Wondrous Words Wednesday 6-29-16

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. Feel free to get creative! If you want to play along, grab the button at Kathy's blog, write a post and come back and add your link to Mr. Linky!

My words today come from Broad Influence: How Women Are Changing the Way America Works by Jay Newton-Small. 


"There is a rubric that a woman has to be asked on average seven times to run for office before she agrees."

rubric:   noun

1. 1a :  an authoritative rule; especially :  a rule for conduct of a liturgical serviceb (1) :  name, title; specifically :  the title of a statute (2) :  something under which a thing is classed 
2.        c :  an explanatory or introductory commentary:  an editorial interpolation
3. 2:  a heading of a part of a book or manuscript done or underlined in a color (as red) different from the rest
4. 3:  an established rule, tradition, or custom
5. 4:  a guide listing specific criteria for grading or scoring academic papers, projects, or tests

There are a lot of definitions for rubric. I think number 3 is how it is intended in this sentence. 

"At most big tech companies, 30 percent of the employees are women, but only a few of those women are coders or engineers, usually a tech company's most vaunted and influential employees."

vaunted   adjective

 : often spoken of or described as very good or great : often praised

Did you encounter any wondrous words this week?

Stay Busy ans Stay Happy

Wondrous Word Wednesday June 15, 2016

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. Feel free to get creative! If you want to play along, grab the button at Kathy's blog, write a post and come back and add your link to Mr. Linky!

A friend on FB, mom of a 7 year old , he'll be 8 in July, posted this with a picture of him reading the computer screen of a game he is interested in playing. I had to look up redacted also!

"Proud (geek) Mom moment. Isaac read the entire character description without stumbling and only needed the definition for redacted."

redact - transitive verb

1: to put in writing : frame

2: to select or adapt (as by obscuring or removing sensitive information) for publication or release; broadly : edit

3: to obscure or remove (text) from a document prior to publication or release

During my deputy training, we were subjected to a lecture by a retired medical examiner visiting from Orlando who had made a name for herself in the field of forensic osteology

From my current read, The Cat Sitter's Whiskers by Blaize and James Clement

I could figure this one out, because of osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. But I was unfamiliar with the word.

osteology - noun

Medical definition of osteology

1: a branch of anatomy dealing with the bones

2: the boney structure of an organism

Did you find any wondrous words in your reading or listening this week?


Stay Busy and Stay Happy

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Wondrous Words Wednesday

Kathy at Bermuda Onion hosts Wondrous Words Wednesday. A chance to highlight words you find while reading or occasionally by listening. Share your words then link up with Kathy's blog so we can all learn a new wondrous word.

Nubian   noun  ( as an adjective: pertaining to the peoples of Nubia)

                                 This sentence is from page 31 of Chesapeake Song by Brenda Lane Richardson. 

' Just behind her, a nut-brown teenage girl with a Nubian face, lids heavily lined, stares toward the dark windows of the limo."

1. a native or inhabitant of Nubia

2. a member of one of the group of dark-skinned peoples that formed a powerful empire between Egypt and Ethiopia from the 6th to the 14th centuries.  (Modern day Egypt and Sudan)

I haven't found many wondrous and unknown words this week. I haven't been doing a lot of reading. So here is another from my Word-of-the-Day emails. 

stolid    adjective

 :  having or expressing little or no sensibility     

 :   unemotional

which let me to another word that I do not use regularly: 

phlegmatic    adjective

 :  not easily upset, excited or angered. 

What wondrous words did you find this week? 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Wondrous Words Wednesday 5-4-16

Kathy at Bermuda Onion hosts Wondrous Words Wednesday. A chance to highlight words you find while reading or occasionally by listening. Share your words then link up with Kathy's blog so we can all learn a new wondrous word.

I have not discovered any wondrous words in my recent reading. So I will share a couple from my Word of the Day emails from Merriam Webster. 

weisenheimer:  noun     smart aleck

I was just tickled to find this word this morning. It was one of my Mom's favorite words, when one of the four of us was acting up. "Quit acting like such a weisenheimer!"  she would say. 

moil:   verb     1) to work hard   drudge     2) to be in continuous agitation   churn, swirl

I can see me using moil to mean in continuous agitation.   I often moil about the goings on around me. Like the current political scene!

What words have you discovered recently? 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Wondrous Words Wednesday 4-27-16

Kathy at Bermuda Onion hosts Wondrous Words Wednesday. A chance to highlight words you find while reading or occasionally by listening. Share your words then link up with Kathy's blog so we can all learn a new wondrous word.

from The Chili Queen by Sandra Dallas


calumny   noun - an untrue statement that is made to damage someone's reputation; also: the act of making such statements

Welcome was satisfied they were telling the truth and he reassured Emma, " I don't doubt you. I do not believe you capable of calumny where I am concerned.

definitions from the dictionary embedded in my Kindle: Oxford Dictionary of English

from Witch is When It All Began by Adele Abbott

skip   noun   - skip  Brit   a dumpster

"The second thing I did was to grab the book of spells and take it to the skip. 

hob and paintwork

"You'd better put it on the hob" my mother advised. "The splash guard will prevent you from damaging the paintwork."

I understood that paintwork was probably the painted walls, but I looked it up anyway.

hob   noun -    a flat metal shelf at the side or back of a fireplace, having its surface level with the top of the grate and used esp. for heating pans.

paintwork   noun -  painted surfaces in a building or vehicle.


What new and interesting words did you discover recently?


Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Wondrous Words Wednesday 4/20/16

Kathy at Bermuda Onion hosts Wondrous Words Wednesday. A chance to highlight words you find while reading or occasionally by listening. Share your words then link up with Kathy's blog so we can all learn a new wondrous word.


Again, a word from Bossypants by Tina Fey. 



carrageenan:   noun -   a colloid extracted from various red algae (as Irish moss) and used especially as a stabilizing or thickening agent


They have endless time to fill, but viewers get kind of "bummed out" if they supply actual information about wars and stuff, so "Media Portrayal of Sarah Palin" and SNL and I became the carrageenan in America's news nuggets for several weeks.



Then from The Chili Queen by Sandra Dallas


husbanded:  (husband as a verb)   to carefully use or manage something, as a resource

transitive verb: to manage prudently and economically,

"Afterward, he told her he wasn't looking for a place to stay at all, since he had little money and he husbanded it."


dishabille: noun

the state of being dressed in a casual or careless style
archiac:   negligee.

" She thought for a moment about remaining in dishabille for John's return, for she was curiously aroused."


Did you find any wondrous word this week?


Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Wondrous Words Wednesday 4/6/16

 Kathy at Bermuda Onion hosts Wondrous Words Wednesday. A chance to highlight words you find while reading or occasionally by listening. Share your words then link up with Kathy's blog so we can all learn a new wondrous word.


This sentence was found in Bossypants by Tina Fey. 

"When I was a kid there was a TV interstitial during Saturday morning cartoons with a song that went like this: "The most important person in the whole wide world is you, and you hardly even know you"" 



interstitial  : adjective / noun

My Webster-Merriam says this about the word, interstitial.  

1. relating to or situated in the interstices
2. 2a :  situated within but not restricted to or characteristic of a particular organ or tissue —used especially of fibrous tissueb :  affecting the interstitial tissues of an organ or part
3. 3:  being or relating to a crystalline compound in which usually small atoms or ions of a nonmetal occupy holes between the larger metal atoms or ions in the crystal lattice

I think I am still confused. I wonder how this word fits in the sentence?

So I decided to search further. Wikipedia showed several definitions. These seem to apply.

• Interstitial art, any work of art whose basic nature falls between, rather than within, the familiar boundaries of accepted genres or media
• Interstitial space (architecture)

Communications

• Interstitial program, short television programming which is often shown between movies or other events
• A synonym for station identification in television broadcasting, typically a static logo
• Interstitial web page, a web page that is displayed before an expected content page, often to display advertisements, confirm the user's age, or promote the installation of an app on a mobile device

Since Ms. Fey is in the entertainment business, the communication industry, I think she meant this definition. What do you think, Word Nerds??

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Wondrous Words Wednesday

 Kathy at Bermuda Onion hosts Wondrous Words Wednesday. A chance to highlight words you find while reading or occasionally by listening. Share your words then link up with Kathy's blog so we can all learn a new wondrous word.


My current read is The Accidental Bachelor by Tim Holsten.  There are lots of words that are Hawaiian, but I can get the meaning by the use in the sentence. Also, there is a great deal of dialogue with Finnegan's boss, Duke that is pidgin. Hard to read, sometimes hard to understand.


kapu - noun ( in Hawaiian traditional culture and religion) a set of rules and prohibitions for everyday life.


Every guy in the place was staring at my teacher's hibiscuses. How could they not know it was kapu?

This word was used later in the book and then the meaning was clear.


I keep hoping this book will give me a reason to like it. A reason for Finnegan to get a grip and make something of his life.


Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Wondrous Words Wednesday 2/17/16

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love.  Feel free to get creative!   If you want to play along, write a post then go to Kathy's blog and add your link to Mr. Linky.  Don't forget to grab the button while you are there. 

I have been a bit absent in this meme.  I haven't found many words in my reading lately. Last Wednesday I spent the day serving on a jury for our county circuit court. It only took one very long day, but now I am free from having to serve again, at least for this court and this term. It's not that I really mind, it is just that I have a hard time judging another's actions and trying to decide what turn their life will take dependent on the usually sketchy facts that the lawyers present in the courtroom.This is my third time serving in recent years. That being said, I did hear a word that I have heard every time I have served and never understood. I had  not seen it written so was unclear as to what the judge or the attorneys  were saying. The bailiff, in this case, was nice enough to help me understand.  It is from French - to speak the truth. 

voir dire

/vwɑː ˈdɪə/

noun, Law.

1.

an oath administered to a proposed witness or juror by which he or she is

 sworn to speak the truth in an examination to ascertain his or her competence.

2.

the examination itself.

Have you ever served on a jury? I have friends who have not served in the 30+ years they have been in our community. Mr Busy has only been called once. Yet my name keeps coming up in the rotation. My daughter says I am the right demographic: mature, women, unemployed! Ha!



Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Wondrous Words Wednesday 1-20-16 7 Little Words

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a place to share words found while reading or listening, or maybe even playing games. Write a post and link up with Kathy at BermudaOnion's Weblog. 

I play 7 Little Words. After solving the scrambled tiles for
1) engage in a petty argument (6 letters)= bicker
2) political situation (9 letters)
3) uproar (8 letters)
4) exchange of punches= fisticuffs
5)angry dispute= quarrel
6)noisy brawl=fray
7)petty argument=spat.
I still had these sets of letters. ROW, IM,  BRO, DY, IO, DOW, GL

When I finally guessed just by trying all combinations I came up with these words and the puzzle was correct. I had never heard either  of these words. 

#2  political situation = imbroglio

1: a confused mass 

2a: an intricate or complicated situation (as in a drama or novel)

 b: an acutely painful or embarrassing misunderstanding   

 c: a violently confused or bitterly complicated altercation: embroilment

 d: scandal  

#3 uproar = rowdydow

1: noisy excitement: hubbub, to-do

2a: a noisy disturbance or spirited contest: brawl, fight

b: a boisterous party: spree

Do you play 7 Little Words?  Did you know rowdydow or imbroglio? What words did you find this week? 

Every Wednesday, Kathy hosts this meme to celebrate wondrous words we find while reading, or listening or in our other day to day lives. Share your recent discoveries and then link up at Kathy's blog, BermudaOnion's Weblog.

Both of these words were found while reading Every Last One by Anna Quindlen last week.

"This tree is probably a hundred years old and it's probably not going to get much older. It's a shame; it is a glorious tree, the kind that looks immutable."

immutable:  adj
1) unable to be changed
2) not capable of or susceptible to change.


This word though not new to me is one I do not use often. I like the sounds of it and I need to get more familiar with it so I can use it more easily.


"That foolish man, with the bright blue eyes and his seductive grin, might have thought he was doing it out of expiation, but if he did it  it was because he knew it was the perfect form of torture."


expiation:  noun

1)  the act of making atonement
2)  the means by which atonement is made


Do you sometimes have to work at using a new word in your day to day language?  Is it worth it?


Until next time
Stay Busy and Stay Happy





And Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it. Happy Holidays to those of you of different faith.

Wondrous Words Wednesday 11-25-15

Kathy at BermudaOnion's Weblog hosts this meme every Wednesday. Share a post of words you encountered in reading or listening and then link up at Kathy's Blog. It's easy and fun.


No new words for me this week while reading so I again go to my Word of the Day emails from Merriam Webster.

Saturday's word was fulsome.  I can't ever see this word and not think of Johnny Cash and his Folsom Prison Blues song from 1955.  OK , now you can guess how really old I am!  But fulsome, spelled this way means:

1. a.  characterized by abundance, copious
    b.  generous in amount, intent or spirit
2.  aesthetically, morally or generally offensive
3. exceeding the bounds of good taste, overdone
4. excessively complementary or flattering, effusive

Using some of the definitions:    I believe that we will experience a table fulsome with food tomorrow. And I expect fulsome praise for my gluten free brownies.


Did you find any wondrous words this week.


Stay Busy and Stay Happy






ps: If you are celebrating Thanksgiving, have a Happy one. And if not, enjoy your day tomorrow.

Wondrous Words Wednesday 11-18-15

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. Feel free to get creative! If you want to play along, visit Kathy at BermudaOnion's Weblog, grab the button, write a post and add your link to Mr. Linky on her page.


There has been lots of unfamiliar words in the news in the last 5 days. I can't remember where I was reading, but the word used was caliphate. The sentence was talking about ISIS and said they want a caliphate. So I looked up the word and found a dismal description. 

Caliphate - noun

: the office or dominion of a caliph

So I looked up caliph.

caliph - noun

: an important Muslim political and religious leader

I am not sure I am any smarter than I was before. But there was one comment on the Merriam Webster page that linked an encyclopedia article. It's here if you are interested.



So no other new words in my reading. Merriam Websters word of the day is:

onomastics - noun

As a student of onomastics, Gloria liked to keep track of the most popular baby names across generations.

1  a : the science or study of the origins and forms of words especially as used in a specialized field

    b : the science or study of the origin and forms of proper names of persons or places

2  : the system underlying the formation and use of words especially for proper names or of words used in a specialized field

Did you find any wondrous words in your reading this week? 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

 

Wondrous Words Wednesday 11-11-15

Did you find an interesting wondrous word in your reading this week?   I did not, so will share a few from the Word of the Day emails from Merriam Webster people.

_______________________________________________________________________________

 gadfly - noun

1 : any of various flies that bite or annoy livestock

2 : a person who stimulates or annoys especially by persistent criticism

Ms. Johnson has long been a gadfly at town meetings, and I've grown weary of her attempts to hector the town council into doing as she sees fit.

_______________________________________________________________________________

lucullan - adjective

: lavish, luxurious

"For most, gaining a few easily shed pounds is a small price to pay for a week or two of Lucullan bliss." — Kevin Doyle, The Condé Nast Traveler, November 1994

______________________________________________________________________________

I can't see me using either of these words in my daily life, but it is fun to know them.  Come play along with us. Share a word or words you discovered this week. Just link up at Kathy's blog, BermudaOnion's Weblog. 

Wondrous Words Wednesday 11-3

Wondrous Words Wednesday is hosted by Kathy at Bermuda Onion's Weblog. It's a place to highlight words you come across while reading or listening. Write a post about words you like and link up at Kathy's blog.

My words this week, come from reading The Round House by Louise Erdrich.

1. catalpa- noun : any of a genus (Catalpa) of North American or Asian trees of the bignonia family with pale showy flowers in terminal clusters.

There were ash shoots, elm, maple, box elder, even a good-sized catalpa, which my father placed in an ice cream bucket and watered, thinking that he might find a place to replant it.

I know of course, ash, elm, maple, and box elder. I grew up in South Dakota, not that different from the setting of this book, in NE North Dakota. But I had never heard of catalpa. So I searched. I found lot of pictures and lots of information. Here is one picture I found

from the Arbor Day Foundation website. 

2. hummock-noun: a small hill
       a) a rounded knoll or hillock
       b) ridge of ice

Describing the subsidized housing on the reservation:  "They were surrounded by hummocks of weedy earth, no trees or bushes."


3. riffle - noun : a shallow extending across a streambed and causing broken water.

"...I would walk down the hill with the rifle and hide behind a riffle of chokecherry bush and box elder.
I don't think this word fits the definition, but I like it anyway. As a verb riffle means to leaf through hastily . You could definitely riffle through a group of chokecherry bushes.

Have you every heard riffle used in this way?  What wondrous words or unusual use of words did you find this week.



Until next time
Stay Busy and Stay Happy