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, write a post and come back and add your link to Mr. Linky! All of my words this week come from my Word-a-Day calendar.
1. peripeteia – “The novel is populated by a number of secondary characters, each of whom plays a crucial role in the protagonist’s peripeteia.”
Peripeteia is a noun that means a sudden or unexpected reversal of circumstances or situation especially in a literary work.
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2. afflatus – “Gus insists that his musical compositions are the result not of afflatus but of years of study and hard work.”
Afflatus is a noun that means a divine imparting of knowledge or power: inspiration.
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3. colubrine – “By the time the music starts throbbing at 9, there will undoubtedly be a colubrine line slithering down Mass. Ave.” – - Christopher Muther, Boston Globe, March 2002
Colubrine has a couple of meanings, but in this case, it means relating to a snake.
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Have you come across any new words lately?
colubrine is a snaky thing … never a good thing… think HP… Slithers to a new height.
Great words
Great words!
http://peggyannspost.blogspot.com/2011/09/wondrous-words-wednesday.html
Peripeteia is a great word but in reviews I think I’ll stick with “twist”.
These are great words. Hope you’re having a great week.
Good words, different way to describe a long, twisting line. Interesting.
Three beautiful words ! I just have known “peripeteia (péripétie(s) in French : we use it more often in the plural).
You always come up with words that stump me!
Great words! I like “afflatus”. Thanks for sharing!
I remember trying to remember peripeteia in college and I couldn’t even say it, so I gave up on it!
Nice ones. Afflatus is one of those words I thought I knew the meaning of, but apparently not so much. Actually, if I’d had to guess, I would have said they all sound like obscure medical problems!
Oh these are great words and I had not come across them before! Very good choices for today,Kathy!
Interesting words. I must say they were all new to me. I will have to keep a look out for new words in my reading.
I’m pretty sure I’ve encountered peripeteia, but didn’t remember it. The other two are completely new. Thanks!
Very interesting new words.
vitriolic and cloture had me opening my ‘Dictionary’ app this week!
I wonder whats the average percentage of words in the English language that most individuals learn over a lifetime?
Wow! These are all new to me words (I should have known the first one, at least!).
Yup those are new to me again
All interesting words, all somehow sound vaguely familiar, but I don’t know any of them. Afflatus, is the one that is most confusing for me, flatus of course is gas within the intestine, and I can’t push aside that notion.
Great new words this week Kathy! I could do without that last one as I hate snakes! YUK! lol
Good ones. I didn’t know any of these either.