Wondrous Words Wednesday
Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our reading. If you want to play along, grab the button, and join the fun! (Don’t forget to leave a link in your comment if you’re participating.)
All of today’s words came from The Magicians by Lev Grossman – this book was full of new-to-me words!
1. saurian – “A gang of wild turkeys patrolled the edge of the forest, upright and alert, looking oddly saurian and menacing, like a lost squadron of velociraptors.”
Saurian means any of a suborder of reptiles including the lizards and in older classifications the crocodiles and various extinct forms that resemble lizards.
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2.eidetic – “Alice’s eidetic memory retained odd details.”
I wish I had an eidetic memory! Eidetic means marked by or involving extraordinarily accurate and vivid recall especially of visual images.
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3. chitinous – “His wings made a dry chitinous rattle.”
Chitinous means made of, pertaining to, or resembling chitin. If I’d known what chitin was, I probably would have been able to figure this word out, but since I didn’t, I had to look up chitin – it means a horny polysaccharide that forms part of the hard outer integument especially of insects, arachnids, and crustaceans.
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What new words have you encountered lately?
This book seems to be a rich source for Wondrous Words Wednesday! I like books like that!
Here are mine this week: http://wordlily.com/2009/11/18/words-from-my-reading-25/
Three good words. I think I’ll remember “saurian” because of dinosaurs.
I have three here:
http://lisanotes.blogspot.com/2009/11/wondrous-words-wednesday_18.html
Didn’t know any of these. Sorry I didn’t play this week!
Those words are quite a mouthful!
Here is my Wondrous Words Wednesday post!
Great words this week! Every now and then as I am driving home I encounter a gang of turkeys, now I think I will just start laughing when I see them! My word is here:
http://jo-jolovestoread.blogspot.com/2009/11/wondrous-words-wednesday-nov-18.html
You said ‘crustaceans’!
saurian reminds me of LOTR for some reason.
Lots of new words in one book! My sister is eidetic and it’s very handy. It’s more than a photographic memory but I never had a word for it before.
My words are here.
I want an eidetic memory too. I wonder if you have to manually flip the pages if you have one, or whether it just pops up.
The Magician was the source of some very interesting words! Like you I really wish I had an eidetic memory as well!
Saurian is a bit scary and those turkeys certainly sound scary looking like something out of Jurassic Park lol
Great words, Kathy! I will get back to participating next week now that the cats and I are feeling better =o)
“Eidetic” is new for me, too. Great word, but my memory is definitely not eidetic, so I’ll probably never remember it!
Here are my words: http://gofita.blogspot.com/2009/11/wondrous-words-wednesday_18.html
I’d heard of chitinous…but didn’t know what it meant and the others, complete mysteries! Thanks for sharing!
I wish for eidetic memory too so that I could recall the beauty of my surroundings!
I haven’t heard any of your words before. Thanks for sharing!
Sorry, I forgot to add my post this morning…
http://westietherapy.blogspot.com/2009/10/wondrous-words-gold-of-kings.html