Wednesday, April 24

Word-Hunting in Tess

A while ago, I promised that I would share all the strange and wonderful words from Tess of the D'Urbervilles that I wrote down on my vocabulary building list.  I like Thomas Hardy's writing.  It's easy to read and understand, but is still strewn with words that I've never encountered before, and are mostly very fascinating to look at.  Here are the ones I've jotted down so far:
 
calcareous - adj. containing calcium corbonate; chalky
 
conterminous - adj. 1. sharing a common boundary; 2. having the same area, context, or meaning
 
extemporize - v. improvise: perform without preparation
 
emolument - n. a salary, fee, or profit from employment or office
 
dolorifuge - n. something that banishes or mitigates grief
 
nascent - adj. just coming into existence and beginning to display signs of future potential; not yet fully developed
 
mien - n. a person's look or manner, indicating their character or mood
 
ensconce - v. establish or settle esp. in a comfortable, safe, or secretive place
 
dyspeptic - adj. of or having indigestion or consequent irritability or depression
 
vituperation - n. bitter and abusive language
 
accretion - n. the process of growth or increase, typically by the gradual accumulation of additional layers of matter
 
concatenation - n. the state of being linked together, as in a chain; union in a linked series
 
 
So many of them seem so strangely random, but their specificity makes them each incredibly unique and quirky.  Now that I know what they mean, I particularly like 'mien' and 'concatenation'.  I must admit, however, to liking the sound of 'vituperation'.
 
Having a little scrap of notepaper in every book is great because it means that I never have to leave behind a word I don't know.  I collect them, gather them up, so that I can learn them and use them!
 

1 comment:

  1. Ah blast! You beat me to it... The follow up of my 'lesson zero in languages' was going to be on collecting words. I guess I have to recommand this post in FaceBook instead now!

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