Wondrous Words Wednesday
Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our reading. If you want to play along, grab the button, write a post, and come back to add your link to Mr. Linky!
All of my words this week came from Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff.
1. extant – “There are no extant protests concerning tax collection, no evidence of the kind of revolt that had greeted her father’s return.”
Extant means currently or already existing.
_____________________________________________________
2. captious – “Generally the great Cicero had two modes: fawning and captious.”
Captious means marked by an often ill-natured inclination to stress faults and raise objections. I’ve known several captious people and I wasn’t particularly fond of any of them!
_____________________________________________________
3. encomiums – “Cicero had particular difficulty with the young man’s florid encomiums of Caesar.”
Encomium means glowing and warmly enthusiastic praise.
_____________________________________________________
Have you discovered any new words lately?
Bermudaonion's Weblog 
I like to hear some Encomium :o)
I like all the words 🙂
I’ve also known some people who are captious. I prefer the encomium types myself!
Here’s mine: http://mywordlyobsessions.wordpress.com
I used a word today that my husband informed me was very common. I guess I’m dumb!
Thanks for expanding my English knowledge today 🙂
Hope you are enjoying Cleopatra!
Unfortunately, I’ve known several captious people too, but wish I didn’t.
How is Cleopatra going?
I like encomiums and am going to have to find a way to pepper my conversations with it!! Thanks for sharing these!
Same here with knowing captious people!
rhi·zome (rī′zōm′)
noun
a creeping stem lying, usually horizontally, at or under the surface of the soil and differing from a root in having scale leaves, bearing leaves or aerial shoots near its tips, and producing roots from its undersurface
From the book Witchgrass: A Pipe Dream (page 1) by Dave Wilkinson.
Such fun words!
I could use the first one…lol, one day
I like encomiums. I tend to be that way about books I really like.
I didn’t know any of them but I want to use Encomium and since like others I know some captious people I think I may be using that one, too.
It always amazes me how they can take something easy to describe and come up with such complicated words. lol. However I do like captious and may use that one especially since the person won’t know what I’m saying.
3 great words! I particularly like captious & encomiums although I think I’ll have difficulty using the latter in my speech and writing!
I agree with you about captious people, too…I don’t generally care for them!
Captious captures my interest today! Great word. I will try to use it soon. 🙂
You always come up with fascinating words!
A place for us self-proclaimed bibliophiles. Great idea!
To me, encomium, just doesn’t look like it goes with it’s definition of glowing. Another 3 great words.
I had no clue what encomiums were!
I only have one this week. It is a musical term.
Stop by to view it.
http://silversolara.blogspot.com
Love this installment, Kathy 🙂
Three more interesting words! “Encomium” is one of those words I used to know back when I was studying Latin in college (during the Pleistocene era), but promptly forgot. I’m gonna try to remember it this time around!
Excellent words today!!
X Nay on the captious-day
Thanks for the new words today Kathy. I think I will have to get caught up and post mine next week!