“The laterite road ended a few minutes later at Yugiri’s entrance.”
–from The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
lat⋅er⋅ite /’lætəraɪt/
noun
a red soil produced by rock decay; contains insoluble deposits of ferric and aluminum oxides
Category Archives: new words
new words
New Words: gribble
“It resembled a large ring, but was really two conjoined semicirclets of twisted gold, thick as a finger and rounded, incised with tortuous little markings like the borings of gribbles in a sea-logged wood.”
-from The Many-Colored Land by Julian May
grib·ble \ˈgri-bəl\ noun: either of two small wood-boring marine isopods (Limnoria lignorum and L. tripunctata)
Origin: perhaps alteration of grub.
First use: 1838
(I’ll stop with this one. As this is only page two, I suspect the new words will continue to be frequent.)
New Words: astrobleme
“Far along the rim of the astrobleme, in both directions, she could see other such birds standing widely spaced, all looking into the dark-mirrored depths.”
-from Julian May The Many-Colored Land
as•tro•bleme n. [GEOLOGY] an eroded remnant of a large crater made by the impact of a meteorite or comet. mid 20th cent.: from Greek astron ‘star’ + ‘wound’
New Words: Ramapithecus
“Uttering crooning calls, the ramapithecus forced her way into the ancient burned-over area, moving uphill.”
-from The Many Colored Land by Julian May
Ramapithecus is an extinct primate, Wikipedia article link here.
new words: shallop
“Hudson, along with his son and seven others, was forced into a shallop without food and water. They were never heard from again, lost in that labyrinth without end.”
–House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
shallop (n)
1 : a usually 2-masted ship with lugsails
2 : a small open boat propelled by oars or sails and used chiefly in shallow waters
Origin: Middle French chaloupe.
First use: circa 1578
New Words: anodyne
“At first it seemed the Ripper affair had scarred my friend Sherlock Holmes as badly as it had the city if London itself. I would encounter him at the end of his nightlong vigils, lying upon the sofa with his violin at his feet and his hypodermic syringe fallen from long, listless fingers, neither anodyne having banished the specter of the man we had pursued for over two months.”
Dust and Shadow by Lyndsay Faye
an⋅o⋅dyne /ænədaɪn/
noun
a medicine used to relieve pain
syn: analgesic, painkiller, pain pill
adjective
capable of relieving pain • the anodyne properties of certain drugs
syn: analgesic, analgetic
ORIGIN: 1543, from Middle Latin anodynus “pain-removing,” from Latin anodynus “painless,” from Greek anodynos “free from pain,” from an- “without” + odyne “pain,” a word perhaps from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning “to eat.”
Tergiversatory
“…I mustn’t race ahead. The affair of the curious baton of Commander Sabarmati must be recounted in its proper place. Effects must not (despite the tergiversatory nature of time in 1958) be permitted to precede causes.”
–from Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
huh. This one is almost onomatopoeic:
ter⋅gi⋅ver⋅sate /’tɜ:dʒɪvəseɪt/
verb
be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or withhold information
syn: beat around the bush, equivocate, prevaricate, palter
abandon one’s beliefs or allegiances
syn: apostatize, apostatise
ORIGIN: From Latintergiversor (turn one’s back, make excuses); from tergum (the back) + verso, versō, frequentive of verto, vertō, turn.
New Words: tenebrific
“Wax nods, and then adds with a shake of his head: ‘It’s so deep, man, it’s like it’s almost dream-like.’
“This last comment is actually not uncommon, especially for individuals who find themselves confronting vast tenebrific spaces.”
– from House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielowski
tenebrific
ten⋅e⋅brif⋅ic /,tenə’brifik/
adjective
dark and gloomy
syn: tenebrous, tenebrious
New Words: fleer
“I had seen the whites of his eyes, like a mad beast, gleaming and the grin he had fleered at me was nothing other than feral.”
–Storm Constantine, Wraeththu
(yes, with double-th)
fleer
fle⋅er /fli:ər/
noun
1. someone who flees from an uncongenial situation
syn: fugitive, runaway
2. contempt expressed by mockery in looks or words
verb
to smirk contemptuously
ORIGIN: (v.) c.1400, perhaps from Scand. (cf. dial. Norwegian flira, dial. Dan. flire “to grin, titter”).
New Words: Pice
“So I have been to a holy man, who taught me what I must do. Then with my few pice I have taken a bus into the country to dig for herbs…”
–Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie
Noun
pice (plural pice or pices)
A small copper coin of the East Indies, worth less than a cent.
(British India) An Alternative spelling of paisa.
Wikipedia tells me more: a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paisa”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paisa
