Wondrous Words Wednesday 8.18.10

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Bermudaonion's 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's Weblog.

These words are from Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

"I am debating whether to risk scratching the right side of my jaw, where there is a wen." (p.4)

1. Wen - noun
:a benign encysted tumor of the skin containing sebaceous (fatty) matter

I included the second definition below because it is a British term and I thought the difference in the definition of wen between the two was very interesting....:

: a large crowded city or crowded urban district. London is the great wen of England.

"Uncle Charles, a truly unparalleled slinger of shit, is laying down an enfilade of same, trying to mollify men who seem way more in need of a good brow-mopping than I." (p.13)

2. Enfilade - noun.
1.gunfire directed from a flanking position along the line of an enemy battle line.
2. a target vulnerable to sweeping gunfire.

"And who could not love that special and leonine roar of a public toilet?" (p.15)

3. Leonine -adj.
:of, relating to, suggestive of or resembling a lion; characteristic of a lion

These words come from the book, The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got That Way by Bill Bryson. There are no seperate sentence using the word because, in the book, Bryson introduces the word and defines it in the same sentence.

1. If you have a morbid fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth there is a word for it:

arachibutyrophobia.

2. There is a word to describe the state of being a woman: muliebrity

3. Velleity describes a mild desire, a wish or urge too slight to lead to action.