A few new to me words this week:
Pachysandra by Carl E Lewis
page 32, Nothing but Ghosts by Beth Kephart
“I bend a little in the knees, and as I pull it up toward me, I stagger back, stepping — I don’t mean to — into a bed of pachysandra.”
lambency, n The quality of playing lightly over a surface, flickering (said of a flame, etc.); an appearance of reflected light
page 86, Nothing but Ghosts by Beth Kephart
“‘Not since Lillian Penwick has the Philadelphia Assembly Ball been graced by such transcendent lambency.'”
Fleur-de-lis by Frater5
page 86, Nothing but Ghosts by Beth Kephart
“‘She arrived with a bouquet of golden fleurs-de-lis.'”
I knew the symbol frequently called by this name, but I had no idea it was derived from a specific flower. I’d always wondered about the name for the symbol, actually. And now that I know, I can see that the symbol looks like an iris. hellebores, pl n Any of a genus of poisonous, winter-blooming plants of the buttercup family, with buttercuplike flowers of various colors: the rhizomes of a black European species were formerly used as a heart stimulant and cathartic
page 220, Nothing but Ghosts by Beth Kephart
“The catmint and the mounds of hellebores that survived the winter and bloomed in spring and sit there making their plans for next season.”
autodidact, n A person who is self-educated
page 229, Nothing but Ghosts by Beth Kephart
“‘Most educated man I ever knew of, the autodidact version.'”
Earlier installments of this feature (more great words!).
Review of the book cited here:
Nothing but Ghosts by Beth Kephart
What new words have you found lately?
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I love pachysandra! I planted some last year and they are only doing so-so. Great words! I love learning plant names.
Beautiful! I learnt so much here!
Wondrous Words Wednesday
I’ll be reading Nothing But Ghosts soon – I’ll have to remember to come here for the definitions of those words. Thanks for participating!
Lambency is a lovely word.
To view heraldic fleur-de-lis’s (3 together on shields) go to “Flickr” and type in their searchbox Raymond E.O.Ella and click.
To read more on the fleur-de-lis in connection with certain coats-of-arms, e.g., the Ella (Ellay, etc.) and Usflete (Ufflete, etc.) families, type said name in a http://www.google.co.uk searchbox and click, then go to “Reedness & Ousefleet” and click. Later, go to “Adlingfleet” and click.
To view another coat-of-arms (3 fleur-de-lis on) in connection with Ray’s posting (12th Nov., 2011) go to:
http://www.hberlioz.com/others/RElla.htm
Great, !.