Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Wondrous Words Wednesday 13

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Kathy at the Bermuda Onion where you "can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. Feel free to get creative!

Still completely behind, so this is going to be rather random ...

Last week I read Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery for the readalong at the Midnight Garden, so I have a few words from that book ...

A child of about eleven, garbed in a very short, very tight, very ugly dress of yellowish-gray wincey

wincey
- a plain or twilled fabric of wool and cotton used especially for warm shirts or skirts and pajamas.
- is a coarse twill or plain-woven fabric woven with a linen warp and a woollen weft. Similar fabrics woven with a cotton warp and woollen weft in Colonial America were also called linsey-woolsey or wincey.

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"She looks exactly like a – like a gimlet." 

gimlet 
gimlet (plural gimlets)
- A small screw-tipped tool for boring holes.  
- A cocktail, usually made with gin and lime juice.  

This one was confusing me, because neither of these makes much sense as an insult from a child, but I finally found out that gimlet was also used figuratively to describe something as sharp or piercing.

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"...I got up yesterday spelling 'ebullition."

eb·ul·li·tion (ĕb′ə-lĭsh′ən) n.
 - The state or process of boiling.
 - A sudden, violent outpouring, as of emotion

A term which certainly describes Anne.

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"... And then shall I run down the cellar and get some russets, Matthew ? Wouldn't you like some russets?"

russets - from Wikipedia "Russeting on apples is a particular type of skin, slightly rough, usually with a greenish-brown to yellowish-brown colour. Many apple cultivars have some natural russeting, but some are almost entirely covered in it, notably the Egremont Russet. Russet apples often exhibit a scent and flavour reminiscent of nuts, and are often very sweet. ... "

(This was one confusing the heck out of me - I thought that she was talking about russet potatoes at first!) 

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I'll send her to the manse tomorrow to borrow the Peep of the Day series, that's what I'll do.

manse - The house occupied by a minister of a Presbyterian church. Origin - late 15th century (denoting the principal house of an estate): from medieval Latin mansus 'house, dwelling', from manere 'remain'.

The Leaskdale Manse that L.M. Montgomery moved into after marrying Ewan Macdonald in 1911, three years after publishing Anne of Green Gables. Macdonald was a Prince Edward Islander and had become the community’s Presbyterian minister in 1910. Montgomery lived there for 15 years. http://lucymaudmontgomery.ca/about-maud/
We need this one too ...

5 comments:

  1. I get wincey hence Winceyette which I remember my grandmother talking about - nighties I think. Ebullition is new to me.

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  2. I knew two of the words today, liked wincey.

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  3. When I read Anne of Green Gables last year, these words were new to me also. And I did not look up russets, I just assumed she was talking about potatoes! Interesting!

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  4. I love "ebullition"! I have to remember to use it in a sentence in the next few days, to cement it in my mind.

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  5. I knew russets and manse but the others are new to me. Gimlet confused me because I thought it was a drink!

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