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!
This week’s words are from A Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling.
1. coprolite – “All that remained these days of the Sweetloves’ long association with Pagford, was the grandest tomb in the churchyard of St. Michael and All Saints, and a smattering of crests and initials over local records and buildings, like the footprints and coprolites of extinct creatures.”
Coprolite is fossilized excrement.
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2. quoin – “Big Queen Anne manor house, dormers, stone quoins. . . stunning, you should visit, it’s open to the public on Sundays in the summer.”
A quoin is a solid exterior angle (as of a building).
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3. bolshy – “She would not forgive Kay for the rude outstretched plate; the woman was bolshy and patronizing, exactly like Lisa, who had monopolized every get-together with her political views and her job in family law, despising Samantha for owning a bra shop.”
I thought I had this one figured out from the context and I was right. I was a little surprised to find bolshy in my dictionary – it means Bolshevik.
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What words do you want to celebrate today?
I like that word bolshy, not heard it for a while, but certainly used in the UK, if I remember correctly from my youth!
Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2012 08:03:08 +0000 To: ruth2day@hotmail.com
Quoin is a good word to know, one of those things that I didn’t know had a name.
And I don’t know what it says about me, but I did know coprolite *facepalm*
Great words! I would have had no idea about that last one.
On balance I think I prefer footprints to coprolites! :–)
quoin? Cool. I had no idea.
In my younger days, I knew a few coprolites! They were disguised as dates.
We Aussies love a good word shortening, so I’m familiar with bolshie, except we’d spell it with the -ie. I did know coprolite, but had forgotten it funnily enough. Quoin is a great sounding word, but possibly one I don’t have all that much utility for sadly. I’ll be interested to hear your thoughts on this book, I’m very keen to read it.
Saw the word Bolshy in a book before, didn’t know the other ones.
These are good ones!! I like learning new words.
I didn’t know any of these and I really should have know ‘quoin’ since I’ve working in and around the real estate business for years.
I knew “quoin” immediately, but you had me stumped with the others. Great words, Kathy!
I have played quoin in WWF (good to know what it means!). Coprolite is hilarious!
AWESOME words….never heard of “any” of them.
THANKS.
Hi Kathy,
I didn’t know about ‘coprolite’ and would never have guessed at its meaning from that particular sentence.
The other two words I know about, especially ‘bolshy’, which is still in reguar daily use here in the UK and is not taken in a derogatory way by most people.
Mr.G reckons that I am bolshy most of the time … Oh! no I’m not, I just know when I am right!!
“describes someone who often argues and makes difficulties”
The above definition is from the Cambridge online dictionary.
Great words, thanks for sharing. I look forward to your review of this book, it has received some pretty mixed press.
Yvonne
Interesting words and all new to me. I’ve got this book on my wish list , I’m a fan of Rowlings.
Hi Kathy,
I’m happy to say I’m back home and eager to be back in the swing of blogging and WWW. Thanks for visiting my blog even while I’ve been gone.
Great words this week. I’m eager to see what you think of the novel.
I actually knew coprolite. That’s what comes from having a daughter who was obsessed with dinosaurs.
Not one I knew from before
All new words to me. Coprolite is an interesting one!
I kind of guessed the second word, and was right, but the first one was really new to me! I am glad that you added a graphic for that one!
Wow…those are quite unique!
No clue about any of them, but I think the picture adds a nice touch this week!
Don’t think I’ll get the chance to use corprolite or bolshy in any upcoming conversations. I did know quoins, though, after working in a lumber yard for years.
I like that “quoin” word!
The only one I knew was coprolite, which makes me wonder when that information was stashed away in my mind.
Great words!!