Historical Vocabulary: Segregation, Sharecropping, and Migration Terms
Vocabulary: Historical & Social Terms
Chipping
Definition: cutting, striking, or flaking off a small, usually thin and flat piece (as of wood or stone).
Synonyms / Translations: flake off, flake out / desprenderse, romper / déchiquetage, ébréchure, écaillage, s’effriter.
Example: The paint was constantly peeling from the thin walls.
Disrepair
Definition: the state of being in need of repair.
Translations: désolation / deterioro, en mal estado / délabrement, en mauvais état.
Example: The fence, the rail, and the front door were in a bad state.
Redlined
Definition: to discriminate against in housing. Related to segregation law: Jim Crow laws 1877 — legal separation of people by race.
Meaning: segregated / discriminé.
Example: Their neighborhoods were segregated by government policy.
Soared
Definition: to ascend to a higher or more exalted level.
Synonyms / Translations: arise / izar, elevar / hisser.
Example: The flag on the aluminum pole always stood tall.
Tatter
Definition: a part torn and left hanging.
Translations: rend / rota, desgarrada / déchiré, être en lambeaux.
Example: The flag was immediately replaced if it had any damage.
Sharecroppers
Definition: a tenant farmer, especially in the southern U.S., who is provided with credit for seed, tools, living quarters, and food, who works the land, and who receives an agreed share of the value of the crop minus charges.
Translations: aparcero / métayer.
Example: Born into families of farmers who didn’t own the land, they rented it and paid with crops.
Apartheid
Definition: racial segregation; a system of segregationist policies against non-white citizens (notably used for South Africa).
Translations: ségrégation raciale / segregación racial.
Example: Mississippi was a state with racial segregation and unfavorable conditions for Black people.
Note: Apartheid also refers specifically to the system of segregationist policies against non-white citizens in South Africa.
Lynched
Definition: to put to death (as by hanging) by mob action without legal approval.
Translations: execution / linchar / lyncher.
Example: Residents of Mississippi treated Black people very poorly (almost like torture), more than in many other states.
Sharecroppers Union
Definition: Alabama Sharecroppers Union. Its aims were to improve wages and working conditions for sharecroppers.
Translation: Syndicat des métayers.
Toiling
Definition: long, strenuous, fatiguing labor.
Synonyms / Translations: strive / trabajo duro / travailler d’arrache-pied, dure labeur, peiner.
Example: Working really hard and in bad conditions.
Segregated
Definition: set apart or separated from others of the same kind or group.
Translations: excluded / ségrégué, isolé.
Example: In a neighborhood separated from white people.
Stunted
Definition: to hinder the normal growth, development, or progression of an action.
Synonyms / Translations: hinder / retardé, ralenti, rabougri, arrêté / atrofiado, paralizado.
Example: His ambition was stunted.
Murky
Definition: characterized by heavy dimness or obscurity.
Synonyms / Translations: muddy, dim / turbio / sombre, troublé.
Example: He would not be accepted because of strange and mysterious reasons.
Firsthand
Definition: obtained by, coming from, or being direct personal observation or experience.
Translations: eyewitness / de primera mano, personalmente / constater (vivre) par eux-mêmes, directement (1ère main).
Example: Having seen eyewitnesses of the way his country abused Black Americans.
Osmosis
Definition: an usually effortless and often unconscious assimilation or reciprocal influence between two individuals or elements in contact.
Translations: osmosis / osmose, assimilation, acculturation.
Example: Through cultural influence and by the norm.
Ashore
Definition: on or toward the land from a body of water.
Translations: aground, beached / à terre, vers le rivage / a la orilla (costa), a tierra.
Example: Who arrived through the shore.
Grueling
Definition: trying or taxing to the point of exhaustion; punishing.
Synonyms / Translations: arduous / agotador, extenuante / épuisant, extenuant.
Example: Almost two million did not survive the strenuous (tough) journey.
Sprawling
Definition: an irregularly spread or scattered group or mass.
Translations: expand / s’étaler / en expansión, desbordante.
Example: Improving and expanding properties that today attract thousands.
Lugged
Definition: to carry laboriously.
Translations: carry / arrastrar, cargar / tirer, traîner.
Example: They carried the heavy tracks.
Tracks
Definition: the parallel rails of a railroad.
Translations: channels, paths / pistes, voies ferrées / vías, rieles.
Example: They lugged the pieces of wood.
Crisscrossed
Definition: that pass back and forth through or over; interwoven.
Translations: converge / entrelazado, traversé / silloner, entrecrosser.
Example: The train tracks united the South to the North; that’s how they transported cotton.
Acculturation
Definition: cultural modification of an individual, group, or people by adapting to or borrowing traits from another culture. Also: a merging of cultures as a result of prolonged contact, or the process by which a human being acquires the culture of a particular society from infancy.
Example: The acculturation of immigrants to American life.
Translations: acculturation / aculturación.