Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Wondrous Words Wednesday

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where a group shares new (to us) words encountered in our reading. Feel free to join by posting your new words, and then leaving a comment for Kathy with your link at Bermuda Onion.

The object is to increase our vocabulary while having a bit of fun.

Here are some new words that I’ve discovered or rediscovered this week:

1. desiccating - from Journey by Angela Hunt. It was used while describing ancient Egyptian embalming like this:

"The natron would cover the body for forty days, completely desiccating it" (41).

desiccating - to dry up; to preserve by drying : dehydrate


2. felucca - from Journey by Angela Hunt. It was used like this:

"The hard-packed paths of Thebes dis not rock and yield like the deck of the felucca they had boarded for the journey, and as he thumped over the ground he knew he would never become accustomed to the Egyptians' sea-going ways" (182).

felucca - traditional sailboats of Egypt’s Nile.


3. obsequiousness - from Journey by Angela Hunt. It was used like this:

"Though he was accustomed to respect from common folk, in Jokim's presence the man's obsequiousness embarrassed him" (196).

obsequiousness - marked by or exhibiting a fawning attentiveness

10 comments:

Beth F said...

Felucca was definitely a new one for me!

zetor said...

We can but dessicated coconut over here in U.K. It's shredded so great for added to cakes etc.

Kelly said...

Felucca was new for me as well. It's also new for my word processing software, since I get a red underline when I type it!

bermudaonion said...

You found some great words in that book! I wish I could remember all of the new words I encounter. Thanks for playing along.

avisannschild said...

Felucca is a new one for me too. I also wish you'd defined "natron" (from your first sentence), since I have no idea what that means!

Lisa said...

Felucca is definitely new - always good to learn something new.

Check out my post and adopt a new word!

Anonymous said...

All three were new to me. The words make the book sound interesting.

Kaye said...

Great words this week, all sorts of cultural type of words.

My post is here

Jo-Jo said...

Wow these are great words...all new to me! Thanks for stopping by my blog yesterday.

Anonymous said...

I'm in the "felucca is new to me" boat (so to speak!). I'm not yet in the habit of noting my "new" words, so I'm not a regular on Wondrous Words, but it's fun to see what everyone else has found :)