Welcome back, wordy friends!
Wondrous Words Wednesday is hosted by BermudaOnion each week. It's an opportunity to share new words you've encountered in your reading, or highlight words that you particularly enjoy.
Here are three of my favorites new-to-me words from some of my recent reads. All definitions from Dictionary.com.
1. widdershins. "As if surprised by his rage, the widdershins pressure on the doorknob eased again." (from Dreamcatcher by Stephen King)
adverb
1. in the direction contrary to the apparent course of the sun; anticlockwise.
2. in a direction contrary to the usual; in the wrong direction.
(Apparently this is primarily a Scottish word.)
2. eidetic. "Barry is an eating machine. And his memory, on this subject, at least, is eidetic." (from Dreamcatcher by Stephen King)
adjective
of, pertaining to, or constituting visual imagery vividly experienced and readily reproducible with great accuracy and in great detail.
(Can I just say how hard it is to identify new words when you are listening to an audiobook? This word does not look like it sounds, at least to me. ahy-det-ik)
3. surcease. "Eagerly I wished the morrow, vainly I had sought to borrow from my books surcease of sorrow." (from Feed by Mira Grant)
verb
1. to cease from some action; desist.
2. to come to an end.
(They used this as a passcode in the book--I think it's from a Poe poem?)
2. to come to an end.
(They used this as a passcode in the book--I think it's from a Poe poem?)
What are your new words this week?
I love the sound of widdershins, even though I've never actually heard it spoken. I've heard new words in an audio book before too- I understand your difficulty.
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely hard to identify new words on audio and I generally don't write them down when I hear them. I like the way widdershins sounds and will have to try to pop it into a conversation.
ReplyDeleteThey are all new to me, thanks! for sharing.
ReplyDeletehttp://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2012/12/wondrous-words-wednesday_19.html
I agree with you on the difficulty in finding new words when listening to books. Our ears must be trained to skip over unknown words But I like the word eidetic. I'll try to use that one myself.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kelly- It's funny how some words you can guess, like surcease, and others are so out there! Widdershins sounds like something I can yell when I'm irritated, instead of, well, you know.
ReplyDeleteI love reading these posts Kelly.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, surcease is from The Raven by Poe, "...vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore..."
Widdershins. It sounds so fun, almost made up :)
As a complete book nerd and higher education worker, "eidetic" makes my heart happy! Thanks for the great share!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I'm not the only one having difficulty identifying new words in audiobooks! And Julia, I completely agree about widdershins. Haha.
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