The Well-Read Redhead: Wondrous Words Wednesday (32)

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Wondrous Words Wednesday (32)

Welcome back, wordy friends!

Wondrous Words Wednesday is hosted by BermudaOnion each week. It's an opportunity to share new words you've encountered in your reading, or highlight words that you particularly enjoy.

Here are three of my favorite new-to-me words from The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost. All definitions from Dictionary.com.

1. louvers. "Instead of glass windows there were plastic horizontal louvers, plus security wire."
noun
1. any of a series of narrow openings framed at their longer edges with slanting, overlapping fins or slats, adjustable for admitting light and air while shutting out rain.
2. a fin or slat framing such an opening.
3. a ventilating turret or lantern, as on the roof of a medieval building.
4. any of a system of slits formed in the hood of an automobile, the door of a metal locker, etc., used especially for ventilation.
5. a door, window, or the like, having adjustable louvers.

The definition that included the bit about metal lockers illustrated this well for me. Sounds like a fancy French word!

2. favelas. "In this environment, the odd mixture of Robinson Crusoe-like isolation combined with the favelas of Rio, good eating was hard to find."
noun
a shantytown in or near a city, especially in Brazil; slum area.

Favelas sounds like a more...fun word to me. Guess I was wrong about that!

3. obstreperous. "'The I-Kiribati said okeydokey, possibly because Davis immediately banned trade in guns and alcohol, and soon went so far as to banish the more obstreperous missionaries..."

adjective

1. resisting control or restraint in a difficult manner; unruly .
2. noisy, clamorous, or boisterous: obstreperous children.

This is one of those words I would love to throw into random conversation with my coworkers, and see who understands it.

What are your new words this week?