Wondrous Words Wednesday-Oct. 6

 

Bermudaonion asks you to share new words that you have learned during your reading adventures in the last week. Feel free to join in the fun!

I've found a few new words as I've been reading The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walters:

Quatrain:  a stanza or poem of four lines, usually with alternate rhymes.

Here is how quatrain was used on page 50:
The hook, though, was poetry-not because I felt there was some great demand for a quatrain about consumer confidence, but because I thought people would simply be drawn to the anachronism of it-like the European TV channel where the news is read by topless anchors.

Sycophants: a self-seeking, servile flatterer; fawning parasite.

Here is how sycophants was used on page 71:
Meanwhile, M- continued to promote his sycophants to build himself the Taj Mahal of offices, even as he oversaw round after round of layoffs.

Gentrification:  the buying and renovation of houses and stores in deteriorated urban neighborhoods by upper- or middle-income families or individuals, thus improving property values but often displacing low-income families and small businesses.

Here is how gentrification was used on page 96:
The truly undesirable part of our undesirable neighborhood begins at the alley behind our big house; our alley is the DMZ of gentrification.

Apocryphal: of doubtful authorship or authenticity.

Here is how apocryphal was used on page 187:
While it sounds apocryphal, we can't help glancing over when one of them delivers coffee to the table next to us.

So did you learn any new words this last week?
**Please note that these excerpts are taken from the Uncorrected Proof copy so it may be different in the final print version.