slop jars indoor containers that take the place of toilets, especially for night use or for people too ill or infirm to walk outside to an outhouse.
Dearly Beloved the traditional opening words for a Protestant wedding or funeral.
chamomile sap juice from any plant of two genera of the composite family, with strong-smelling foliage; esp., a plant whose dried, daisylike flower heads are used as a medicine and in making tea.
hazelnut stranger a visitor with reddish-brown skin.
pouch of tobacco . . . smoking paper the materials needed for handrolling cigarettes.
chokecherry a North American wild cherry tree yielding an astringent fruit.
Sethe took a little spit from the tip of her tongue . . . lightly she touched the stove a method of testing temperature in a woodstove. A skillful cook can detect by the sizzle of saliva when a stove is hot enough for baking.
I had milk an unusual occurrence that Sethe is both pregnant and lactating, since breastfeeing suppresses ovulation. Also, the likelihood that a woman can endure extreme trauma and still produce milk for two children is a rare example of determination winning out over cruel circumstances.
pass her air to burp.
wire from the top of the jar and then the lid a forerunner of the metal-lidded canning jar. The container was sealed when the wire bail was pulled into place at the top of the glass lid.
cloth . . . cake of wax a method of sealing jelly to prevent mold and keep out insects.
die witch! stories scary tales that Denver's brothers told her, suggesting their fear of Sethe, who had tried to execute them.
keeping room a colonial term for parlor or sitting room.
