Month: March 2009

My wondrous words of the week come from three different books. These new words I found while reading Kon-Tiki:

Cachalot– Use: \”Most often they were small porpoises and toothed whales which gamboled about us in large schools on the surface of the water, but now and then there were big cachalots, too…\”
Definition: a sperm whale

Spurious– Use: \”On this little sailing trip up to the spurious reef we had learned quite a lot about the effectiveness of the centerboards…\”
Definition: not genuine; false, invalid or lacking in authenticity

Anemometer– Use:\”Herman was out all the time with his anemometer measuring the squalls of gale force…\”
Definition: an instrument that measures the force and speed of wind

Polyps– Use: \”But this group of islands is also known as the Low or Dangerous Archipelago, because the whole formation has been built up entirely by coral polyps and consists of treacherous submerged reefs…\”
Definition: a small sea creature with a hollow cylindrical body and a ring of tentacles around the mouth

Do you know what\’s crazy about this word? I keep a dream diary. In one years back, I dreamt I was in a long dark room full of saltwater aquariums, and tiny marine creatures were escaping and floating in the air. I was trying to catch them, yelling about \”the polyps!\” But when I woke up I thought: what the heck is a polyp? I must have met the word before, as I could draw it from the dream (something like this), but consciously I had no idea what it was. (If I can find my old drawing, I\’ll share it with you.)

Copra– Use: \”Teka had gradually acquired the supreme position because he could speak French and count and write, so that the village was not cheated when the schooner came from Tahiti to fetch copra.\”
Definition: dried coconut flesh

These words I came across in The Sheep Dog:

Scour: Use- \”Some milk is good, but too much will cause scour.\”
Definition: diarrhea in livestock

Mollycoddle: Use- \”We don\’t want to encourage mollycoddling, but we do want to give the pups a chance.\”
Definition: to be overprotective and indulgent

Wether: Use- \”… going so fleet of foot as would outstrip a four-year-old mountain wether.\”
Definition: a castrated ram

Tup: Use- \”A \’clean gather\’ must be achieved… otherwise some ewes will be missing when the tups go out, and their year\’s production will be lost.\”
Definition: a male sheep

Raddle: Use- \”… the tups are caught to be fed, and raddled with bright color on their chests to mark the ewes.\”
Definition: to mark sheep for identification

Speaned: Use- \”At this stage some of the lambs may be speaned, and the process of taking the lambs off the ewes causes some of the hardest work of the dog\’s year.\”
Definition: to wean

And these words I read in Chalice:

Demesne: Use- \”… nearly the entire citizenry of the demesne seemed to have found an excuse to be somewhere in or near the House…\”
Definition: realm, domain, estate or landed property

Suborn: Use- \”The rods could not lie nor be suborned.\”
Definition: to bribe or incite (a person) to commit a wrongful act

Crabbed: Use- \”…while she was urgently reading all the crabbed and fusty old records she could lay her hands on…\”
Definition: difficult to read or understand

Tisane: Use- \”If you\’re going to offer me something to drink, Mirasol, tisane would be nice, but your mead would be better.\”
Definition: a drink made of leaves, herbs or flowers

Sennight: Use- \”Could you say to yourself, \’Yes, here is a break- a roughness, a troubling- that was not here a sennight ago\’?\”
Definition: a week

Perforce, Volatile: Use- \”Last minute changes were destabilising, which was why battlefield cups, which were perforce rare, were also notoriously volatile.\”
P definition: by necessity, forced by circumstances
V definition: inconstant, fickle; easily evaporating, fleeting

Orotund: Use- \”The Grand Seneschal managed to insert an orotund phrase or two…\”
Definition: pompous, bombastic; or full of sound

Stooker: Use- \”And once, as Mirasol skirted along a freshly cut field, she saw the late stookers lifting and tossing their sheaves.\”
Definition: one who sets up sheaves of grain in the field

Eligary: Use- \”Before the Master had been sent to Fire by his brother, he would have been trained to use a sword, an eligary and a bow…\”
I could not find a definition for this word. I\’m assuming it\’s some kind of weapon. Does anyone know it?

Visit Wondrous Words Wednesdays for more newly discovered words!