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. Anyone can join in!
First things first, I am extremely proud of myself right now, as I have finally been able to use my adopted word for the first time in a meaningful way (points above to title). Second things second, my ‘radicarian’ ways have now been directed towards Salman Rushdie’s wonderfully exotic prose as I’m having the greatest pleasure of reading ‘Midnight’s Children’ right now. My vocabulary is benefitting enormously from his colourful language. Here are my finds so far:
- Fustian
a. A coarse sturdy cloth made of cotton and flax.
b. Any of several thick twilled cotton fabrics, such as corduroy, having a short nap.
c. Pretentious speech or writing; pompous language. - Eccrine
a. Relating to an eccrine gland or its secretion, especially sweat.
b. Exocrine. - Apocrine
a. (of exocrine glands) producing a secretion in which part of the secreting cell is released with the secretion; “mother’s milk is one apocrine secretion” - Piscine
Of, relating to, or characteristic of a fish or fishes. - Declension
1. Linguistics
a. In certain languages, the inflection of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in categories such as case, number, and gender.
b. A class of words of one language with the same or a similar system of inflections, such as the first declension in Latin.
2. A descending slope; a descent.
My favourite is ‘piscine’. Reminds me of the French lessons we used to take back in school. If you’ve come across any odd words today, please share!
Great words! Piscine means swimming pool in France, so I found it interesting that it means relating to fish. Thanks for participating!!
It’s strange how we never make the connections between words even when they are pretty obvious. ‘Piscine’ relates to fishes, it means ‘swimming pool’ in French, and it also sounds like ‘Pisces’.
Thanks for the comment!
And now I understand why the astrological sign, Pisces, has fish as a symbol. So glad you joined in Kathy’s word game.
Glad to join in! I always wondered the same thing too. I knew ‘ICHTHUS’ meant fish and also represented Jesus who was born in the Age of Pisces, but couldn’t figure out what pisces actually meant.
rhi·zome (rī′zōm′)
noun
a creeping stem lying, usually horizontally, at or under the surface of the soil and differing from a root in having scale leaves, bearing leaves or aerial shoots near its tips, and producing roots from its undersurface
From the book Witchgrass: A Pipe Dream (page 1) by Dave Wilkinson.
… which can be found in WITCHGRASS! I have you to thank for this piece of knowledge 🙂
As you say, wondrous words. One of my favorite topics.
I know you have a prolific database of interesting words and phrases. Thanks to you I’ve started my own! In Midnight’s Children I came across these two yesterday:
“bearded fruit’ = coconut
and
“summer of the heat insects’ = probably cicadas.
I’ve always wondered how best to describe the deafening chirp of these wonderful animals. They single-handedly made up the soundtrack to my summers abroad in the mediterranean.
What fun! I’m wondering what kind of new words I will come across in my journey through “The Satanic Verses”. No new words today so far, but I look forward to some this evening. You also have me very curious about this work by Rushdie. Look forward to reading your review when you’ve completed it.
Ooo, ‘Satanic Verses’! How are you coping with that one? Is it as scandalous as they’ve made it out to be? I bet it doesn’t deserve the fatwa that Rushdie was issued back when it was first published. Hope you come across those new words!
I’m just zipping around the blogosphere, reminding bloggers…If you have read any wonderful literary books
published in 2010, I urge you to nominate your favorites
for The Independent Literary Awards. The awards
include categories of Literary Fiction and Literary Non-Fiction.
I’m especially interested in having some great nominees for nonfiction!
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