Vocabulary for "The Cut" and "The Name is Mine"

rheumatic fever: "When I was thirteen, I had rheumatic fever," he said. "I became extremely skinny and extremely weak, but I still went out for the seventh grade baseball team at Alexander Hamilton Junior High School in Houston."

A noncontagious acute fever marked by inflammation and pain in the joints.

Altered: "I know for a fact that it altered my perception of myself. My view of myself was knocked down;"

Changed; made different.

Vividly: "I remember vividly the last time I cried. I was twelve years old, in the seventh grade, and I had tried out for the junior high school basketball team."

Clearly, with great detail.

Monogrammed: "Sorry, the letters I, O, Q, U, V, X, Y and Z are not available,'' the catalogues said about monogrammed key rings and cocktail napkins."

Decorated with a design of one or more letters, usually the initials of a name.

Stoic: "I was outwardly stoic about it. I didn't want anyone to see how I felt. I didn't want to show that it hurt. But oh, did it hurt."

Indifferent; remaining calm and self-controlled in the face of difficulty.

Disingenuous: "My answer was long, philosophical and rambling - that is to say, unsatisfactory. What's in a name? I could have said disingenuously"

Insincere.

Inordinately: "I have found that an inordinately large proportion of successful men share the same memory — the memory of being cut from a sports team as a boy."

Not within reasonable limits; much too great.

Articulate: "I know now that it changed me. I found out, even though I couldn't articulate it at the time,"

Put into words clearly and easily.

Rational: "But neither of these are honest reasons, because they assume rational consideration, and it so happens that when it came to changing my name, there was no consideration, rational or otherwise."

Reasonable.

Matriarchal: "Some people found alternative solutions: hyphenated names, merged names, matriarchal names for the girls and patriarchal ones for the boys, one name at work and another at home."

Relating to a social system in which the mother is head of the family.

Adjunct: "It was a political decision, a simple statement that I was somebody and not an adjunct of anybody, especially a husband."

Something added, attached, or joined.

Disdain: "I was once slightly disdainful of women who went all the way and changed their names. But I now know too many smart, independent, terrific women who have the same last names as their husbands to be disdainful anymore."

To regard with scorn or contempt.