Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Wondrous Words Wednesday


Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme (hosted by Bermudaonion) where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our reading. If you want to play along, grab the new button (or the old graphic), and join the fun! (Don’t forget to leave a link in your comment if you’re participating.)

Taken from Mr. Darcy, Vampyre by Amanda Grange

1. ormolu- "The clock, an ornate work of art made of ormolu and heavily guilded, struck the hour."

An alloy of copper and zinc used to imitate gold.

Origin: 1755–65; from French or moulu ground gold, equiv. to or From Latin aurum + moulu, past participle of moudre to grind from Latin molere.

2. miasma- "...but the ghostly miasma of autumn..."

A dangerous, foreboding, or deathlike influence or atmosphere.

Origin: 1655–65; From Greek míasma stain, pollution, akin to miaínein to pollute, stain

Taken from Evernight by Claudia Gray

1. peripatetic- "But now that Lucas said it, I could see that a peripatetic existence might be the same effect."

Walking or traveling about.

Origin 1400–50; late Middle English from Latin peripatēticus from Greek peripatētikós of Aristotle and his school, literally, walking about, equivalent to peripatē- (verbid s. of peripateîn to walk about, equiv. to peri- peri- + pateîn to walk; akin to path ) + -tikos -tic

4 comments:

  1. I might be able to use miasma, but I can't even pronounce the others ones, so I don't think I'll be using them anytime soon. Thanks for playing along today.

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  2. I'm laughing my butt off at those words from Mr. Darcy, Vampyre. Ha, it's one of the things that bugged me about that book. Can you imagine Elizabeth Bennet saying to herself, but the ghostly miasma of autumn is really bothering me?? What the heck?

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  3. I have never heard of those words. I must not be paying attention while I'm reading Mr. Darcy, Vampyre because I'm not noticing these weird words!

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  4. Yeah, miasma and ormolu...I guess if I'm not finding them in her original works why should we be finding them in sequels, right? And then these teen novels? peripatetic? I don't know many teens who would use that one let alone any adults!!! So fun, though to learn new words.

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