Wednesday, March 30, 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 first word is from A History of Love by Nicole Krauss


"On Sukkot we sent our pen pal's class an etrog with our first letters." (p.94)


1. Etrog ~noun. : a yellow citrus fruit, similar in appearance taste to a lemon, used in the Jewish rituals during the week-long festival of Sukkot; also refers to the tree the citron grows on and means literally "a fruit of the beautiful tree."

This next word is from Mr. Chartwell by Rebecca Hunt


"The boxroom she wanted to rent didn't have many things but it did have a garden view." (ARC p. 6)

** I'd never heard of a boxroom before and found a definition on Wiktionary!


2. Boxroom ~noun : A room, usually upstairs, a storeroom for boxes and other things.


The following words are from Villette by Charlotte Bronte:


" Of course I "confounded myself" in asseverations to the contrary; and Madame, running into the little salon, brought thence a pretty basket, filled with fine hothouse fruit, rosy, perfect and tempting, reposing amongst the dark green, waxlike leaves and pale yellow stars of I know not what exotic plant. " (p. 437 signet classic ed.)


3. Asseveration ~verb : To declare seriously or positively; affirm; an emphatic assertion


"But we had a whole league to walk-thus far from Villette was the farm where we had breakfasted; the children, especially, were tired with their play; the spirits of most flagged at the prospect of this midday walk over chaussées flinty, glaring and dusty. (p. 437 signet classic ed.)


4. League ~noun : Obsolete unit of length of an hour's walk, usually equal to three miles

5. Chaussées ~noun (French) : Roads

5 comments:

  1. You have lots of good words here this week. They are all new to me except boxroom. Boxroom is actually an old word from my childhood. In high school I worked at a local library and the librarian called the back storage room a boxroom.

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  2. Those are all new to me. I seriously wish I had a boxroom at my house. I don't think you can ever have too much storage.

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  3. Each of those words are new to me. Now I am curious what an Etrog looks like. I'll have to google it. Hope you are having a good week Amy.:)

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  4. A lot of great, and new to me words here. I have to agree with Kathy and say that I also need a boxroom. At the moment, all we have is a very messy garage!

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  5. Now I want to taste an etrog! My whole basement is basically a below-ground boxroom, so I'm set in that department.

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