Words from my reading

A few fun words that were new to me this week:

harridan, n A strict, bossy, or belligerent old woman
page 27, Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippman
“She had little sentiment for panhandlers and none for her grandmother, considered a harridan by those closest to her.”

hummock, n A hillock, knoll, or mound; a piece of forested ground rising above a marsh
page 27, The Stones Cry Out by Sibella Giorello
“I watch him walk across the pristine lawn to the English basement, the tiny door tucked into a hummock of land.”

cocoliths, pl n Chalk, calcareous nannofossils in calcium carbonate (per the text)
page 78, The Stones Cry Out by Sibella Giorello
“‘Cocoliths will contaminate the evidence.'”

ichthyderm, n Sunbather skin, smoker’s skin, from the Greek: ichthy means fish, and derm means skin (per the text)
page 94, The Stones Cry Out by Sibella Giorello
“‘You’re going to get ichthyderm.'”

corundum, n An extremely hard mineral, aluminum oxide, Al₂O₃, sometimes containing iron, magnesia, or silica, that occurs in gem varieties such as ruby and sapphire and in a common black, brown, or blue form used chiefly in abrasives
page 238, The Stones Cry Out by Sibella Giorello
“‘The red form of corundum.'”

More great words on my Words from my reading page.

Reviews of books cited here:
Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippman review coming soon, hopefully
The Stones Cry Out by Sibella Giorello

What new words have you found lately?

Words from my reading

It feels like it’s been a long time, but hopefully I’m back to posting more regularly now! A few fun words that were new to me this week:

cataract, n A large waterfall
page 59, The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
“The sense of danger, which had never been entirely absent since I left the bus, awoke with sharp urgency, I gazed around on the trees, the flowers, and the talking cataract: they had begun to look unbearably sinister.”
I knew cataract only to mean the medical condition of the eyes.

dindled, v Trembled, reeled, staggered
page 62, The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
“The earth seemed to shake: the whole wood trembled and dindled at the sound.”

fash, v To trouble, vex, annoy
page 69, The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
“‘Do not fash yourself with these questions.'”

penumbra, n A partial shadow, as in an eclipse, between regions of complete shadow and complete illumination; the grayish outer part of a sunspot; an area in which something exists to a lesser or uncertain degree; an outlying surrounding region; a periphery
page 107, The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
“If she were naked, then it must have been the almost visible penumbra of her courtesy and joy which produces in my memory the illusion of a great and shining train that followed her across the happy grass.”

midden, n A dunghill or refuse heap; in archaeology, a mound or deposit containing shells, animal bones, and other refuse that indicates the site of a human settlement
page 121, The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
“‘Every disease that submits to a cure shall be cured: but we will not call blue yellow to please those who insist on still having jaundice, nor make a midden of the world’s garden for the sake of some who cannot abide the smell of roses.'”

More great words on my Words from my reading page.

Review of book cited here:
The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

What new words have you found lately?

Words from my reading

A few fun words that were new to me this week:

terai, n A wide-brimmed felt hat, typically with a double crown, worn chiefly by travelers in subtropical regions
page 104, Everything Is Broken by Emma Larkin
“The models were of an enormous army-issue drinking water bottle, a floppy terai hat the size of a bed, and a pair of leather boots big enough for a grown man to stand inside.”

prelapsarian, adj Characteristic of the time before the Fall of Man, innocent and unspoiled
page 111, Everything Is Broken by Emma Larkin
“Bordered with gold and mother-of-pearl inlay, the floor-to-ceiling mural depicts Pagan’s pagodas glittering golden and resplendent in a forested prelapsarian landscape.”

Laburnum, photo by Gerard Stolk, via flickr

laburnum, n A small European tree that has hanging clusters of yellow flowers succeeded by slender pods containing poisonous seeds, the hard timber of which is sometimes used as an ebony substitute
page 114, Her Mother’s Hope by Francine Rivers
“Roses climbed the Pergola and giant water lilies spread out across the pond while laburnum dripped sunlight-yellow streamers in celebration of spring.”

More great words on my Words from my reading page.

Reviews of books cited here:
Everything Is Broken by Emma Larkin
Her Mother’s Hope by Francine Rivers

What new words have you found lately?

A murder weapon = mercy?

Once again, my time spent watching Bones is justified.

From one episode of Bones (I don’t recall the episode or even the season) I learned that a misericord (or misericorde) is a short, narrow dagger-like weapon. In the show, it’s a murder weapon.

Then last night, I learn (while reading Saint Julian by Walter Wangerin Jr.) that misericordia means mercy in Latin. [Why oh why didn’t I learn Latin when I had the chance?]

So this morning, I had to look this up. I learned this word misericord can also mean a support for someone who’s standing and a special monastic apartment for a monk who has been granted a relaxation of the monastic rules (as well as that relaxation of the rules), in addition to the weapon. All these rely precisely on the word’s Latin origin — they’re all, apparently, ways of showing mercy.

The weapon? Used in medieval times to deliver the death stroke to a seriously wounded knight.

The bracket? On the underside of a hinged seat in a choir stall against which a standing person could lean during long services.

Interesting, very interesting.

ETA: Nicole posted about Bones today, too! She posted a trailer for the new season, which starts September 23.

Words from my reading

A few fun words that were new to me this week:

moiled, v Worked hard, labored and toiled
page 189, Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
“A revelation of this nature might’ve rendered Swede paralytic until the whole story was told, but Roxanna said, ‘No, you don’t — you said you’d help, let’s keep at it,’ so Swede scraped and moiled with a renewed sense of enterprise, no doubt to grease along any emergent history.”

lignite, n A soft browning coal showing traces of plant structure, intermediate between bituminous coal and peat
page 199, Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
“Roxanna told us how generations ago lightning had sliced into an aged cottonwood whose roots ran across a vein of lignite.”
I probably knew this one back in science class, but it escaped me when I wracked my brain looking for it.

grue, n Horror, grief [from a Scandinavian word — to feel horror, shudder — root of gruesome]
page 271, Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
“As a tale of grue it was badly timed; Waltzer, too, had spoken of cannibalism, and in fact it seemed a thing he might practice without remorse.”

windlass, n A type of winch used especially on ships to hoist anchors and haul on mooring lines and, especially formerly, to lower buckets into and hoist them up from wells
page 271, Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
“I don’t mean he was already Segovia or anything; it was only days since he’d repaired the instrument with a tube of airplane glue and a Spanish windlass tied up from long johns.”

travois, n A type of sled formerly used by Native American Indians to carry goods, consisting of two joined poles dragged by a horse or dog
page 287, Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
“In silence Juval presided over the further binding of Lonnie Ford and the construction of a travois by which he could be carried home; then we all mounted, Juval last.”

tanager, n A small American songbird of the bunting family, the male of which typically has brightly colored plumage
page 300, Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
“Moving up from the river the humming began to swell — it was magnetic, a sound uncurling into song and light and even a scent, which was like earth, and I must’ve then entered the region of nests, for up scattered finches and cheeky longspurs and every sort of bunting and bobolink and piebald tanager.”
It’s clear that it’s a bird, but that’s all I had.

More great words on my Words from my reading page.

Review of the book cited here:
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

What new words have you found lately?