Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by BermudaOnion at Bermudaonion’s Weblog where we get to share new words that we’ve encountered in our reading.
This is the first time I’m participating in Wondrous Words Wednesday, and I’ve got a whole backlog of weird ones. They come from ‘Retromancer’, a steampunk novel written by Robert Rankin. This book has some really funny phrases. Rarely does a book make me laugh out loud, but this one does. One of the main characters uses a lot of arcane language that would make Shakespeare scratch his head. So, here they are:
1. Thaumaturgical – “Upon mahogany shelves the leather spines of Mr Rune’s vast collection of Thaumaturgical books glowed with a rich patina.”
- Def: Having, brought about by, or relating to supernatural powers or magic: fey, magic, magical, talismanic, thaumaturgic, theurgic, theurgical, witching, wizardly. See supernatural.
2. Pehurverance – “I simply abhor it’s pestilential pehuverance. Could you not open a window?” Def: Couldn’t find one! Maybe it’s a made-up word.
3. Hierophant – this is a type of tarot card (High Priest/ Pope)
4. Parousia – meaning the second coming of Christ
That’s it for this week. My favourite is ‘pehuverance’, what’s yours?
Wordly Obsessions 
All your words are new to me. Also new is the word “steampunk” novel. Must be a new genre I’m unfamiliar with. I’m glad you played Wondros Words. Nice to meet you and your blog.
I have two I love. Abecederian–exactly what it sounds like. ABC simple. The next one I managed to shoe-horn into my upcoming novel. I had a genius geek use it. It’s heteroscedasticity–as in “based on the heteroscedasticity of its randomness, she derived a positive probability of relatedness.” Sounds better in situ!
Thanks for sharing your words.
Those are all new words to me! Like Margot, I am not too familiar with steampunk either, though I have a few online friends that read that genre. I am not 100 % sure exactly what it is!
My Wondrous Words post is at http://lusravesandrants.blogspot.com/2010/09/wondrous-words-wednesday_29.html
Margot / Lu – I only recently discovered ‘steampunk’ myself. It’s where the story is set in the future/ alternative reality, but using steam-age technology. If you’re familiar with ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ and ‘League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’ (film), then it’s that type of thing. It’s a lot of fun, you should try it!
Worddreams – Those are great words! Abecederian. I’ve never heard them before. Am I a ‘Abecedarian??’ I hope so.
Haha I love pehurverance the best!! 😀