Wondrous Words Wednesday
Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. Feel free to get creative! If you want to play along, grab the button, write a post and come back and add your link to Mr. Linky!
Both of my words this week come from The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye.
1. nankeen – “Twenty or thirty pieces of cheap nankeen lay folded at her feet.”
I probably won’t have the opportunity to use this word – nankeen is a durable brownish yellow cotton fabric originally loomed by hand in China.
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2. fadge – “It really won’t fadge, the police only just formed and dead kids thrown out with the oyster shells.”
Fadge isn’t in my dictionary but, according to wiktionary, it has a lot of different meanings. From the context, I thought fadge meant matter, but that’s not one of the meanings. I’m guessing it means to agree, get along with.
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I knew nankeen because we have a nankeen kestrel locally. I haven’t heard fadge before either.
I did not know either of these! Nankeen does sound like a Chinese word to me. Thanks, as always, for hosting!!
Fadge is interesting. Thanks for sharing!
I’ve seen “nankeen” in books. Never took the time to define it. I guess it makes a nice everyday dress but not a party dress. Never have seen the word “fadge.”
I loved this book, and hope that you are loving it too! Oddly enough, some of the words that you listed today were words I had wondered about too!
I’ve come across nankeen before, but not fadge – could it mean ‘succeed’?
I never heard of these two before.
I hadn’t heard of these words before, either. Nankeen and fadge will be added to my list!
Fadge could be a portmanteau meaning bad fudge! LOL?
Good to know I wasn’t the only one who immediately thought of fudge.
You stumped me with both words!
Fadge sounds dirty to me for some reason
Hi juju,
I must admit that I made the mistake of checking out this word and came across some pretty disgusting definitions for it in the urban dictionary, so your thoughts were very astute and well-founded.
Yvonne
Both new to me. I do like the sound of fadge though.
New to me too but all of yours are new to me…lol…
If I remember correctly from my Shakespeare studies, “fadge” means something like “work out” as in a disagreement. Just looked it up and found a similar meaning which also works in context: to “suit” or “fit together”. Here’s the link:
http://www.infoplease.com/dictionary/brewers/fadge.html
Good ones!
Hi Kathy,
I love the sound of both your words, although I did make the mistake of trying to find out more about ‘fadge’ and came across some pretty disgusting definitions for the word according to the urban dictionary, I really wished that I hadn’t bothered.
Nankeen sounds much more interesting, although not a word that I could ever think of needing in this day and age.
Great words as always and thanks for hosting and your kind thoughts about my recent loss,
Yvonne
I’m late today… Nankeen is definitely Chinese (a town name, I think?), while fadge I couldn’t really place. Thank you for sharing!
Interesting words, Kathy! I hope I remember them by the time I read Gods of Gotham!
I agree that nankeen probably isn’t a word I’ll use but I like know what it means.
I, too, thought fadge meant matter or maybe happen – it’s kind of a strange sentence anyway!
I’ve never run across either one. I’d go with matter for fadge too….interesting word.
I’m back after a very long hiatus….I’d always wondered what a “deal table” was–ever since it was mentioned in the Holmes stories. Now I know–kind of.
Where did the word fadge come from???
Fadge is a totally new one to me. I couldn’t even figure it out from the sentence.
Fadge is such a strange word!
Well, I can’t say that I knew either of those, or that I will probably ever use them in speech.
Funny I’m commenting just after Alyce, because I followed a link over here from her blog.
I’ve read both of those words in Georgette Heyer books! She’s a prime source of mine for great words.
But, new word wise – this week I learned “swingeing” on Twitter. Author Gary Corby (who’s Australian) asked if it meant anything to Americans. I said no…so he explained it means “big or massive”. Now if I ever go to Australia I’ll have a handy new word!