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!
I found several new to me words in SMALL FRY by Lisa Brennan-Jobs:
1. baize – “The grass at the resort was mown short as baize and dotted with shade from palm trees with long, thing trunks, like strings.”
Baize is a coarse, typically green woolen material resembling felt, used for covering billiard and card tables. I always called that material felt.
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2. abstemious – “The purity and abstemiousness of our diet, the sparse furnishings of the house exposing the beauty of its bones, beams like ribs; the entrance unlocked, so that anyone could wander in: a holy quiet.”
This is one of those words I felt I should be able to define but couldn’t. Abstemious means not self-indulgent, especially when eating and drinking.
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3. gamboge – “I picked at the splotches on the board she used as a palette — indigo, carmine, white, gamboge, which seemed to be a dull, pasty brown but when mixed with water became electric yellow, the color of a mosquito whine.”
Gamboge is is a partially transparent deep saffron to mustard yellow pigment. It is used to dye Buddhist monks’ robes.
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What words do you want to celebrate today?
New to me 🙂
I too have always called what is apparently baize, felt. Then again, I only just found out yesterday that “pool” is a different game than “billiards.” Obviously, either one not something I play, LOL
I love it that are so many wondrous words out there. Even though I’m in my sixties, I always find new words each week.
As always your word selection makes me very curious about the book that offered you this interesting vocabulary! My word today is “Blackface” — a newsworthy choice.
best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
I agree with you on “abstemious.” I felt like I should be able to define it. Wrong! And I knew “baize,” but didn’t. The 3rd one was brand new. P.S. I always look forward to Wondrous Words Wednesday, even though I can’t define the words most of the time.
Lloyd (408) 348-4849
P.S. I’m clicking “replay” since I can’t seem to make it work by actually going on the website.
On Wed, Mar 6, 2019 at 12:00 AM Bermudaonion’s Weblog wrote:
> BermudaOnion posted: ” 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. ” >
I knew gamboge. I often use yellow gamboge when I’m working on a painting.
I knew the meaning of #2, but the other two are new to me. Small Fry is also new to me. Thank you for sharing your words, Kathy!
I always call it felt!
It’s felt for me too. I’ve never heard of baize,
Cool words. I had a feeling about some of them from the sentences’ contexts.