Wondrous Words Wednesday

Good morning! It's Wednesday again, but I only have 1 word for you! The books this week have been pretty easy reading, I guess, because I haven't come across much in the way of interesting vocabulary. Still, I wanted to share my lone word with you this week, from Nibble & Kuhn by David Schmahmann. (I figured a book about a law firm would at least yield some legal terms, but so far, nothing I didn't already know.)

1. Sinecure: A position or office that requires little or no work but provides a salary.

"Now she is in line for a lifetime sinecure on the bench, and while it isn't a job I would want, one can see why she would."

What new words did YOU learn this week?

Wondrous Words Wednesday!

Time for more words! On Wondrous Words Wednesday, we round up all the words from the previous week that we didn't know and we tell you what they mean. Then, when you read the books we've read, you'll know them, too!

This week, my words come from Mr. Darcy, Vampyre. (You can read my review here.)

1. Ensorcelled: bewitched: under a spell

"She was ensorcelled by him."

Okay, I admit that I know this one, but it's such a great word and has such a great sound to it that I had to post it.

2. Ormolu: brass that looks like gold; used to decorate furniture

"the vases of flowers were being replaced with porcelain and ormolu clocks."

3. Postern: a small gate in the rear of a fort or castle

"It was a nasty moment when the mob broke through the postern gate..."

4. Chamois: antelope; hoofed mammal of mountains of Eurasia having upright horns with backward-hooked tips

"Of wildlife they saw little, only the chamois who ranged over the crags and occasionally some hardy mountain cattle."

This is a cool word because I always love finding a new definition for a word I thought I knew. I know that a chamois is a cloth, but I thought the animal it came from was a goat, not an antelope.

5. Gentian: In this case, a photo is a far better definition:

"She lifted the candle to see it better and she saw to her horror that the woman peering out from the mass of strange creatures was wearing a spray of gentian in her hair."

Wondrous Words Wednesday!

I have been all over the place the last few weeks, so I'm thrilled to be able to post some words this week! The words are from Going Fast by Elaine McClusky. This is a book that I'm reading for the EcoLibris Green Reading Challenge - stop back on November 10th for my review.

Some of these are really interesting! Check them out:

1. Tumid: Swollen; distended

"His body was so tumid, Ownie noticed, that he could have been wearing a padded suit. "

2. Caliginous: Dark, misty, gloomy

"When purged, the toxins left as caliginous clouds of poison..."

3. Pogey: Financial or other relief given to the unemployed by the government

"There was no pogey or nothing."

4. Abstemious: Eating and drinking in moderation. Characterized by abstinence or moderation.

"After years of living the abstemious life of an athlete, of honing his body for one narrow purpose, he had decided to party."

5. Vertiginous: Dizzy; having or causing a whirling sensation.

"...a vertiginous shaft of swirling buoys, hot pain, and otherworldly doubts."

6. Strathspey: A Scottish dance resembling, but slower than, the reel; the music for this.

"It is time we return to our traditions, to the older strathspeys and reels that speak to the Gaelic heart."

7. Bochdan: Bogeyman

"How could he argue with Alasdair, who had such a keen interest in the supernatural and the bochdan, along with his gift of second sight."

8. Agate: Unit of typographical measure. An agate font was commonly used to display statistical data or legal notices in newspapers.

"...the intern had been assigned the sports agate, which took all of his concentration."

A nice mix of Gaelic words and more common usages. I especially like agate - I love words that I think I know and it turns out they have entirely different meanings.

What new words did YOU learn this week?

Wondrous Words Wednesday!

It's Wednesday and time for more new words! I'm on the road so it's a short post this week, but there are a few words I wanted to share.

My words this week come from The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny. It takes place in a remote village in Quebec, so I've had a chance to practice a little of my college French. Still, there were a few words I thought you might find interesting...

1. Chatelaine: "As a chatelaine would, confident in her place and without need to prove it."

The mistress of a chateau or large country house .

Wall-eyed: "He approached the tall, wall-eyed dark horse, who shied away."

Having large bulging or staring eyes. I particularly loved this part, because the chatelaine above had planned to buy some lovely riding horses, and instead bought 4 abused and neglected horses, intended for slaughter. Such a very kind thing to do - I'm hoping it works out for her.

Well, those are all I have this week. I guess I need to find some tougher reading assignments. What new words did YOU learn this week?

Wondrous Words Wednesday!

I actually have some words this week! And time to post them! Those don't always happen at the same time. These come from Stone's Fall by Iain Pears. It's 800+ pages and hasn't been a particularly speedy read so far, but I'm hoping it will pick up soon.

1. Bumptious: Offensively self-assertive.

"Mr. Henderson was a young man for his job, perhaps in his mid-thirties, and, in my opinion, somewhat bumptious."

2. Toff: Informal term for an upper-class or wealthy person.

"He spoke with a measured neutrality, neither sounding like a toff, nor yet betraying any trace of his West Country origins."

3. Antipathetic: Having or showing a strong aversion or repugnance: antipathetic to new ideas.

"This was unwarranted; he was merely antipathetic.

So, a few more Britishisms to add to my vocabulary. What new words did YOU learn this week?

Wondrous Words Wednesday

Words, words, wonderful words! This is one of my favorite weekly memes, since I get to share new words I have learned and learn new words from other bloggers. This week, I've got a couple of words from The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann. I got this ARC last year during a busy time and it has finally made it back to the top of the pile. It reminds me a little of an older book that I enjoyed, Four Against the Arctic: Shipwrecked for Six Years at the Top of the World, because it's both the story of an adventure and the story of researching and writing about the adventure. I have a feeling I'm going to be learning a lot about the Amazon jungle, and I will get to share those words with you!

1. Dagobas: A dome-shaped structure built over the relics of Buddha or some Buddhist saint.

"There are bricks and vanishing dagobas and inexplicable mounds, pits, and inscriptions."

2. Dhobis: A washerman in Pakistan or India; someone who does laundry.
3. Jaggery: Unrefined brown sugar made from palm sap.

"And there were people: astrologers, peddlers, dhobis, jaggery sellers, goldsmiths, tom-tom beaters and beggars."

4. Equerry: An official charged with the care of the horses of princes or nobles.

"A Balliol scholar and fine athlete...yachtsman, charmer and wit, equerry to the Prince of Wales..."

5. Lianas: Various climbing, woody, usually tropical vines.

"A net of vines and lianas covered the trails extending from the clearing..."

6. Aneroid: A barometer that measures pressure without using fluids.

"He also carried a kit of surveying instruments: a sextant and a chronometer for determining latitude and longitude, an aneroid for measuring atmospheric pressure, and a glycerin compass that could fit in his pocket."

What new words did you learn this week?

Wondrous Word Wednesdays!

Words, words, wonderful words! This week, I finally had some books that challenged me - and I bet some of them are going to challenge you, too.

First, from The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel:

1. Sanguine: "The girl had glycerine eyes and marvelous lips that had no bow but were the shape and colour of a segment of blood orange, a soft sanguine red."

Of the color of blood; red.; of a healthy reddish color.

2. Ger: "It had one huge half-moon courtyard at the front of the house that was crowded with gers..."

A round felt tent which required large numbers of poles and laths.

3. Diet: "Although he was a member of the diet he never talked about politics with me, but would sometimes speak about his family business.

A legislative assembly in certain countries (e.g., Japan) .

4. Demi-monde: "Mari had a penchant for the demi-monde."

Literally "half world"; a class beneath proper Society. Generally used to refer to those of questionable reputation.

5. Samphire: "We ate wonderful sweetmeats made from almonds and pear syrup and invariably ended the banquet with a soup of samphire or chestnuts."

A fleshy green plant which grows on coastal marshes. Also known as glasswort or pickle-plant or sea asparagus.

6. Shambolic: "Yet it was a good deal more fitting for an emperor than the shambolic Quiet Garden in Tientsin had been."

(British slang) disorderly or chaotic.

And now, one from Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse:

7. PEBKAC: "Any time I'm at work at 2 a.m., it's either PEBKAC or Microsloth."

Okay, I admit that I knew this one (I do a bit of software tech support), but it's too much fun not to share. PEBKAC is "Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair"

Wondrous Words Wednesday!

Here we are, another Wednesday, another chance to learn some new words! These are from Scottsboro - we got a Teaser yesterday and we'll get a review later this week. For now, here some interesting words from the Depression:

1. "Unlike most of my friends, I had not even bothered to buy a dime-store wedding band when I had gone to a clinic to be fitted for a pessary."

Pessary: diaphragm: a contraceptive device

2. "I did not need Mrs. Gorse to tell me that pellagra, scurvy, rickets and beriberi ran rampant."

Pellagra: a vitamin deficiency disease caused by lack of niacin (vitamin B3).
Beriberi: a vitamin deficiency caused by lack of thiamine (vitamin B1)
(And just in case you hadn't seen them before, scurvy is caused by a lack of vitamin C and rickets is caused by a lack of vitamin D.)

3. "The audience took a few minutes to quiet sufficiently for her to take the chair representing the witness stand and repeat the testimony she had given in the courtroom, edited for dramatic purposes and delivered with a brio she had not shown in Decatur."

Brio: animation; spirited or alive and vigorous

4. "The only difference was the contingent of twelve Negroes among the one hundred veniremen."

Veniremen: A potential juror summoned for duty.

I don't usually find a bunch of words that I don't know well! This was really interesting! What words did you learn this week?

Wondrous Words Wednesday!

Happy Wednesday! This week (if you're following my travels on a map) I am in St Paul, Minnesota, attempting to train a large group of corporate controllers on using a new software system. Go ahead, pity me - I could use it. So, as promised, more words from last week's read, Population: 485, Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time.

1. "After determining they are superficial, with no underlying crepitus or depression to indicate an obvious cranial fracture..."

Crepitus: a medical term to describe the grating, crackling or popping sounds and sensations experienced under the skin and joints. Crepitus - and surely this will bit of knowledge will make you popular at parties - is also the (alleged) Roman god of flatulence!

2. "...through a series of night classes held in a high school library under the aegis of the Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College..."

Aegis: Auspices

3. "So I commit myself to the process, which amounts to a series of grunts accreted in tedium."

To accrete is to grow together or become attached. I'm not quite sure how he meant to use this one.

4. "I retain serious reservations about anyone who launches their day with briskness of any sort, let alone an alacritous jog."

Alacritous: Quick and eager. Okay, now he's just showing off. Maybe he's afraid we'll think he's too much of a redneck, what with the rusted truck, the deer hunting and the carp fishing.

5. "...a solitary trumpet peal rises over the strings and fades. I find it to be unbearably plangent."

Plangent: loud and mournful

6. "I feel the twinge and remember that for a few laps there, I was god of the Peloton."

I include this one because it's in the news lately, with the Tour de France. Peloton: The main group of riders formed during a cycling road race.

Wondrous Words Wednesday!

Greetings from the West Coast! Only a few more days in beautiful Montebello, California, then home for 3 days and off to a week of meetings in St. Paul, Minnesota. Luckily, I have managed to squeeze in a little time for some new words.

Words this week come from Population: 485 by Michael Perry. It's a really interesting book about life in a small town, written by a volunteer firefighter and EMT who works with - and sometimes on - his neighbors. The book covers everything from firefighting to farming to philosophy, with lots of stops along the way. Here are some of the interesting words I came across:

1. "...the corner has been recut and reshaped, the roadbed raised and the camber adjusted."

Camber: 1: a slight convexity (as of the surface of a road) 2: a slope in the turn of a road or track.

2. "The effect was riverine."

Riverine: relating to or resembling a river.

3. "Your top-grade aphorist covers all angles."

Aphorist: Okay, this is one of those words that you need a definition of the definition. An aphorist is someone who produces or collects aphorisms. Aphorisms are original thoughts, spoken or written in an easily memorable form.

And this quote is a fiver-fer!

4-8: "In its wake, we were left a raw, poetic topographhy of kettles and moraines, kames and eskers, and drumlins.

Kettle: Depression made by the wasting away of a detached piece of glacier ice.

Moraine: An accumulation of boulders, stones, or other debris carried and deposited by a glacier.

Kame: A round hill or short ridge of sand or gravel deposited by a melting glacier.

Esker: A long winding ridge of post glacial gravel and other sediment.

Drumlin: A smooth hill formed from deposits of glacial till.

I've got a lot more words from this book and I plan on using them next week. Until then, here's something to think about, if you've been playing this game every Wednesday: isn't it surprising how some definitions are so very clear, and others are worse than useless? Especially looking up the topographic terms, I was surprised by the way some definitions gave me a clear picture of the effect, while others were so vague or dolled-up in other technical terms, that I had no idea what they meant. No wonder people get frustrated!

Wonderful Words Wednesday

Good morning and Happy Wednesday! I am on the west coast this week on business, so I am getting a rather late start on this today, at least compared to a lot of you. It's been hard to squeeze in some personal time, but since I missed the Teaser yesterday, I didn't want to miss sharing some new words!

This week, my words are all from As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann. My friend Ari has been pestering me to read this one for a while, and although it got off to a slow start, I am very interested in how it turns out: "A dark, erotic tale of passion and obsession, As Meat Loves Salt is a gripping portrait of England beset by war and the harrowing tale of a man on the edge of madness." So far, that's a pretty good summary.

Most of these words are pretty archaic, but I found some of them interesting. Since one of the main characters runs a printing press, we'll get to learn some terms for its parts and operation.

1. "She blew her nose and I heard the catarrh rattle in her head."

Inflammation of mucous membranes, especially of the nose and throat.

2. "This is what you call your frisket. It keeps ink from getting where you don't want it."

A thin frame in a printing press that holds the sheet of paper in position and acts as a mask.

3. "That thick thing is called a tympanum - it evens the pressure."

In a printing press, frame for equalizing pressure; it is also the medical term for the external ear drum, the part that vibrates.

4. "Was this always the way of it, that a man climbed towards the angels only to drop into the midden?"

A dunghill or refuse heap.

That will have to do for today - my first conference call is in 30 minutes and it's going to be another long afternoon in a freezing cold conference room, without even a new word to keep me company.

Wondrous Words Wednesday

I have missed out on Wondrous Words the last few weeks - I hate it when Real Life disrupts my online pursuits. Luckily, I just finished with The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh, which provided a ton of new words. So, prepare to learn a little about mortuary science as well as precise definitions of some more old-fashioned English words...

1. "I was always the most defatigable of hacks."

Easily tired or wearied; capable of being fatigued

2. "...his way was narrow but it was dignified and umbrageous and it led to limitless distances."

Shady: filled with shade; "the shady side of the street"

3. "Normal disposal is by inhumement, entombment, inurnment or immurement..."

Inhumement: Burial, the act of placing a person or object into the ground

Inurnment: The placing of cremated remains in an urn.

Immurement: To entomb in walls. (This also has a darker definition, referring to the execution of a prisoner by walling them up in a building - think The Cask of Amontillado.)

4. "There was no catafalque."

A decorated bier on which a coffin rests in state during a funeral.

5. "They don't sing an orison like birds."

Prayer; reverent petition to a deity.

6. "Funerals a specialty; Panegyrics in prose or poetry."

A formal speech or opus publicly praising someone.

I do love the specialized vocabulary you pick up with each book you read. That's one of the reasons I love this meme - I am always finding new words and it's a good reminder to look them up, rather than just depending on context.

What new words did YOU learn this week?

Wondrous Words Wednesday

Good morning! Time for another edition of Words Wondrous Words on Wednesday! This week, I am posting some words from a book I finished recently, Tattoo Machine. I really enjoyed this one - wild and wooly stories from your local tattoo shop, told by an author who has a real interest in the art and history of the business. In case you're hanging out, waiting to be tattooed, and you want to know what they're talking about, these words might come in handy:

1. Trojan: A solid, business, oriented tattoo artist. A Trojan is never late and never breaks. They always arrive early to get the jump on any surprises. They take the job seriously and can be relied upon to fix any sink, change any lightbulb, or wipe the floor with any scumbag.

2. Tattoo psychosis: A condition that effects some tattoo artists , wherein they become territorial egomaniacs who believe they have divine powers now that they are actually making money doing art.

3. Taco Valve: You've just witnessed your cohort's 1:00 appointment snarf down a jumbo, super-sized fast-food buffet. Shortly, they will be in pain, their body tense, their system racheting into high gear as age-old biological reflexes will kick in. Time to lean in and say "That 'TV' show is coming on at two."

4. Packer: Someone who is concealing something on their medical portion of his or her elease form.

5. Boy butter: The petroleum jelly used in tattoo shops.

6. Night hog: A crappy tattoo artist; the weak link in the chain.

7. Tramp stamp: A tattoo in the center of a woman's lower back.

Okay, there are lots, lots more, but if you want more, you'll need to come back for the review later this week!

What new words did YOU learn this week?

Wondrous Words Wednesdays

Happy Wednesday! It's time for more wonderful words! I only managed to find a few words this week that I wasn't familiar with, although this week's book, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was full of old-fashioned words and usages. Here's what I came up with:

1. Curricle - a smart, two-wheeled chaise, drawn by a pair of horses.

"...they saw a gentleman and lady in a curricle driving up the street."

2. Propinquity - nearness in place, proximity

"Mr. Gardiner expressed a wish of going around the whole park, but feared it might be too dangerous given the propinquity of the herd."

3. Coppice - a thicket or grove of small trees or shrubs, especially one maintained by periodic cutting or pruning.

"...and a narrow walk amidst the rought coppice-wood that bordered it."

And you cannot get through Pride and Prejudice and Zombies without knowing the word felicity and all its definitions:

1. A state of being happy; bliss
2. An instance of happiness
3. A source of happiness
4. A skillful faculty (as in felicity of expression)
5. An instance of skill (as in the many felicities of the poem)
6. Good fortune

So, what new words did YOU learn this week?

Wondrous Words Wednesday

Good morning! Time for more interesting words from the pages of this week's book, The Glassblower of Murano by Marina Fiorato. Now, there's a lot of Italian in this book, but it didn't seem fair to include those words in this list, but I still managed to find a few that were new or that I was only glancingly familar with. Here goes:

1. Hermetic - Referring to Hermeticism, a search for God and the secrets of the cosmos through magical and mystical means; obscure, secret or unrevealed.

They were both taken by the figure of Spring in her flowing white gown sprigged with flowers, smiling her slight, hermetic smile, beautiful and full of promise.

I had only heard this word used to mean airtight, as in hermetically sealed, so this was a new definition for me.

2. Candling - I could not find a definition for this word that matches its use here. Since candling normally refers to using a bright light (originally a candle) to inspect an egg, I have to assume that this refers to candlight, illuminating something from behind and seeing the shadows cast.

She peered into the candling shadows beyond the pillars, where keen locals stood to hear the music, and looked fancifully for his red head amongst them.

3. Loggia - An open-sided, roofed or vaulted gallery, either free-standing or along the front or side of a building, often at an upper level.

4. Gnomon - An object, such as the style of a sundial, that projects a shadow used as an indicator.

The Campanile loomed over the square like the giant gnomon of a sundial; the loggias housed elongted arcs of light.

5. Parison - A spherical mass of glass, rolled immediately after being taken out of the furnace.

His fellows joked that he was such a perfectionist that, were the parison not perfect, Manin would never take another breath in, and expire on the spot.

What new words did YOU learn this week?

Wondrous Words Wednesday

Time for more wondrous words! I'm having a devil of a time today - I had to switch work laptops and the keyboard is just slightly different and it's making me crazy! But crazy is fine today because I'm reading a book by a doctor - Dr. Drew Pinsky. (Don't tell me I'm the only one who watched him on Loveline because he's kinda hot.) This book is going to be a great source of words!

1. Narcissism - In this case, the quote provides its own definition:

"What is narcissism? It's not what you think it is: it's not ego. It's not self-love. It's self-loathing. Envy. Insecurity. Self-destruction."

Now, for those of you not fluent in Webspeak:

2. Celebutantes, Celebuspawn and Celebutards

"They've been dubbed celebutantes (debutante-age girls famous only because of their wealth, lifestyle and perceived glamour), celebuspawn (offspring of a celebrity or celebrity couple) and celebutards (stars known for ignorant behavior or opinions."

3. Histrionic - Histrionic personality disorder (HPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a pattern of excessive emotionality and attention-seeking, including an excessive need for approval and inappropriate seductiveness, usually beginning in early adulthood.

"Cluster B includes includes narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) as well as histrionic, antisocial and borderline disorders."

4. Mimetic desires - desires in ourselves that are inspired by the desires of others.

"Although Girard's theory of mimetic desire was inspired by his study of literature, it has been influential in the field of psychology..."

Okay, that's enough psychology for one day. Here's hoping you didn't see yourself in any of these words! What words did YOU learn this week?

ETA: It has been pointed out that I didn't give you the title of the book! Ooops! It's The Mirror Effect: How Celebrity Narcissism is Seducing America. I finished it last night on the plane, and I should be reveiwing it next week.

Wondrous Words Wednesday

This is a little early because Blogger sucks today and says everything is a bad request.

I am so excited to have some great words this week! These are from a book I just finished, The Physic Book of Deliverance Dane. I really enjoyed this one - look for a review next week.

1. maleficium - A curse which was anciently annexed to donations of lands made to churches and religious houses, against those who should violate their rights.

"Interestingly, research into the kinds of maleficium - her tongue tangled on the Latin word, sending it out with one or two extra syllables,"

2. Henbane - poisonous fetid Old World herb having sticky hairy leaves and yellow-brown flowers

3. Moonwort - Seedless vascular plants of the genus Botrychium, sensu stricto. They are small, with fleshy roots, and reproduce by spores shed into the air.

"...alighting on some obscure flowers that she knew only form horticulture books: monkshood, henbane, foxglove, moonwort."

4. Simulacrum - a vague representation; semblance; image; likeness.

"The interior assembled around her out of the gloom, a perfect simulacrum of a first-period, pre-1700 house,"

5. Cordwainer - An individual, usually a shoemaker, who works in Cordovan leather.

"...and Goodman Pakfrey a cordwainer, who was forever volunteering for town committees."

6. Steeplejack - A steeplejack is a craftsman who is prepared to scale tall buildings and in particular church steeples to carry out general repairs.

"SAMUEL HARTLEY, it read. STEEPLEJACK."

7. Antinomian - related to the doctrine that faith frees the Christian from the obligations of the moral law

"A small number of cases all within a few yearsof one another seemed to correspond with the Antinomian crisis,"

There are more, but I think I'll save them for next week. What new words did YOU learn this week?

Wondrous Words Wednesday

It's Wednesday and time for some new words. This weekend, I was reading Badlands by Richard Montanari, and I found some good ones there:

1. Wordstruck - "The daughter of a Scranton shopkeeper, Monica liked to dress in red; shy and wordstruck and virginal."

Oddly enough, I can't find a definition online for wordstruck. I did find a quote from Robert MacNeil's book, Wordstruck, that is helpful: “Wordstruck is exactly what I was—and still am: crazy about the sound of words, the look of words, the taste of words, the feeling for words on the tongue and in the mind.” ~Robert MacNeil, Wordstruck

2. Tangram - "'This is called a tangram puzzle,' she said."

The tangram is a Chinese "dissection" puzzle consisting of seven flat shapes, called tans, which are put together to form shapes. The objective of the puzzle is to form a specific shape (given only in outline or silhouette) using all seven pieces, which may not overlap.

3. Doyenne - "...an aging circus acrobat with flame-red tresses and ill-fitting teeth, the portly doyenne of a Hungarian gypsy troupe..."

I had always assumed doyenne meant an older woman. It actually means the oldest woman, the senior member of a group.

4. Gessoed - "Katja stared at him, through him, her face a blank, gessoed canvas."

A blank surface prepared for painting; gesso is a thick, white mixture made of plaster and glue that is applied to a surface to prepare it for painting or gilding

5. Ludo - "One word glared back. Ludo."

A simple board game in which players move counters according to the throw of dice.

6. Corollarium - "There was a single word beneath the last video. Corollarium."

A garland of flowers; a present; a gratiuty.

7. Micropsia - "Plus, I discovered there's something called Alice in Wonderland syndrome, also known as micropsia, which causes a person to perceive large objects as being much smaller."

Micropsia is a neurological condition affecting human visual perception, in which objects appear smaller than normal and the subject larger than normal.

Interesting words from a book about a deadly game. What words did you find this week?

Wondrous Words Wednesday!

Welcome to another exciting edition of Wondrous Words Wednesday!

I have been having toruble lately finding good words for this post. I guess I just haven't been reading the sort of books that lend themselves to new vocabulary. So, here are some that I have picked out of books I've yet to read, off of websites, or in conversation:

1. Kommando - "The whole kommando is in a fevor of excitement at the great and wonderful news: Vicom is leaving!" From Resistance by Agnes Humbert.

During World War II it was the basic unit of organization of slave laborers in German concentration camps.

2. Anodyne - "The Bozo Project is anodyne for a world weary of crisis and conflict. " From a web post.

Analgesic; a medicine used to relieve pain.

3. Arils - "For centuries, different parts of the fruit - arils, rind, juice, bark - have been used to treat a wide range of ailments. From Rubies in the Orchard by Lynda Resnick

An aril is any specialized from the funniculus (attachment point of the seed) that covers or is attached to the seed. The aril may create a fruit-like structure, as you find in pomegranates.

Wondrous Words Wednesday

Happy Wednesday! I have some great words this week - most of them about books and printing. I'm currently reading Lethal Legacy by Linda Fairstein, a murder mystery involving the New York Public Library. I'm learning lots of interesting things about the library and about collecting books and maps

The first word on the list is from an email I received (about a book) and the rest are from Lethal Legacy.

1. Jeremiad - "The book is no jeremiad."

A long and mournful complaint.

2. Primogeniture - "You know about primogeniture, of course. He was the third son of a third son and so on."

The system of inheritance or succession by the firstborn, specifically the eldest son. This was the definition I was familiar with, but it also means the state of being the first son.

3. Incunabula - "There were early English Bibles and Shakespeare Folios, incredibly fine incunabula -"

A book printed before 1501; an artifact of an early period.

4. Rhumb lines - "Meticulous engravings they were - all about navigation - so soundings and rhumb lines and the markings for every little coastal port were of major importance."

In navigation, a rhumb line (or loxodrome) is a line crossing all meridians at the same angle, i.e. a path of constant bearing. You can find more on this at Wikipedia: charts and mathematical derivations and so forth.

5. Elephant folio - "What's an elephant folio?" Mike asked.

A very large folio; an American book size with a height measurement between 24 and 25 in. (61 and 63.5 cm).

Books, maps and navigation - all sorts of interesting new words! What words made you smarter this week? Check out some of the other interesting word posts over at Bermudaonion's Weblog.