Showing posts with label dictionary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dictionary. Show all posts

Monday, February 4, 2013

words this week.


Michael Chabon is one of my favorite wielders of the English language, and I keep stopping to read bits of this out loud because it's just so damn good. This week's words all come from Telegraph Avenue; a few were new to me, and the rest are old favorites.

Arcology: n. an ideal integrated city contained within a massive vertical structure, allowing maximum conservation of the surrounding environment

Captious: adj. marked by an often ill-natured inclination to stress faults and raise objections

Clabber: n. milk that has naturally clotted on souring

Renascent: adj. rising again into being or vigor

Uxorial: adj. relating to a wife

Monday, October 29, 2012

words this week.


In the dictionary:

Gaffle - I like the slang usage of this word, as in to steal.
Bugbear - n. This is a new actual word to me. My only previous acquaintance with it has been as an adorable monster in Kingdom of Loathing, and I didn't realize it was a real word until I read it in Moby Dick. "...he was nothing but a humbug, trying to be a bugbear." 

Also in words this week, a bit of Twitter magic: