Now we know.

[slemslempike]

I looked up the words from the book, and I thought that I would post them here so that a) I might have a better chance of remembering and b) people can judge me for not knowing them and c) other people can say that they too were previously unknowing. A few I roughly knew from context but wanted to know properly (uxorious, synecdoche) but most were completely baffling.

irenic - conducive to peace
uxorious - overly submissive to a wife
gravamen - grievance, basis of a legal action
strabismus - eye misalignment
bibulous - given up to the consumption of alcohol
adipose - pertaining to fat
adumbrate - give a sketchy outline of, to indistinctly foreshadow
lineaments - facial features
sidereal - relating to stars
sempiternal - dateless, no known beginning
meniscus - curved surface of liquid in a narrow diameter tube
noumenal - unknowable
penumbra - the area of a shadow in partial vision, the lighter part of an eclipse's shadow
chiaroscuro - use of light and dark in a painting
apophthegms - short pithy instructive saying
farouche - fierce, wild
synecdoche - referring to a concept by part of it
apian - relating to bees
monad - one, a unit
afflatus - creative inspiration
Procrustes - Greek guy with an adjustable bed
Ziggurat - step pyramid from Ancient Mesapotamia

I like sempiternal a lot, and noumenal. I am probably not going to remember any of them sufficiently to use them myself, but perhaps if I meet them again in writing it won't take me out of it.

Wednesday. What happens on Wednesdays?

Comments

[girlofprey.livejournal.com]

I knew maybe three of those, and not very well. I think I have the fourth one.

[cosmolinguist]

I hardly knew any of these: a few from being a science geek: sidereal, meniscus, penumbra.

I think Rachel and I once had a discussion trying to sort out the differentce between synecdoche and metonymy. I don't know if we ever managed it. :-)

[unhobbityhobbit.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I knew adipose! *feels smart* It never even occurred to me that there might be a word for being overly submissive to a wife.

[sinsense.livejournal.com]

This should be a poll! I am so excited about these words that I am commenting without reading other comments, so I'm sorry if someone else said that.

Okay, I knew: bibulous, adipose, adumbrate, lineaments, meniscus, penumbra, chiarascuro (because I took a film class once, ha), synecdoche, monad, afflatus, and Ziggurat. I could only define bibulous, lineaments, meniscus, chiaroscuro, synecdoche, and monad offhand, though. (Yes, I tested myself. Word geek!) A few of them are what I consider genuinely 19th century words; I've only ever seen "bibulous" in mid-19th (mostly women's!) writing.

This was such fun. Thank you.

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

Wednesdays are when I go to karate!

I've been using 'uxorious' wrong all these years. I thought it meant being a submissive wife.

[lsugaralmond.livejournal.com]

I heart the English language. I bet no other language has a word for curved surface of liquid in a narrow diameter tube. We are the bestest.

Also, I only knew one of them! Adipose. I thought Uxorious and Lineaments meant something entirely different to what they actually mean (not exactly sure what I thought they meant, but definitely not those things!) and the rest of them I have never heard of, and would swear you are making them up in a hilarious prank to make us all feel intellectually inferior. Except obviously you would never do that.

[tubewalker.livejournal.com]

This is a fabulous list, holly_lama sent me to look, may I add you?

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

I knew some of them and recognised others (you know, that state of mind where you think you know what something means until someone asks you) but not all of them.

I did know Procrustes, though (not personally, thankfully). He has a brief appearance in Mary Renault's The Bull From The Sea which I've just finished reading. Calling his bed 'adjustable' might be described as rather black irony...

[cellardor.livejournal.com]

I'm going to own up now and say I don't recognise a single one of them. I can be your slack jawed yokel LJ friend.

I know a fair few but not all

[jinty]

I always forget what 'uxorious' means - have only recently got it into my head that it means something to do with a wife. And 'afflatus' I would definitely assume was to do with farting not inspiration.

Is it 'stabismus' or 'strabismus'? Also, 'chiaroscuro' surely.

I love the words Procrustes and Ziggurat.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

Ooh, words!

I knew penubra cause it are a DS9 episode title and I looked it up when it came out and I knew not what the word meant. Also know Ziggurat from Star Trek. And monad from Doctor Who. Sciffy teach me words!

Physics or chemistry taught me noumenal and meniscus.

[yiskah.livejournal.com]

Farouche! That is the best word ever.