Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Wondrous Words Wednesday!

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




The following word comes from In the Woods by Tana French


"Few people would have considered her beautiful, but my tastes have always leaned towards bespoke rather than brand name, and I took far more pleasure in looking at her than at any of the busty blond clones whom magazines, insultingly, tell me I should desire."


1. Bespoke
: bespoken, custom-made; tailor-made, made-to-order (commonly used to refer to clothes)




" It was one of the things that first fascinated me about the job - that and the private, functional, elliptical shorthand: latents, trace, Forensics."


2. Elliptical
: (of speech or writing) expressed with extreme or excessive economy; relieved of irrelevant matter




' "So after the tea break Mark told me and Mel to go up there and mattock it back while the others did the drainage ditch." '


3. Mattock
: an instrument for loosening the soil in digging, shaped like a pickax, but having one end broad instead of pointed.




" But those lost, liminal pockets of time are usually solitary; there is something about the idea of a shared one that makes me think of twins, reaching out slow, blond hands in a gravity-free and wordless space.. "


4. Liminal
: (from the Latin word līmen, meaning "a threshold") is a psychological, neurological, or metaphysical subjective state, conscious or unconscious, of being on the "threshold" of or between two different existential planes (from Wikipedia)

8 comments:

  1. A few new words for me today! I just love this meme and appreciate it because it helps to build my vocabulary immensely! Thanks!

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  2. I thought a mattock was a little hill - boy was I wrong! I knew bespoke, but would never think to use it when it suited.

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  3. I wasn't familiar with mattock, but those are very good words!

    My words are here.

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  4. Some excellent words! Most of them I had heard before, but wasn't clear on what they meant. I'm really glad to finally know what bespoke really means.

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  5. I really enjoy the word bespoke, but only learnt it in the past few years I think. I learnt liminal just a few weeks ago- funny how subliminal can be quite well known, but not liminal.

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  6. I like bespoke and agree with the author !

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  7. I thought I knew elliptical but I was wrong. All good words. I've been wanting to read a Tana French novel and you've given me a nice taste.

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  8. Tana French seems pretty hot right now -- I keep seeing her books on my blog feed -- and I rather like the vocab you're gleaning!

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