Last week I found myself without a lot of free time. The week before, I actually had no new words. I seem to be making up for it this week.
From Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo:
[Greek] Amphora, (pbk, pg 58) – An amphora is a type of vase with two handles and a long, narrow neck.
Avuncular, (pbk, pg 67) – Pertaining to an uncle. A kind uncle.
From Carol Shield’s short story, Stop! (in the collection Dressing Up For The Carnival:
Anathema, (hc, pg 62) – Originally it meant something lifted up as a gift to the gods. It has come to mean something/someone that has been formally set apart or exiled. It makes sense in the case of the Queen.
Triannulus, (hc, pg 62) – I can’t find it…. In the story, they speak of the third Triannulus of her reign. I think it means the third era or stage of her reign.
From Ahab’s The Republic of Gilead:
Undergird (posted 10-10-10) – To strengthen from beneath. It can be used in engineering terms and in moral terms.
There are a lot of interesting words this week. I liked the stories and posts the words came from. Will I use any of them in the future? I don’t know.
Ah. So that's what "avuncular" means. I heard the word used in the movie GREMLINS 2, when one character told another one to wear sweaters instead of his usual Dracula costume. "Think avuncular!" he said. Thus, I'd grown up thinking avuncular had something to do with sweaters.
ReplyDeleteI've always thought of myself as "avuncular". I do like sweaters, too, so perhaps there's a connection, Ahab.
ReplyDeleteLoni, love the background image on your blog! Did you do a re-design recently?
I just did the re-design on the 10th of October. I needed a change. The background is actually pictures of my books. I took a bunch of different pictures, played around with it and put it all together. It took a while for me to figure it out, but it was worth it. By having my own books as the background, I thought I was making the blog more me.
ReplyDelete