Wondrous Words Wednesday is one of my favorite memes sponsored by Kathy/Bermuda Onion. It’s the day we report on the words we’ve discovered in our reading.
These three words are from The Writing of Fiction by Edith Wharton.
1. ductile: As the soil of France is of all soils the most weeded, tilled, and ductile, so the field of art, wherever French culture extends, is the most worked over and the most prepared for whatever seed is to be sown in it.
Ductile means flexible or pliable.
2. prolix: The temptation to do so is all the greater because some critics, in their resentment of the dense and the prolix, have tended to overestimate the tenuous and the tight.
Prolix is an adjective and refers to (in speaking and writing) the use of too many words; tediously lengthy.
3. delation: This insufferable and incredible couple spend their days in espionage and delation, and their evenings in exchabging the reports of their eaves’-dropping with a minuteness and precision worth of Scotland Yard.
Delation is a derivative of delate. It’s a verb meaning report (an offense or crime) or inform against or denounce (someone).
What new words did you learn this week?
I certainly have been accused of being prolix in my time! :–)
Hi Margot,
Great words. I didn’t know any of them. But I would say I’m a pretty ductile person. Have a great day!
Sherrie
Just Books
You always find the best words! I don’t like books that are prolix! Thanks for participating!
Prolix—perhaps I should have known that one! But I didn’t. Or the other two for that matter. Nice list.
I knew 2 of the words today!!!!! I feel smart
Blogging helps me to learn to be less prolix!
Margot, I enjoyed learning some new words here from you and Edith Wharton.
I’m new to this meme. Here’s my link: http://suko95.blogspot.com/2010/01/wondrous-words-wednesday.html
As a lover of words I rarely read one’s that I didn’t know yet, but “delation” got me, thanks mom! If I was to define it I might have said: “the feeling one has after putting on their glasses to look more closely at a lottery ticket, to realize that they did NOT, in fact, win.”