Wondrous Words Wednesday
Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our reading. Feel free to join in the fun. All of my words this week come from Galway Bay by Mary Pat Kelly, so they have an Irish flavor to them.
1. spailpins – “Always the hardest-working of all laborers, despite being the youngest of the spailpins .”
Spailpins were laborers hired for digging potatoes; coming mostly from the west and south-west, they traveled to richer counties like Munster and Limerick or to England.
2. bawn – “Ah, the peasant jockey and his colleen bawn.”
According to wikipedia, a bawn is a wall surrounding an Irish tower house; its original purpose was to protect livestock during attack.
3. whinge – “Never a whine or a whinge.”
Whinge means to complain fretfully.
What new words have you discovered lately?
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I love it!! I didn’t know any of your words, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to whinge about it all day!
I’ll tell my kids to “quitcher whingin’ already”
My list is here.
I don’t remember seeing any of your words. It seems that the maker of words cheated with “whinge;” only one letter extra is needed, so why bother?
http://bookcritiques.blogspot.com/2009/03/wondrous-words-wednesday.html
whinge is one I knew….and do.
my Irish ancestors…and they are all Irish… may well have been spailpins.
I’ve been whinging for years and years and didn’t even know it!
Here’s mine: http://wordlily.wordpress.com/2009/03/18/words-from-my-reading-iv/
Like Caite, I knew and am guilty of whinging, but the others are completely new to me!
My words are here:
http://shereadsandreads.blogspot.com/2009/03/wondrous-words-wednesday-march-18.html
I love whinge! I use that all the time. Too many Brit friends, apparently.
I didn’t find any words in my reading, but I found a great website that you are all going to love: SaveThe Words.org. Come on over to my blog and check it out! What word will you adopt?
Whinge–I like that one! I bet I could find frequent use for that one.
Ohhhh… I like “whinge.” I am going to have to fit that into my conversations today.
Your review of this book yesterday made it sound terrific. And now these great words – I really want to read this book. I believe I’ve been a spailpin in my former gardening days.
My wondrous words are here
My new one last week was “inanition,” which is the the condition or quality of being empty or the lack of vitality or spirit. I’m just looking for an excuse to use it. I’m thinking I will blame my failure to do something on “inanition” and see if people think I have a disease.
These are all new words to me. I love it when authors include words very specific to the culture. My wondrous words are here:
http://dogeardiary.blogspot.com/2009/03/wondrous-words_18.html
These are great words Kathy, I didn’t know any of them. I found a new word and have it posted here:
http://jo-jolovestoread.blogspot.com/2009/03/wondrous-words-wednesday-march-18.html
This book had a wealth of words, good thing there was a glossary in the back. My post is here
I probably could have listed almost three words a page for the 1st 100 pages! 😉 Darn glossary!
These were all new to me words. I don’t have any new ones to add this week. 😦
Great words!Whinge is a winner.
I had to look up spailpins as well.
Hi Kathy, I just read your question on my MM post. Tina Wells, author of Mackenzie Blue, looks quite young from hr picture on the cover . I think you are thinking of Tina Louise who played Ginger on Gilligan’s Island. All these Tinas, who can keep them straight, except of course for Tina Turner, fabulous lady! Lol!!
Love the words. Mine is up , too.
Are you speaking w/an Irish brogue too? Sometimes happenss to me when my friend’s family form Scotland comes over for a month 🙂
I love this meme and start to panic if I don’t come across any new words. Mine are here.
Great words. I knew whinge (and I use it regularly) but the others are new to me. I’ve found no new words this week, but I’ll keep looking!
Great words. Going to totally use those in a sentence this week 🙂
I love your words – especially whinge. I’ve actually used that one before. 🙂
Here’s my post – I have some fascinating words from a really dry essay by Whitman:
http://booksandmovies.today.com/2009/03/18/wondrous-words-wednesday-march-18-2009/
I’ve heard of whinge before (I picked up quite a few mainly Irish words when reading Greyfriars Bobby by Eleanor Atkinson) but not these others. Interesting!
Well, I knew whinge but the other two are new to me. Gotta love those Irish.
Whinge!!! That reminds me of living in the expat community in Japan. 🙂
I’ve always loved whinge (well, the word…not necessarily the act of whinging). The other two words are new to me. Good for you for keeping track of new words. I always say I will, then I never do.
I think “whinge” is my new favorite word.
Don’t look now, but you’ve gotten another award!
I gave up taking notes on Galway Bay. I was so overwhelmed with the Irish that I think my mind closed to everything else and I just worked off context. I don’t even remember seeing spailspin.
Whinge! I love that word, it’s new to me, although I see it all the time in my kids (whining too, which leads me to wining 🙂 )
I’ll introduce it at the dinner table tonight.
My copy of The Book Thief is a UK copy, and it had the word “whinge” in it, too. I had never seen the word before and thought maybe it was one of those American English-British English spelling variations, this time whinge=whine. Interesting to learn it is a word unto itself 🙂 Thanks!