The Only Use of
literate
in
To Kill a Mockingbird
- I suppose she chose me because she knew my name; as I read the alphabet a faint line appeared between her eyebrows, and after making me read most of My First Reader and the stock-market quotations from The Mobile Register aloud, she discovered that I was literate and looked at me with more than faint distaste.
p. 19.3literate = able to read
Definitions:
-
(1)
(literate) able to read and write
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
More rarely, literate can refer to knowledge in a particular subject area as in: "She is computer literate."
Occasionally literate is also used to indicate a knowledge of literature or writing as in: "I don't remember the name of Odysseus' wife. Ask Susan. She's one of the more literate people I know." or "If you want a highly literate record of the minutes, ask Susan to record them."