Wondrous Words Wednesday 11.04.09

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Bermudaonion Weblog where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our reading. Feel free to join in the fun (please do!) Be sure to leave a link to your post over at Bermudaonion Weblog.

I have a habit of figuring out what a word I come across when I'm reading, means from the surrounding text and then forgetting to look it up to get its formal definition(s), even if I've written the word down on a list. Wondrous Words Wednesday makes me do that!


These words are from This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper

"We were that couple for a while, nauseatingly impervious assholes, busy staring into each other's eyes while everyone else was trying to have a good time."

1.Impervious [im-pur-vee-uhs] -adj.
1. not permitting penetration or passage; impenetrable
2. incapable of being injured or impaired
3. incapable of being influenced, persuaded or affected


"I composed long, humiliating emails to Jen, rage-filled diatribes and pathetic entreaties, tapping away furiously on my Blackberry until my thumbs burned, cursing, excoriating, imploring, begging, and, ultimately, deleting."

2. Excoriate {ik-skawr-ee-eyt} -verb.
1.To denounce or berate severely; flay verbally.
2.To strip off or remove the skin from


"As far as rapprochements, it's awkward and vague, but the advantage to being as emotionally inarticulate as we are is that it will do the trick."

3. Rapprochement {rap-rohsh-mahN} -noun (French)
An establishment or reestablishment of harmonious relations.