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 The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey:
Steupsed: Native to the islands of Trinidad and Tobago in the West Indies. Imitative of the act of sucking one's teeth - "kissing teeth" - as a gesture of annoyance or disapproval. Or The act of showing disappointment, derision or disgust for a person, place or thing.
Context (p. 8):
"You never taste it?" [reference to eating stewed iguana]
"Of course not, eh, eh," Sabine steupsed, sucking her teeth.
Keskidee: A small bird with a bright yellow underbelly. The wings and back are black with small white markings
Context (pp. 10-11)
Tea. At 4 pm every day on the porch out back. Tea and cake and the keskidees swooping to drink from the swimming pool.
9 comments:
Those are new to me. The guy across the street from us is from Trinidad - I'm going to try to remember to ask him about steupsed. Thanks for playing along!
Those are very unusual words!
Thanks for stopping by my site.
Love those words. They are both fun to say as well as learn their meanings.
I'd never heard of steupsed before. Sounds kinda weird.
Hi Bev,
Thanks for stopping by fiction books and leaving comment.
I love both your words, really unusual and from a book and author that are new to me.
The book has already been added to my reading list, and I managed to find a couple of great shots of a Kiskidee on flickr, such a pretty little thing!!
Thanks for sharing such a great post.
Yvonne
Oh, I'll bet the Keskidee is beautiful. Might try to find a photo. Your words are very interesting.
Now those are interesting finds! Are there many other Trinidad-related words in the novel?
I haven't gotten that far in...but I'm guessing that there will be.
I love both these words! I never knew there was a word to describe steupsed, although of course have seen people do it. And I googled a picture of a keskidee, a beautiful little bird.
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