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 this week’s words come from The Reader by Bernhard Schlink.
1. architrave – “The front door was flanked by pillars, and from the corners of the architrave one lion looked up Bahnhofstrasse while another looked down.
An architrave is the lowest division of an entablature resting in classical architecture immediately on the capital of a column. (I had to look up entablature and it means a horizontal part in classical architecture that rests on the columns.)
2. assize – “The room that housed the assize court had a row of large windows down the left-hand side, with milky glass that blocked the view of the outdoors but let in a great deal of light.”
An assize is a judicial inquest.
3. concatenation – “And as always, the alien language, unmastered and struggled over, created a strange concatenation of distance and immediacy.”
Concatenation is a form of concatenate, which means to link together.
Have you found any new words that rattle(d) you? Did any words cause you to take a pregnant pause?
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I had heard of Catenation. Concatination is new.
Other two I know.
Here is mine:
http://readbookswritepoetry.blogspot.com/2009/05/wondrous-words-wednesday_13.html
‘concatenation’ is new-to-me, too. Fun word to say, but I think I’d have difficulty working it into conversation!
Another week’s worth of reading has added *nothing* to my vocabulary, unfortunately. (If I had known I was going on an easy-reading kick, I would have saved up some of those words from “Deep Storm”! LoL)
Hope everybody is having a wonderful week of reading!
I only knew one! I’m should be keeping track with the book I’m reading right now — it’s a Heyer historical fiction book with lots of new-to-me words.
I thought concatenation is another form of Concatenate or may be I am confusing it with technical terms 🙂
Thanks for the info.
All three are new to me. These new words and sentences make the book seem rather highbrow. I’m curious about the book.
My new words are here.
Hope everyone has a nice day.
I still remember how I first learned the word “assize”: it was when reading Tamsin by Peter Beagle last year, which mentions the “bloody assizes” that happened in England in 1685.
Good morning! I found some great words this week.
These are all new words to me Kathy…thanks for sharing them. My words are here:
http://jo-jolovestoread.blogspot.com/2009/05/wondrous-words-wednesday-may-13.html
Here are mine: http://wordlily.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/words-from-my-reading-6/
I knew assize, but I didn’t pick up on either of the others when I read it. I must have just passed over them.
My words are up.
Those words are all new to me- although assize sounds faintly familiar- I might have come across it once and just glossed over it unknowingly. My new words are here.
I hope you are enjoying The Reader, I know I did. I knew #1 because I had looked it up once. The others I knew too but I’ve never used them in a sentence. 🙂 I had a lovely set of words from a novel set in the 1790s set aside to do a WW post but illness prevailed. Next week perhaps. I really enjoy reading the entries for this feature.
No wondrous words for me today, but wanted to drop by and check out yours anyway! Architrave is totally new to me. I’d heard concatenation before, but wouldn’t have been able to define it.
I love “concatenation”! Definitely haven’t heard of any of these three words, but I’ll make it a mission to try and weave them into conversation soon! 🙂
Glad you said you had to look up entablature. It always makes me feel less than bright when I don’t know a word in the definition of a word I didn’t know!
I have a bunch of words today – all from Tess of the D’Urbervilles:
http://booksandmovies.colvilleblogger.com/2009/05/13/wondrous-words-wednesday/
I think “architrave” is one of my favourite words every, and I don’t even know why. I rarely remember what it means! These are all lovely words today.
My own solitary word for this week is at Bookishgal.
These are all new to me! Here are mine: http://bettyboochronicles.blogspot.com/2009/05/wondrous-words-wednesday.html
Happy reading!
Luckily I have had no pregnant pauses this week or I’d be suing the gynaecologist. What struck me though, is how often I use context when I’m reading, and get the gist of a word, but have enormous difficulty coming up with a definition or synonym for one when I’m put on the spot.
Haven’t heard of any of these, but you learn something new every day. 🙂
you find some of the most challenging words.
I love words, and I love these words.
My assize sure has gone up now that I’ve hit middle age! Pretty soon I won’t be able to squeeze my big butt through a doorway.
Those are all new to me…and assize made me do a serious double-take.