Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Wondrous Words Wednesday 34

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!"    

Busy! Ack!  Here are some interesting words from a book that started out good and then went straight off a cliff - by the middle everyone was tstl. So, not even gonna name it.

"Dash it," he groaned, "sitting is even more awkward than walking with all this extra avoirdupois."

avoirdupois /ˌävərdəˈpoiz/
1: A system of weights based on a pound of 16 ounces or 7,000 grains, widely used in English-speaking countries.
1.1: humorous Weight; heaviness especially :  personal weight
Origin Middle English (denoting merchandise sold by weight): from Old French aveir de peis 'goods of weight', from aveir 'to have' (infinitive used as a noun, from Latin habere) + peis 'weight'
First Known Use: 15th century


"Much olive tree. My ship bring olive oil to Istanbul. I expect you later, Kyria, but is better now."

Kyria κυρίᾳ   /kee-REE-ah/
Greek word for lady

And I have just gotten sucked down into long discussions of the "noble lady" in the Bible or proper ways to address people in Greece and I don't have the time or patience to work it all out so I am gonna leave it there. 


They came to a Turkish-style caravanserai on the edge of the small town.

caravansary /ˌkarəˈvansərē /
chiefly British also caravanserai /-səˌrī/
noun (plural caravansaries or caravanserais /-səˌrīz/)
1: historical An inn with a central courtyard for travelers in the desert regions of Asia or North Africa.
Origin late 16th century: from Persian kārwānsarāy, from kārwān 'caravan' + sarāy 'palace'.

Monumental entrance of the Sultanhani caravanserai Aksaray,Turkey.
Inner Courtyard
Happy Wednesday !

2 comments:

  1. I live in an English speaking country and have never heard the term avoirdupois but it must be the system we use. Now I need to figure out how to pronounce it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Architecture is very pretty.

    ReplyDelete

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