous elders pass on wisdom and history to younger generations through their stories.
What are the four sacred plants to Indigenous people?
Tobacco, sage, red cedar, sweetgrass.
Sweetgrass releases a sweet scent when wet or burned and is often used in smudging ceremonies; it can also be braided or woven.
What does smudging mean?
A ceremony for purifying or cleansing the soul of negative thoughts of a person or place.
‘Smudge’ is English for smearing or rubbing.
What does the phrase ‘canary in a coal mine’ refer to?
An advanced warning of danger.
Coal miners would carry caged canaries into the mines to detect poisonous gases; if the bird died, the miners would leave.
What are fiddleheads?
The young, curled, edible fronds from certain ferns.
‘A stack of impossibly thick yellow books, the edges curled up like fiddleheads.’
What is the Ganges?
A river that begins in the Himalayan mountains and empties out into the Bay of Bengal, considered sacred in Hinduism.
‘Like a partially cremated corpse floating down the old Ganges.’
Define catatonic.
Appearing to be in a daze or stupor; unresponsive.
Michael was found in a catatonic state by the paramedics after he crashed his car.
What is the definition of dignitaries?
A person considered to be important because of high rank or office.
Many dignitaries from around the world came to attend the funeral.
What does it mean to amalgamate?
To combine two or more things, especially organizations, together to form something larger.
He amalgamated Synergy Roofing with another roofing company.
