June 20, 2007
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Wednesday Words
All these words are from Thomas Cahill’s Mysteries of the Middle Ages.marmoreal pertaining to or like marble - “marmoreal Rome”
pellucidly transparent, translucent, admitting the passage of light, easily understood
per (= through) + lucid (suffused with light) Do you notice that the prefix is assimilated?
The last letter ofthe prefix changes to match the first letter of the base word or root, i.e.
ad+ tend = attend. “as the New Testament pellucidly states”
soupçon a very small amount, a trace; it comes from the Latin to suspect “soupçon of social dignity”
prolix unduly prolonged or drawn out, given to verbosity from pro = forward + liquere = to be fluid
divagations wandering or straying from a course or subject
shat past and past participle of the other word. Brand new word for this magistra. Well.
Photo credit and Wednesday Word originator: Seasonal Soundings
Comments (5)
This just makes me wonder if you ever used to, or still do, read the monthly feature in Reader’s Digest that has new/unfamiliar words in it. I always loved trying to figure those out! And my grown daughters will still ask me the meaning of words. When I don’t know it, I’ll tell them to read me the sentence it’s used in, and try to guess what it means. I’m about 50/50, but it keeps my brain going!
Oh yes, used to. Word Power, right? I don’t get Reader’s Digest now, but I always enjoyed that.
Like, pellucid. I knew it had to do with light but couldn’t figure out the pel part.
Jordan and I discovered the last word in another form in a book about two years ago … beshat (referring to a horse) and revelled. Well indeed.
Glad WW has migrated to Magistramater and we see her weekly words!
So, I’m having some chunkily cut cantaloupe while catching up on blogs at lunchtime. I plop a big chunk in my mouth right after I read divagations, which, by the way, my husband says I do all the time with a conversation, and I am about to sink my teeth into that cold chunk and get to shat. Mmm, (you know how super-fast your mind works sometimes), wonder what that means? The teeth sink in, the word sinks in, and I about choke with laughter. Who’d've thunk?
That reminds me of another big time laugh that dh shared with me while reading the other night. Since it has historical merit, I was going to post it soon. ‘Will go and prepare to do so now. It involves the present tense.
Janie
Oh Janie! <giggling>