Kathy over at Bermudaonion's Weblog hosts Wondrous Words Wednesday. If you come across a word (or two) while reading that is new to you and would like to share your new knowledge, then hop over to Kathy's place and link up!
Here's what I've gathered so far from this week's reading:
From Eight White Nights by Andre Aciman (p36)
Asymptotically: A line whose distance to a given curve tends to zero. The line may or may not intersect its associated curve.
Context: Should I put my arm around her? Asymptotically?
{And if you're wondering "What the heck?" So was I--that's why I didn't even come close to finishing this book...it was all like that.}
From The Woman in Black by Susan Hill:
Abstemious: sparing or moderate in eating or drinking
Context (p. 23): Mr. Bentley suffered from gout, to which he would never refer by name, though his suffering need not have given him any cause for shame, for he was an abstemious man.
Lugubrious: mournful, dismal, or gloomy--especially in an exaggerated way
Context (p. 25): On my way out of the building, the lugubrious Tomes knocked on the glass of his cubby-hole and handed me a thick brown envelope marked DRABLOW.
épergne: large table centerpiece--usually made of silver
Context (p. 73): The furniture had a faded bloom from the salt in the air and the candlesticks and épergne were tarnished, the linen cloths stiffly folded and interleaved with yellowy tissue, the glass and china dusty.
From Eight White Nights by Andre Aciman (p36)
Asymptotically: A line whose distance to a given curve tends to zero. The line may or may not intersect its associated curve.
Context: Should I put my arm around her? Asymptotically?
{And if you're wondering "What the heck?" So was I--that's why I didn't even come close to finishing this book...it was all like that.}
From The Woman in Black by Susan Hill:
Abstemious: sparing or moderate in eating or drinking
Context (p. 23): Mr. Bentley suffered from gout, to which he would never refer by name, though his suffering need not have given him any cause for shame, for he was an abstemious man.
Lugubrious: mournful, dismal, or gloomy--especially in an exaggerated way
Context (p. 25): On my way out of the building, the lugubrious Tomes knocked on the glass of his cubby-hole and handed me a thick brown envelope marked DRABLOW.
épergne: large table centerpiece--usually made of silver
Context (p. 73): The furniture had a faded bloom from the salt in the air and the candlesticks and épergne were tarnished, the linen cloths stiffly folded and interleaved with yellowy tissue, the glass and china dusty.
I was thinking "what the heck?" when I read the sentence that used asymptotically. Was the character a mathematician or something? The only word I knew was abstemious. Thanks for participating!
ReplyDeleteI have a very wordy husband so I knew lugubrious, the rest are new to me. But now that I know it I know I should be much more of a abstemious gal.
ReplyDeleteHope admissions is going well. My daughter's waiting to hear if she's been accepted for transfer so we know how long all this can take. Hopefully, you can relax soon.
No, the character wasn't a mathematician. That made for even more head-scratching when I looked up the word.
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