Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Wondrous Words Wednesday


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 got this week from An Author Bites the Dust by Arthur W. Upfield:

Mulga forests: The mulga can be a small tree up to 9 m, with a well-defined main stem and angled branches, or a shrub 2 to 5 m tall with highly angled branches. The species has a very wide distribution, from Western Australia near Shark Bay, through central Australia to mid-west Queensland and New South Wales.

Gibber flats: barren places that are covered with small stones; characteristic of the Australian Outback


Context: It is a far cry from the inland plains and mulga forests and gibber flats, swooning in the grip of the relentless sun, to the Valley of the Yarra, bright green an luscious and temperatre. (p. 22)

Verdure: The lush greenness of flourishing vegetation.

Context: So here he was a thousand miles or so from his own stamping grounds, seated at ease a few yards from a main highway instead of a winding camel pad, living in a country of flowing water and green verdure instead of flowing sand and brick-red, sun-baked earth. (p. 23-4)

2 comments:

bermudaonion said...

Both the words and the concepts are new to me. I'm going to google gibber flats to see if I can see a picture of them. Thanks for participating!

Louise said...

How fantastic to be reading Arthur Upfield! I find him to be read much more by non-Australians (which I presume you are, sorry if you're not) than Australians. I've never read any, but would certainly like to one day. As an Australian I'm rather embarrassed to not know the term gibber flats, but then I haven't travelled much in the outback, googling images is obvious what the term means. Mulga is a more common term I think. Thanks for the great words.