Wondrous Words Wednesday | Fabulous Fleming

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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!

Now that I finished Midnight’s Children I thought I might go through a scarcity of ‘wondrous words’, but lo and behold Iam Fleming has taken me back to school with a few exotic words in his last Bond book ‘Octopussy and The Living Daylights’. Here’s a few of my favourites:

1. Accidie [ˈæksɪdɪ], acedia
n (Christian Religious Writings / Theology) spiritual sloth; apathy; indifference [in use C13 to C16 and revived C19: via Late Latin from Greek
akēdia, from a-¹ + kēdos care]

2. Rascasse – ‘Scorpion fish inhabit most of the southern waters of the world, and the ‘rascasse’ that is the foundaion of bouillabaise belongs to the family’. French for ‘scorpion fish’. Used in bouillabaisse.

 

3. Secconal – “Major Smythe had awoken from his Secconal sleep’

Trademark for a sedative-hypnotic (secobarbital sodium).

 

4. Bouillabaise – (Occitan: bolhabaissa) is a traditional Provençal fish stew originating from the port city of Marseille.

I know it’s mostly foreign words, but it’s interesting to know them. As I read on I realise that Fleming uses quite a bit of French in his narrative. Not that I mind.

Wondrous Words Wednesday | Radicarian Rushdie II

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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!

Welcome to part deux of the rather too-prolonged exploration into Rushdie’s prodigious vocabulary. This time I offer radicarian oddities that revolve around ‘hearing’. Yes, the protagonist in ‘Midnight’s Children’ (see my progress/ thoughts on the book here and here) has lost his Professor X abilities as clairvoyant but finally gained a sense of smell. Our Saleem now has an olfactory system that would make Suskind’s Grenouille go green with envy! Here are my latest wordly gems:

1. Orotund – “the orotund emissions of power” (the smell coming from the exhaust of a bus to Saleem has a ’rounded’ shape…)

adj 1. (of the voice) resonant; booming
2. (of speech or writing) bombastic; pompous [from Latin phrase ore rotundo with rounded mouth]

2. Effluvia – “the competitive effluvia of the bus-drivers”

n. pl. ef·flu·vi·a (-v–) or ef·flu·vi·ums
1. A usually invisible emanation or exhalation, as of vapor or gas.
2. a. A byproduct or residue; waste.b. The odorous fumes given off by waste or decaying matter.
3. An impalpable emanation; an aura.

3. Itr – “mosques poured over me the itr of devotion”
Means ‘very pure fragrance/ perfume’. This is one of the foreign words Rushdie uses to pepper his narrative. I think it might be of Arabic origins.

I think it’s hard to choose a favourite from these three. But Effluvia is probably the most beautiful sounding word with the most nasty meaning. I’ve made up my mind to use itwhen talking about people I don’t like. Think about it, instead of saying ‘so and so smells like crap’, you could be a little more elegant and say ‘He has an effluvial scent about him’. Sounds more elegant, and with a bit of luck, no one will really know what you’re talking about!

Wondrous Words Wednesday (8/12) | Getting Radicarian with Rushdie

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meme, midnights children, salman rushdie, wondrous words wednesday

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:

1. 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.
2. Eccrine
   a. Relating to an eccrine gland or its secretion, especially sweat.
   b. Exocrine.
3. 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”
4. Piscine
   Of, relating to, or characteristic of a fish or fishes.
5. 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!

Wondrous Words Wednesday | Rankin Gets Curiouser and Curiouser…

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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. 

I’ve got more words from ‘Retromancer’, this time of the architectural persuasion: 

1. Cloisonné – A ancient method of decorating enamel and metalwork objects.

2. Champlevé – An enamelling technique in the decorative arts, or an object made by that process.

3. Calotte – In architecture, a round cavity or depression, in the form of a cup or cap, lathed and plastered; used to diminish the rise or elevation of a moderate chapel, cabinet, alcove etc.

Oh, and I discovered a delightful little phrase on my readings: ‘to travel by sparrow-fart’. Yes, ‘sparrow-fart’. I did a double-take at that one, blinked, and  then embarked on a five-minute giggling session thereafter. I somehow can’t imagine what a sparrow fart looks like let alone the dimensions of it and whether it would actually get anyone to their destination or not. All the same, the rest of my day was spent with images of little sparrows falling off their perches through the exertions of excessive gas. A most incongruous visual, what with the sparrow and the massive fart concept, but extremely effective in comedic terms!

Wondrous Words Wednesday (29/09)

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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?