Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Wondrous Words Wednesday - Mar 2, 2016


It’s Wednesday and that means it’s time to learn some new words! Wondrous Words Wednesday, hosted by Kathy at Bermuda Onion, is a meme which encourages us to share words we have learned while reading. The words I share will sometimes be completely new to me, and other times they will be words I am familiar with, and maybe even use correctly, but when I think about how to explain the meaning, I’m lost — I have to look it up. It’s all about expanding my vocabulary!

These words are from The Quality of Silence by Rosamund Lupton.

apocryphal - of doubtful authenticity, although widely circulated as being true
“But in that first storm, suffering from exposure and frostbite and desperate, he’d remembered an idea he’s previously dismissed as apocryphal.”

satsuma - a tangerine of a hardy loose-skinned variety, originally grown in Japan
“We divide the Earth up into segments like a peeled satsuma,” she says.


These next words are from The Quality of Silence by Rosamund Lupton.

chiaroscuro - an effect of contrasted light and shadow created by light falling unevenly or from a particular direction on something
“She switched on the cab’s light and saw her own face as a chiaroscuro in the windscreen against the darkness outside.”  

paraselenae - a bright spot in the sky similar to a parhelion but formed by moonlight; also called mock moon or moon dog.
“She realized that two of the moons were paraselenae”

And of course we need to know that meaning of....

parhelion - any of several bright spots often tinged with color that often appear on the parhelic circle called also sun dog.  

parhelic circle - a luminous circle or halo parallel to the horizon at the altitude of the sun, also called parhelic ring.  

What new-to-you words have you discovered this week?

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4 comments:

  1. I am familiar with the phrase sun dog, but have never heard parhelion or parhelic circle. All new to me today. Interesting words.

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  2. I knew chiaroscuro from my art training and apocryphal from religious conversations. The whole "sun dog" thing is new to me. Thanks for sharing!

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  3. The only one i knew was satsuma.

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  4. That's quite a cache you have here today. They are all new to me.

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