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 some of my recent reads. All definitions from Dictionary.com.
1. soigné. "Where had these soigné children come from?" (from Mama's Child by Joan Steinau Lester)
adjective
1. carefully or elegantly done, operated, or designed.
2. well-groomed.
I love finding cool French words to use in everyday English. This is one that I think would be pretty easy to drop into conversation.
2. inveterately (inveterate). "I also work here because I love books, because I'm inveterately curious, and because, like most librarians, I'm not well suited to anything else." (from The World's Strongest Librarian by Josh Hanagarne)
adverb (adjective)
1. settled or confirmed in a habit, practice, feeling, or the like: an inveterate gambler.
2. firmly established by long continuance, as a disease, habit, practice, feeling, etc.: chronic.
This is one of those words that I've heard many times before, but never knew the exact definition.
3. hoary. "The hoary vassal in the sweater spoke for the first time." (from The World's Strongest Librarian by Josh Hanagarne)
adjective
1. gray or white with age: an old dog with a hoary muzzle.
2. ancient or venerable: hoary myths.
3. tedious from familiarity; stale: Please don't tell that hoary joke at dinner again tonight.
Well, I was completely thrown off by this, because when I heard "hoary" all I could think of was "hoar frost", which means something entirely different. (Stay tuned for next week when I tell you what 'vassal' means!)
I've heard inveterate before but had never looked up the definition. The meaning is a little different than I thought. Great words today!
ReplyHi Kelly,
ReplyI new two of your words this week and strangely enough I was stumped by the French word ... I kept wanting to to say 'soiree' which is an evening dinner party or gathering ... or 'sauve'which means charming and elegant and isn't a million miles away from the definition of your own word 'soigne'
Now I know why I didn't do advanced studies in French!
Nice words, thanks for sharing,
Yvonne
I love learning new French words. I took a lot of French in middle/high school and still like to use it when I can...words like this remind me to brush up!
Ohhhh I love the French word!
ReplyAnd I was totally thinking something different for hoary...
Hahahaha me toooooo!
I'm with you - I like soigne. I'm grabbing this one. I'll try to use it without embarrassing myself.
ReplyHahahahaha :D I like "hoary" so much :D I'd love to use that word to see the reaction on somebody's face! I also love "soigné(e)" a lot ;) In Belgium we use it in French, but Flemish people (like me) make their own word of it "gesoigneerd" which sounds less beautiful :( So I'll keep using the French one too ^^
ReplyInteresting!! I agree the French version is much prettier. :)
They are all new to me, good words.
Replyhttp://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2013/07/wondrous-words-wednesday.html
I'm with you Kelly- I've heard inveterate so many times. Thanks for clearing it up. Now... I hope we remember it!
ReplyI didn't know any of your words except "hoary." Thanks for the new vocabulary.
ReplyIt might sound better because it's French, but soigné sounds an awesome word to want to add to your vocabulary. And likely confuse everyone with, but hey, it sounds great.
ReplyI agree, I can see all my friends rolling their eyes if I tried it out in conversation. Haha...