Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Thoughtful Thursday

My, my, my. Oh, how the Baroness' life is filled with secrets.
Here's the latest spill for you - I've recently become re-acquainted with an old love. Even now, every word uttered, every phrase turned makes me weak at the knees. I remember the passion I initially felt - the awe, the lightheadedness, the giddy afterglow. And guess what? It's no different this time around. Nothing has changed.

The beauty of which I speak? It's a book. But no, no, no, no. Not just any book. It's Ex Libris, by Anne Fadiman, and it is a thing to behold - not only for the exquisite essays of Miss F, but by the volume of notes and underlining I did throughout. I (almost) never write in books - such bourgeoisie manners. But I couldn't help myself.

Today's TT comes from its second essay, "The Joy of Sesquipedalians". I will give you a list of words that had me itching to find out their meaning. I doubt if any ordinary human bean could ever find opportunity to pepper their everyday conversations with these, but they are fascinating nevertheless, and a gateway to becoming the equivalent of a Scrabble Jedi Master* (*note here you will be despised; this is the toll to be paid for word glory. With great vocabulary comes great responsibility, it does.)

Here we go:
(For God's sake, indulge me [yet again], would you? You have to read all the way to the bottom of the list - there's a challenge!)

monophysite
mephitic
calineries
diapason
grimoire
adapertile
retromingent
perllan
cupellation
adytum
sepoy
subadar
paludal
apozemical
camorra
ithyphallic
adcalde
aspergill
agathodemon
kakodemon
goetic
opopanax

I challenge you, dear clever readers that you are, to send along a sentence with the word in the appropriate context. Or better yet, make up your own definition! It might be fun. Word.

Triple Word, even.

!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

without pausing to look up a definition ...

"The heavy grimoire sat collecting dust on the shelf."

As for the rest of them ... I'm furiously scribbling them down for the next time my mom and I play Scrabble.

Writeprocrastinator said...

Il (non mi ricorda sarebbe e' "la" o "il") Camorra รจ molto, molto, male.

Anonymous said...

Countess Moo: Oooh, check you out!
Do you, perhaps, own a grimoire? It could also be a valuable ally in Scrabble! Well, for me at least - I need all the help I can get.

Anonymous said...

Count WP: It's becoming increasingly obvious to me that either: a) everyone already has a copy of Ex Libris, or b)my vocabulary needs some sprucin'. 20,000 Erudite Olympic points to you, sir.

Not Afraid to Use It said...

Dude, anything with the word phallic in it has got to be good. Will have to get back to you on the actual sentence, though.

Anonymous said...

Countess NATUI: I originally thought that the "ithy" prefix referred to birds. Which would be so wrong. But I've looked it up, and it's all good.
By the dubs, can you point me in the direction of the nearest Bacchus festival?

Mental P Mama said...

Only a teen-aged son could be responsible for such mephitic odors.

How's that?

Anonymous said...

Countess MPM: As the loving mother of not one, but 2 teenaged boys, this sentence could not be any more perfect!

Writeprocrastinator said...

"20,000 Erudite Olympic points to you, sir."


YES!

 
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