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 Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.
1. trephine – “She pointed at the bloody trephine and the open textbook resting by Sister Mary Joseph Praise’s belly.”
A trephine is a surgical instrument for cutting out circular sections (as of bone or corneal tissue). I really don’t want to think about that.
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2. prognathic – “The big fellow with the prognathic jaw shed his fraying coat; his shorter companion pulled off his tattered sweater.”
Prognathic means being marked by a prognathous jaw. Prognathous means being or having the lower jaw projecting beyond the upper part of the face.
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3. baobab– “She stands rooted like a baobab to her spot in front of the stove, a giantess compared with Rosina, and not given to sound other than deep sonorous sighs, or an occasional “Ewunuth!”–”You don’t say!” — to keep Rosina or Gebrew’s chatter going, not that either of them needed encouragement.”
I feel like I should have know this. A baobab is a broad-trunked tropical tree of the silk-cotton family that is native to Africa.
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Have you come across any new words lately?
Eep – I’ll try to erase the mental image that “trephine” conjured…
Yowzah! Some serious vocab power today, I must say.
Those are some interesting words. Great selection.
Some great words there Kathy. I love the shape of baobab trees.
Great words! I loved that book!
Wow, all new words and ones that I never would have guessed the definition of.
Great words! I learned baobab when I read The Little Prince, but the others were new to me.
I just knew “baobab”, the nicest word of the three ! Great and hard words !
I see I’m not the only one who is remember Baobabs thanks to The Little Prince.
I was curious about prognathic so I went ahead and looked up some images. I don’t recommend it. Some pretty gnarly images. But it looked like what I thought because when I read the definition I wondered if what I had visually in my mind was accurate. It was.
Great words, Kathy! Cutting for Stone had so many new words I thought! I could have listed them and their definitions for months. I really liked this book but could have done without some of the surgery details!
Even thinking about a trephin is scary! I love being exposed to these new words, and I know all of these definitions will come in handy when I read this book. Thanks Kathy!
Great words this week Kathy! Thanks for hosting this meme!
Check out my words
Like Julie, I remember baobabs from The Little Prince.
I love the second word. I’m repeatedly trying it on my tongue as a type
Very interesting words, I would stay away from the trephine.
Good words this week. I’ve never heard of any of these before.
I like baobab. When I say it out loud it sounds solid and I wasn’t surprised at the meaning.
The thought of a trephine makes me feel a little squishy!
I did know baobab, but the others are new to me. The sentence for the first one was a little disturbing, though.
Lol, even reading what nr 2 means just makes me go all o_O
Yeah, I don’t want to think about that first word either. Ugh.
The only one I knew already is baobob. I don’t blame you for not wanting to think about trephine!
Oooh, I hope to never hear that word trephine from any Dr. Eeeeuuuuuwwwww.
I love these words!! I’m woefully lacking a better vocabulary!
Wow! These are difficult words this week, Kathy!
more from Cutting for Stone from me too.. I have a whole list of words saved up but finally done with reading the book.. So next week, maybe will pick words from the new book I will be reading..I do thank Mr.Varghese for these new words…
More words I’ve never heard before. Makes me wonder how much of the english language we actually use.
Yay new words! I have come across ‘ewer’ a few times in my current read (People of the Book) and was able to guess the meaning (pitcher with wide spout).
I just discovered your meme. I’ve been doing a Wednesday Word of the Week on my blog for several weeks now, and so I’ll try to remember to link up here from now on.