Wondrous Words Wednesday

Wondrous Words Wednesday is hosted by BermudaOnion and is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love.  

I'm highlighting words that are new to me/that I really like/that struck me for some reason..!

These came from the novel All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, which I read recently (and which I loved by the way).

1. upbraid (verb)

1. to reprove or reproach angrily

2. to find fault with

2. palmate (adjective)

1. (Zoology) shaped like an open hand: palmate antlers.

2. (Botany) botany having more than three lobes or segments that spread out from a common point: palmate leaves.

3. (Zoology) (of the feet of most water birds) having three toes connected by a web

3. embrasure (noun)

1. (Fortifications) fortifications an opening or indentation, as in a battlement, for shooting through

2. (Architecture) an opening forming a door or window, having splayed sides that increase the width of the opening in the interior

Definitions from thefreedictionary.com

Wondrous Words Wednesday

Wondrous Words Wednesday is hosted by BermudaOnion and is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love.  

I'm highlighting words that are new to me/that I really like/that struck me for some reason..!

These came from The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett, which I read recently.

1. equerry (noun)

1. A personal attendant to the British royal household.

2. An officer charged with supervision of the horses belonging to a royal or noble household

2. divagations (verb)

1. To wander or drift about.

2. To ramble; digress.

3. amanuensis (noun)

One who is employed to take dictation or to copy manuscript.

4. adumbrate (verb)

1. To give a sketchy outline of.

2. To prefigure indistinctly; foreshadow.

3. To disclose partially or guardedly.

4. To overshadow; shadow or obscure.

Definitions from thefreedictionary.com

Wondrous Words Wednesday (4)

Wondrous Words Wednesday is hosted by BermudaOnion and is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love.  

I'm highlighting words that are new to me/that I really like/that struck me for some reason..!

This week my words are all taken from The Moon Field by Judith Allnatt, a very moving story set in 1914, which I am two-thirds through reading.

1 revetting (verb) - 'Exhausted by the digging and revetting…'

To retain (an embankment, for example) with a layer of stone, concrete, or other supporting material; provide with a revetment.

2 cyanotic (adjective) - '…their hair and beards rimed white, their faces with a blue, cyanotic pallor.'

A bluish discolouration of the skin and mucous membranes resulting from inadequate oxygenation of the blood.

3 bole (noun) - 'He got behind the bole of one of the larger trees…'

The trunk of a tree.


4 estaminet (noun) - 'When at rest, he went with Haycock and the others to the warm estaminets; he saw their spirits revive with food and drink.'

A small café
(from French, perhaps from Walloon dialect staminet manger)

Definitions from the free dictionary

Wondrous Words Wednesday (3)

Wondrous Words Wednesday is hosted by BermudaOnion and is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love.  

I'm highlighting words that are new to me/that I really like/that struck me for some reason..!

This week my words are all taken from The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison (Headline) which I've just finished reading. I thought this was a really good, absorbing read and hope to review it soon. 

1 concupiscent (adjective) - '...still in the brash, lingering phase of going everywhere together, going out just to be seen in all their concupiscent glory.'

Vigorously passionate.

2 finagled (verb) - 'But she can't dismiss the feeling that he has somehow managed to escape, has finagled things so he gets off scot-free, like always.'

1. To obtain or achieve by indirect, usually deceitful methods.
2. To cheat, swindle, trick (a person).

3 censer (noun) - '...he was smitten from the start with the glamour and mystique of it: the solemn processions, colorful robes, smoking censer, chanting and singing.'

A vessel in which incense is burned, especially during religious services.

Definitions from the free dictionary

Wondrous Words Wednesday (2) - Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Wondrous Words Wednesday is hosted by BermudaOnion and is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love.  

I think this is a great idea! I decided to start taking part in this and highlighting words that are new to me/that I really like/that struck me for some reason..!

This week my words are all from Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (Picador) 

1 vittles (noun) - 'The clerks took what she had to cover her vittles.'

A variation of victual; an obsolete or dialect spelling of victual.
victuals (noun) - food supplies or provisions for human beings

2 rime (noun) - 'Endless days of dark indoors and hateful glances are enough to set a rime on anyone's bones.'

1. A coating of ice, as on grass and trees, formed when extremely cold water droplets freeze almost instantly on a cold surface.
2. A coating, as of mud or slime, likened to a frosty film.

Also a variant of 'rhyme'.

3 wreath (noun) - '...in the stillness of the room I hear footsteps, awful coming footsteps, coming to blow me out and send my life up away from me in a grey wreath of smoke.'

1 a. A ring or circle of flowers, boughs, or leaves worn on the head, placed on a memorial, or hung as decoration.
   b. A representation of this ring or circlet, as in woodwork.
2 A curling or circular form: a wreath of smoke.



I was familiar with these words to an extent but they all interested me and in each case I discovered something by looking at their definitions.

Definitions from the free dictionary

Wondrous Words Wednesday (1)

Wondrous Words Wednesday is hosted by BermudaOnion and is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love.  

I think this is a great idea! I decided to start taking part in this and highlighting words that are new to me/that I really like/that struck me for some reason..!

This week my words are all from Bellman and Black by Diane Setterfield (Orion)

1 striation (noun) - 'There were indeed abrasion marks that William had taken for striations in the stone.'

One of a number of parallel lines or scratches on the surface of a rock that were inscribed by rock fragments embedded in the base of a glacier as it moved across the rock.

2 prestidigitation (noun) - '...fingertips bouncing off each other in a spellbinding display of prestiditigitation...'

Performance of or skill in performing magic or conjuring tricks with the hands; sleight of hand.

A show of skill or deceitful cleverness.

3 bombazine (noun) - '...looking for bombazine and parramatta and mourning silk and merino...'

A fine twilled fabric of silk and worsted or cotton, often dyed black and used for mourning clothes.

Definitions from the free dictionary