Kathy at Bermuda Onion’s Weblog is the mastermind behind this Wednesday meme. Here are some new-to-me words I’ve discovered in my reading this week.
- psilocybin: ”Tommy Flynn had taken Amanda’s shoes off and massaged the balls of her feet and her toes, and as the psilocybin kicked in, they laughed without reason and uncontrollably for what seemed like a long time.” Psilocybin means a hallucinogenic alkaloid, found in some toadstools. My guess was it was something besides toadstools.
- vulgarians: ”These two were vulgarians. They were not going to buy this house, nor could they afford it.” Vulgarian means an unrefined person, esp. one with newly acquired power or wealth.
Those two words are from The Way Home by George Pelecanos. My husband and I both read it and it’s quite good. I’ll be posting “our” review tomorrow. I found another interesting word while reading a book review in The Economist. The book is The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by Alain de Botton. Here’s the word:
- concatenation: “. . . or what an immense concatenation of individual efforts is required to ensure that a fish swimming in the Indian Ocean off the Maldives can be converted, in a couple of days, into individually packaged tuna steaks in the refrigerated foods aisle of a supermarket in the Bristol suburbs.” Concatenation means a series of interconnected things or events.
I hope you found some new words this week. Share them here in the comment section or on your blog and link up with Kathy. Play along with Wondrous Words Wednesday.
You truly found some great words!
Here is mine:
http://readbookswritepoetry.blogspot.com/2009/05/wondrous-word-wednesday.html
I read that book and missed both of those words, yet I couldn’t have defined either one of them. You have a sharp eye. I can’t wait to read your review. Thanks for participating today!
And who would have thought drugs were as easy to get as just rubbing your feet! :–)
A couple of difficult words there, or at least they were to me
This is my first time joining in WoW, here is my word for the week:
http://escapeinabook.blogspot.com/2009/05/waiting-onwednesdaywondrous-words.html