palma christi leaves the leaves of a gigantic herb plant called palma christi in Spanish-speaking countries; its leaves are believed to reduce severe headaches.
peart lively, chipper, sprightly, smart, and so on.
pickin' my box playing my guitar.
pink silk vest Janie's "vest," or undershirt, is made of silk. Chances are that most of the women in Eatonville wore cotton underclothes.
porch sitters hard-working farmers and laborers; men and women who work for someone else — a white boss. Only in the evening do they gain control of their time. Janie's late husband, Joe Starks, seems to be the only man in Eatonville who didn't work for someone else.
Protolapsis uh de cutinary linin' The reference is to something that upsets the stomach and makes a person nervous. Hurston is pointing out the men's fondness for impressive words, whether they have real meaning or not.
quart of coon-dick cheap moonshine or bootleg whiskey.
relic Janie is the relic, or the person who has survived, from their marriage. The word could also be an echo of the Old English term relict, which means surviving the death of another.
ribbon-cane syrup sorghum molasses.
round house a circular house building, with a turntable in the center, used for storing and repairing locomotives.
rub board The old-fashioned galvanized or glass washing board was in common use before washing machines became economically available.
run our conversation from grassroots to pine trees We've gone as far as we can go with this conversation — from minor matters to larger issues. Hurston has used other expressions like this to indicate limits and extremes in conversations.
