Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme from Bermuda Onion where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our reading. If you want to play along, grab the button, and write a post.
The first word is from Hot Six by Janet Evanovich:
stygian : (adjective) extremely dark, gloomy, or forbidding <the stygian blackness of the cave>
I forgot to write down the sentence from the book showing the use of this word before I returned it to the library.
The second word is from The Shunning by Beverly Lewis:
portentous: (adjective) of the nature of a portent; momentous; ominously significant or indicative (The book actually spells the word portentious, with an “i”, but I assume that is a misspelling, as neither Merriam-Webster or dictionary.com recognized the word)
“Katie was aware of a portentous feeling, as though something she had always known deep down was about to be revealed – like the missing piece of a life-sized puzzle, maybe, or an explanation she’d waited her whole lifetime to hear.”
What new words did you discover this week?
Here’s a fun, book-related picture from the Classic Penguin tumblr page: “Bookhenge”
Thanks to Cassie from Books & Bowel Movements for posting about this photo!
Up All Night Reading 
I would have put an i in portentous too! It is a word that I know, but clearly don’t know how to spell it. Stygian was new for me too.
I’m impressed that you found a new word in a Stephanie Plum book!!
Me too, but I’m enjoying the “brain candy” ease of them! 🙂
Bookhenge! I love it
LOL! LOVE Book Henge!! How cool 🙂 Did not know the word stygian – but it seems like a good one – with lots of dark and gloomy uses!
Hi Libby! I loved Book Henge as well! Thanks so much for stopping by!
I like this first word for some reason.
I can’t remember ever seeing that word before! Thanks for stopping by!