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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.
All of my words, today, are from Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
" Such was the subedar's presence that the groom and his immediate family seemed pleasingly diffident in comparison, and this played no small part in earning Deeti's consent for the match. "
1. Subedar
: (historical term, formerly) the chief native officer of a company of Indian soldiers in the British service. Also called subah
" Although Mrs. Burnham's clothes were severe in cut, they were made of much finer stuffs than any that Paulette had ever worn before: not for her common Chinsurah calicoes, nor even the fine shabnam muslins and zaituni satins that many memsahibs made do with; the Burra BeeBee** of Bethel would have nothing less than the finest kerseymere, the best silks from China, crisp linens from Ireland and soft Surat nainsooks. "
2. Chinsurah
:formally Hugli-Chuchura, a city in the state of West Bengal, India that lies on the Hooghly River
3. Shabnam
: a Urdu word meaning dew drops
4. Zaituni
: the Arab name for a city in China whose whereabouts are no longer known; meaning "coming from Zaitun" and related to the Chinese word sze-tun or ssu-tuan, a smooth silk.
5. Memsahib
: (formerly, in India) a term of respect for a married European woman.
6. Kerseymere
: a heavily fulled woolen cloth constructed in twill weave and finished with a fine nap.
7. Surat
: a seaport in S Gujarat, in W India: first British settlement in India 1612
8. Nainsook
: a fine, soft-finished cotton fabric, usually white, used for lingerie and infants' wear
“I asked you here tonight because I wish to know whether your promise was a mere bagatelle, lightly uttered, or whether you are indeed a man who honors his parole.”
9. Bagatelle
: something of little value or importance; a trifle.
** in case you haven't read Sea of Poppies, Burra BeeBee is a another name for Mrs Burnham
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 The Grief of Others by Leah Hager Cohen
" That was how it had been ever since the diagnosis: a pretense of animosity had grown between them, a kind of ongoing, low-level dyspepsia."
1. Dyspepsia
: deranged or impaired digestion; indigestion
" At times her appearance provided a not unpleasant diversion or even comic relief, but right now, coupled with her desire to express bathetic condolences, it was the last thing John wanted to deal with.
2. Bathos
: insincere pathos; sentimentality; mawkishness
: triteness or triviality in style
" He leaned in ostentatiously to eye the meniscus of John's glass, then rose from the bar stool. "
3. Meniscus
: the curved surface at the top of a column of liquid
These next few words are from Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
" Although not far, the distance was too great for Hukam Singh to cover on foot, for he had been wounded in the leg while serving as a sepoy in a British regiment. "
4. Sepoy
: (formerly, in India) a native soldier, usually an infantryman, in the service of Europeans, especially of the British.
" At the factory's ghat on the Ganga, a one-masted pateli barge could be seen, flying the pennant of the English East India Company. "
5. Ghat
: a wide set of steps descending to a river, especially a river used for bathing.
" Once his meal had been wrapped and packed, she broke off to pay a quick visit to her shrine room: later, after she's bathed and changed, Deeti would do a proper puja with flowers and offerings; now, being clothed still in her night-time sari, she merely stopped at the door, to join he hands in a brief genuflection. "
6. Puja (Hinduism)
:the worship of a particular god.
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