Wondrous Word Wednesday

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.

My words this week are from The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln by Stephen L. Carter (which I am enjoying greatly).

varioloid: 1. resembling smallpox. 2. of or pertaining to a mild case of smallpox.

“Instead, my mother died of the varioloid a few months after Nanny moved in.”

calumnious: of, involving, or using calumny;  slanderous; defamatory.

“You are here to help acquit the President of these calumnious charges, not to hunt for conspiracies or solve murders the police have closed.”

I haven’t been posting alot this month, and now there is only one full week of summer left for us!  I’ll be back on a blogging schedule soon, but for now I’m focusing on family time.  Hope each of you are having a wonderful summer!

Wondrous Word Wednesday

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.

My words this week are from Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness.

elocution – the skill of clear and expressive speech, esp. of distinct pronunciation and articulation.

“I would be happy to give you elocution lessons, Mistress Roydon.”

prescient – having or showing knowledge of events before they take place.

“If you are so prescient, then you should have foreseen what your betrayal would mean to me.”

crenellations – the battlements of a castle or other building.

“Smoke came from chimneys tucked out of sight behind the towers’ crenellations, the jagged outlines suggesting that some crazed giant with pinking shears had trimmed every wall.”

oubliette – a secret dungeon with access only through a trapdoor in its ceiling

“When she failed, Satu threw me into the oubliette.”

hippocras – wine flavored with spices

“By the time the hippocras started flowing and a delicious nut brittle made with walnuts and honey was passed along the table, their commentary was downright ribald and Matthew’s responses were just as barbed.”

 

Wondrous Word Wednesday

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.

My word this week is from The Journeys of John and Julia in Chapter One by aurelia.

ersatz: adj. made or used as a substitute, typically an inferior one, for something else.

“However, spatial proximity was only the obvious reason for his close relationship with this ersatz grandfather.”

 

What words did you encounter this week?

Wondrous Word Wednesday

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!

Wondrous Word Wednesday

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.

This week’s word is from The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma

salubrious:  favorable to or promoting health or well-being <salubrioushabits>

“As the handsome carriage sped east, the salubrious, almost countrified atmosphere of Kensington soon gave way to the crowded urban environment of Piccadilly, and beyond to the Circus where Anteros, the avenger of unrequited love, protrudes like an arrow fired at  the city’s heart.”

Wondrous Word Wednesday

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.

This word I found in Strindberg’s Star by Jan Wallentin

Ankh

Also known as key of life, the key of the Nile or crux ansata (Latin meaning “cross with a handle”), was the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic character that read “eternal life“.

“Cave diver Erik Hall finds a dead body wearing an ancient ankh, buried deep in an abandoned mine.  Religious symbol expert Don Titleman seeks out Erik to study the ankh – but finds Erik dead.  Don is the prime suspect, and soon he’s being chased across Europe to escape a secret society that will do anything to get its hands on the ankh…”

I found this next word in Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne (ARC – Pub date 6/5/12)

glutted: an excessively abundant supply of something, supply or fill to excess

“I attempted to drive back to my home.  The highways had become glutted with cars and none were moving.  Around me, in the  cars, I could see some people blistering up and dying.”

This word I came across in A Replacement Life by Eileen Goudge

luftmentsh: an impractical contemplative person having no definite business or income

“He said, ‘if you don’t marry that girl, you’re an even bigger luftmentsh than I thought.’  David plucked the ring from the box and held it out to her. ‘Don’t you want to, at least, try it on?'”

 

What words did you run across this week?

Wondrous Word Wednesday

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.

This word I found in a recent news article about a missing EastEnders soap opera star in London.

maisonette 

1 : a small house

2 : an apartment often on two floors

“Neighbours of Miss McCluskie have reacted with shock following the discovery.  Margaret O’Carroll, 88, said: “I’ve seen Gemma grow up around here, this is terrible.  She lives in that maisonette with her mother and one of her two brothers. She’s very nice, a nice girl.”

It seems like such a paltry offering, this one word for Wondrous Word Wednesday, but it’s all I’ve got!  🙂

What new words did you come across this week?

Wondrous Word Wednesday

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 I found in an online post on deadspin.com

mellifluous – mel·lif·lu·ous adj \me-ˈli-flə-wəs, mə-\

1 : having a smooth rich flow <a Mellifluous voice>

2 : filled with something (as honey) that sweetens

“I have no idea why rhyming books are more fun, but they are. If a book rhymes, then I can really get into the performance of reading it to my kid. I can figure out the rhythm of the text (though it can take a couple pages to sort it out—”Oh, I see! It rhymes every THIRD line! TRICKY!”). I can sing it. I can do voices. I can become mellifluous. I can PERFORM. It’s really a parent’s time to shine when the text rhymes.”

 

I found this word in Insatiable by Meg Cabot

uxoricide  ux·or·i·cide  noun  \ˌək-ˈsȯr-ə-ˌsīd\

 1 [Medieval Latin uxoricidium, from Latin uxor wife + -i- + -cidium -cide] : murder of a wife by her husband

2 [Latin uxor + English -i- + -cide] : a man who murders his wife

“Whether that was because he’d seen his father murder his mother before his very eyes – it had been a different time and place, when uxoricide hadn’t been all that uncommon, but still, Lucien hadn’t approved  – or because he’d been turned too young, Lucien had never been sure.”

The last word I found in my newest ARC, Horten’s Miraculous Mechanisms by Lissa Evans (you’ll hear more about this in my upcoming Mailbox Monday)

sylvan   ¹syl·van  noun \ˈsil-vən\

: one that frequents groves or woods

“‘When I was a youngster,’ his father told him as they walked, ‘there weren’t any houses in this part of Beeton at all.  This whole area was sylvan.'”

What new words did you come across this week?

Wondrous Word Wednesday

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 I found in Vampire Sunrise by Carole Nelson Douglas.  It was right at the beginning – sadly, I wasn’t able to read much past that point.  One of the few books I just couldn’t get in to!

Simulacrum – an insubstantial form or semblance of something.  “And three, tracking down ‘Lilith Quince’ – my spitting image – to find out if she is a twin, double, clone, or simulacrum.”

The second and third I found in Murder Under Cover by Kate Carlisle – her Bibliophile series.

Elucidating –  verb \i-ˈlü-sə-ˌdāt\, transitive verb : to make lucid especially by explanation or analysis.  “Elucidating, yes.  Fun?  Not really!”

Fulminating – hurling denunciations or menaces.  “Then he gave me a fulminating stare and I mentally shrank a few inches.”

The last word I heard on a news cast, and didn’t remember ever hearing it before, so I had to look it up!

Abrogate – transitive verb – 1 : to abolish by authoritative action : annul, 2 : to treat as nonexistent <abrogating their responsibilities>

This was used in a report about the Italian captain who recently abandoned the cruise ship before all the passengers and crew.

In other news, thankfully I believe that my book slump is coming to an end.  I’m firmly entrenched in a book for myself, and with my daughter in her current “One Community One Book” event for our school district.  I am reading a very funny novel by Molly Harper, And One Last Thing,  and the book my daughter and I are sharing is The Sixty-Eight Rooms by Marianne Malone!  Yay, me!

Wondrous Word Wednesday

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.

I came across this word in The Lies that Bind by Kate Carlisle

Chary: 

1 archaic : dear, treasured

2 : discreetly cautious: asa : hesitant and vigilant about dangers and risksb : slow to grant, accept, or expend <a person very charyof compliments>

“‘I agree it’s all become a bit chary,’ Derek confessed as he struggled to keep the bookcase suspended.”

Have you come across any new words lately?