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, and join the fun! (Don’t forget to leave a link in the comments if you’re participating.) All of my words this week came from Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.
1. bowdlerize– “But despite bowdlerizing content, my family has been entirely faithful about visiting.”
Bowdlerize means to modify by abridging, simplifying, or distorting in style or content.
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2. cresol – “It’s caused by a cresol compound used by a manufacturer.”
Cresol is any of three poisonous colorless crystalline or liquid isomeric phenols. I don’t know what all of that means, but I do understand that it’s poison.
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3. surcingle– “They wear no halters, no side reins, no surcingles – nothing.”
A surcingle is a belt, band, or girth passing around the body of a horse to bind a saddle or pack fast to the horse’s back.
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Have you come across any new words lately?
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I think bowdlerize is named for a man named Bowdler who cleaned up text by taking out all the dirty words.
I just finished rereading The Pit and the Pendulum by Poe. In it the victim is tied down with a surcingle.
These words are good to know.
That’s great info on Bowdlerize, make sit easy to remember… but this word reminds me of bull dozer. 🙂
Like all the words this time.
I never cease to be amazed at the words you uncover all new to me again this week.
Those are really interesting! I have a bunch of new words again today – check them out!
These three new words are very interesting. I also found some new words. See my post at Joyfully Retired.
Hmmm, bowdlerize. Seems like the circus (I think that’s the setting) is having trouble introducing originality into its acts. Is that the idea? Great words.
My word for this week is a humdinger.
At the point this sentence was used, the protagonist is in a nursing home – he’s referring to the fact that his family visits faithfully, but they’re careful about what they say in front of him, in affect censoring what he’s told.
Oh, okay. That makes so much more sense. Thanks Kathy.
I know I’d heard bowdlerize, but I’m not sure whether I would have remembered what it meant. A pretty usable word, though!
Here’s my words post for this week: http://wordlily.com/2010/10/20/words-from-my-reading-53/
Surcingle is such a neat word, and it’s fun to say! Try it! Surcingle, surcingle, surcingle! Thanks for sharing these with us!
Bowdlerize is a word my family actually uses a lot and I’m not sure why. I think we picked it up in a book and liked it and it stuck with us. I love the Wondrous Words for Wednesday idea. I’m still not completely sold on e-readers (I have the Nook and do kind of like it) but one of the real upsides is getting to look up words there and then.
I’ll have to add some new words.
Very cool words. I always feel so dumb when I read WWW posts! I think I use the same plain words over and over again.
I must admit that I’ve never run across “bowdlerize” before.
Another week of interesting words! Thanks, Kathy. 😀
Bowdlerize sounded familiar to me for some reason, although I couldn’t really define it. I’m hoping to do this meme soon–maybe later today. 🙂
This is my first week, but here is all my new words for the week: http://myonlinebookjournal.wordpress.com/.
Fascinating words! Bowdlerize is a strange word, not sure I would ever use it but surcingle is a great word. I feel like I should be familiar with it because my sister was an avid horse-back rider for years while we were growing up & she owned a horse for several years so I hear quite a bit about the care of horse and the equipment used. Not to mention, I read “Water for Elephants”!
Cresol is an interesting word and I know I have heard it discussed on Law & Order!
I love this meme & I’m so happy I remembered to participate today! My words are posted on my blog:
Amy’s Wednesday Words!
Thanks Kathy!
~ Amy
I’ve always liked the word “bowdlerize.”
The only one I’d heard of was bowdlerize, but I didn’t remember what it meant.
I just posted a WWW! 🙂
I like the last one, but when would I get to use it 😉
Surcingle definitely has a nice ring to it!
I like surcingle…neat words…fun to say.
#2 must be where the word creosote came from.
Great words! I knew bowdlerize, but the others are new (well, I’ve read Water for Elephants, so I guess I must have seen them before). Your lovely meme (which I learned about from Margot) has taught me to pay more attention to new vocabulary as I read, rather than just skim up the meaning. Thanks for sharing.
I didn’t realize this extended beyond Wednesday. Great! Well, looks like bowdlerize is this week’s winner—with surcingle running a close second?
What a great meme!
Going to make up a song with Cresol…
It’s cresol… dangerous… oooo ahhhhh….
nope don’t think it’s going to be a seller… going back to my day job….