~ 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 words are from The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson :


" As the seasonal sybarites have drifted away to the next event. To a more fashionable spot for September or to the daily work that made these sunny weeks possible, we have stayed on.”

1. Sybarite
     : a person devoted to luxury and pleasure.


"The susurration in the trees on it‘s land was their childhood music, a magical rustling that seemed to cool the hottest afternoon."

2. Susurration
     : a soft murmur, whisper


" Through the Garden of Sound, where he talked, unexpectedly, about Debussy; through the Garden of Scent, where the cold air was spring-sharp with narcissi; on through the Gardens of Color and Touch, where we discussed synesthesia, and settled on Fridays being orange and shiny-smooth. .”

3. Synesthesia
     : a sensation produced in one modality when a stimulus is applied to another modality, as when the hearing of a certain sound induces the visualization of a certain color


" “We could find her a nice spot.”
“A plinth!”
He found her one, too: a plain cube of sandstone. "

4. Plinth
     : a slab-like member beneath the base of a column or pier
     : Also called plinth course, a projecting course of stones at the base of a wall; earth table.


“ A Greek boy, pox-ridden with lichen, cast an anguished look back t the house from the parterre; what should perhaps have been a parting glance had it not been petrified into a stare. "

5. Parterre
     : an ornamental arrangement of flower beds of different shapes and sizes.


" It was enough to make it necessary for her to sit down (a rare event) with a restorative cup of lavendar tisane. "

6. Tisane
     : an infusion (as of dried herbs) used as a beverage or for medicinal effects


" The lamplight went cloudy as if the bulb was glowing from inside a shell, leaving the room nacreous as an early morning when mist still covers the sun. "

7. Nacreous
     : having the luster of mother of pearl; pearlescent; a milky opalescent (or opaline) luster