Month: April 2009

The first two on this list came from my reading of The Other End of the Leash. The rest are from Quicksilver. Even though I have made slow progress with this book (only 127 pages so far), it still supplies me with many many new words each week!

Sinusodial– \”The dogs would waver back and forth, moving in a sinusodial S curve, trying to follow the molecules of scent as they moved through the air…\”
Definition: curving (isn\’t the phrase redundant, then?)

Paedomorphic– \”This tendency to continue exuberant play into adulthood is one of the factors that leads most scientists to consider dogs and humans as paedomorphic…\”
Definition: retaining juvenile characteristics into adulthood

Coelestial– \”The tail of Ursa Major was like the hand of a coelestical clock, and Daniel had been studying how to read it.\”
Definition: another spelling for celestial

Spadroon– \”The black-clad fellow drew out a sword of his own, something dull and clanging, a heavier spadroon, and the scarlet boy came at him like a boiling cloud, with lightning movements darting out of the center.\”
Definition: a broadsword used both to cut and thrust

Sizar– \”Daniel finally recognized him as Roger Comstock, the sizar.\”
Definition: a student at Cambridge who having passed certain examinations, was exempt from paying for food and tuition and had lodgings at very low cost

Ween– \”I ween you are of the same mind, Mr. Waterhouse, but sailing on a ship across the North Atlantic is not for cowards, and so you are here.\”
Definition: to think or suppose

Lascar– \”The lascars spring up and busy themselves drawing up his equipage on ropes.\”
Definition: an East Indian seaman

Gnomon– \”Newton was constructing a sundial on a south-facing wall, using as gnomon, a slender rod with a ball on the end.\”
Definition: stationary arm on a sundial whose shadow indicates the time

Shawm– \”Stourbridge Fair was already audible: barking of dogs, wild strains from bagpipes and shawms whipping over their heads like twists of bright ribbon unwinding in the breeze.
Definition: a double-reed instrument that preceeded the oboe

Numismatic– \”If you would allow me to approach within ten feet of these coins, it would help me to appreciate their numismatic excellence….\”
Definition: having to do with coins or currency

Saturnine– \”In a country inn, on the way to St. Ives, he encountered a saturnine, beetle-browed chap name of Oliver Cromwell who had recently lost his faith, and seen his life ruined…\”
Definition: of a melancholy or solemn disposition, from being born under the sign of Saturn

Pedantry– \”…. out of a stubborn belief that pedantry and repetitiveness could through some alchemy be forged into wit.\”
Definition: giving excessive attention to academic learning or formal rules

Caitiff– \”Have you ever felt a certain annoyance, when one of your semi-educated Londoners speaks of \’a vile rascal\’ or \’a miserable caitiff\’ or \’crafty knave,\’ \’idle truant,\’ or \’flattering parasite\’?\”
Definition: a despicable person, a cowardly wretch

Homiletical– \”Daniel exhausted the Terms of Abuse in a few short hours, then moved on to Virtues (intellectual, moral, and homiletical), Colors, Sounds, Tastes and Smells, Professions (viz, carpentry, sewing, alchemy) Operations, and so on.\”
Definition: relating to or having the nature of a homily: an inspirational saying or moralizing lecture

Phew! This book is giving me words every other pages, it feels like. Visit Bermudaonion\’s Weblog to see what new words other readers discovered this week.

Again, my new words come from two books. The first few are from Compost This Book! Then we get into Quicksilver, a heavy tome rich with descriptive unknowns. This is just the beginning of what I\’m going to be looking up in the next week or so (it\’s a 900-page book)!

From Compost This Book!:

Geriatric– \”There\’d be a whole ecosystem in miniature lurking in that geriatric vegetable.\”
Definition: relating to the aging process

Sybaritic-\”When Marty\’s heap is really cooking, the sybaritic creature is nearly always stretched out on top, luxuriating in the warmth.\”
Definition: devoted to or marked by pleasure and luxury

Chelating– \”Like the sugar coating on a pill, the chelating humus makes the minerals palatable….\”
Definition: to combine (a metal ion) with a chemical compound to form a ring

From Quicksilver:

Doppelganger– \”Now he knows why: his doppelganger is a lad, moving about like a drop of quicksilver that cannot be trapped under the thumb.\”
Definition: a ghostly double of a living person that haunts its living counterpart

Erudition– \”We have, as I said, found the place where your erudition gives way to ignorance.\”
Definition: profound scholarly knowledge

Mephitic– \”They break out into the mephitic bog on its western flank.\”
Definition: poisonous or foul-smelling

Azimuth– \”The schoolmaster adjusted his azimuth as the target moved, like a telescope tracking a comet, but none of his blows seemed to have actually been felt by the fair boy yet…\” (this usage does not make sense to me, with the def.s I could find)
Definition: the arc of the sky between the zenith and the horizon or the horizontal angle of a bearing measured clockwise from the north (in surveying)

Ontogeny– \”\”There was a dollhouse and a clan of rag dolls in diverse phases of ontogeny.\”
Definition: the origin and development of an individual organism from embryo to adult

Empiricist– \”Oh, he will be a great empiricist.\”
Definition: one who disregards scientific theory and relies solely on practical experience

Visit Wondrous Words Wednesdays at Bermudaonion\’s Weblog.