Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Wondrous Words Wednesday



Wondrous Words Wednesday , a weekly meme, is kindly hosted by Bermuda Onion.

This week's words are taken from Murder at Madingley Grange by Caroline Graham.

  • costive: adj. 1. contipated 2. slow, sluggish 3. stingy
  • This adjective was used like this: "she gave him a costive smile." I can just imagine how that must look!
  • gammon: n. a ham that has been cured or smoked. It was used as follow when describing his ears. " They stuck out from each side of his head like fine shavings of gammon". Another wonderfully descriptive phrase.
  • ululation : n. a long, wavering, high-pitched sound resembling the howl of a dog or wolf with a trilling quality.
Did you find any new and intriguing words this week? Are they words you could work into an everday conversation?

9 comments:

  1. I love the quotes that go with your first two words! I've never heard of either of them.

    My words are here.

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  2. Gammon - I wonder if that's related to "gams" which is usually slang for legs. Interesting....

    My words are here.

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  3. How was "ululation" used? That's such a cool word!

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  4. Interesting point, Lisa, it could come from that. Not sure.

    Jeane- unfortunately, I didn't write down the sentence with ululation in it but i think it did have the word ears in the sentence because I remember thinking, new words and they relate to ears. Next time, I promise to write it down. It always helps to see it in a sentence. Thanks for the great question!

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  5. gammon I know. it is frequently used to refer to certain cuts of pork products, ham and such, in Ireland.

    the other two, I was clueless. not an uncommon state!

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  6. ululation is one I haven't seen before.

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  7. Costive is one I can probably remember and use correctly! It's a great word. Thanks for playing along today.

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  8. Based on your words, this sounds like a good book.

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