Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Wondrous Words Wednesday-July 14

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 learned a few new words as I have been reading 31 Bond Street by Ellen Horan:

Eiderdown:  down, or soft feathers, from the breast of the female eider duck.
And another definition is:   a heavy quilt or comforter, esp. one filled with eiderdown.

Here is how eiderdown was used on page 7:  
Hannah was always harping about her-she wasted gas and decorated her room with yellow roses and an eiderdown a foot high.

Septuagenarian:  of the age of 70 years or between 70 and 80 years old.

Here is how septuagenarian was used on page 19:
He had met his wife after he had finished his law degree at Harvard and come to New York to work as a junior counsel for a pair of septuagenarians on Battery Place.

Daguerreotype:   an obsolete photographic process, invented in 1839, in which a picture made on a silver surface sensitized with iodine was developed by exposure to mercury vapor.

Here is how daguerreotype was used on page 30:
He studied the daguerreotype again.

Pestilential: pernicious; harmful. 
or another definition:  annoyingly troublesome.

Here is how pestilential was used on page 47: 
During the summer, the city became enveloped by a pestilential haze, and entire neighborhoods stewed in the heat.

Garrotes:  a method of capital punishment of spanish origin in which an iron collar is tightened around a condemned person's neck until death occurs by strangulation or by injury to the spinal column at the base of the brain.

Here is how garrote was used on page 131:
The next level was for the more infamous: burglars and arsonists, ruffians, gang members, and dirk men, who made dexterous use of ropes and garrotes to accost honest people on their way home in the dark, and deprive them of their possessions.

After I read the definition of septuagenarian I realized that I had already known this word, but of course had forgotten.  Maybe I will remember it now!  So did you learn any new words last week?

4 comments:

Margot said...

I'm feeling kinda smart this week - I knew three of your words. Thanks for sharing.

gautami tripathy said...

It feels good that I know all the words!

Here is my wondrous word.

bekahcubed said...

I love that you found out that you knew septuagenarian. I am familiar with (and regularly use) centenarian, nonagenarian, and octogenarian--but had never heard the next decade down!

bermudaonion said...

I bet you do remember septuagenarian from now on! These are all great, old-fashioned sounding words. Thanks for playing along!