Writing about writing and reading
If you're an architect or builder, you probably know these words. I'm not, and I didn't. It's a record number of new words in one sentence. Lintel - a horizontal architectural member spanning and usually carrying the load above an opening Arabesque - an ornament or style that employs flower, foliage, or fruit and sometimes …
Continue reading "new words – lintel, arabesque, crowstep, corbel, crocket"
Still in the first half of The Orchard Keeper, I continue to encounter these rare and lovely words. Palpitant I guessed the meaning, because it seemed related to palpitate, but this suffix was new to me. Palpitant - marked by trembling or throbbing. Accipitral - resembling that of a hawk. What luxury, to have such …
This one made me think of crepuscular, but it is almost the reverse of that, closer to lucent. Coruscant - shining, brilliant Still in The Orchard Keeper, only a couple pages from the previous post. Here is the sentence: "Through the leaves of the hardwoods he could see the zinc-colored roof of the church faintly …
Another two for the price of one sentence. It's worth mentioning that all these posts so far have come from within only thirty pages or so of the same book. Brogan - a coarse work shoe reaching to the ankle. Moiling - the first definition is requiring hard work, but McCarthy uses the second definition: …
As one who has been reading constantly for most of my life, I don't often encounter new words anymore. Except, that is, when I read something by Cormac McCarthy. I decided I should start keeping track of my favorites when I, today, encountered two new beauties in the same sentence. Here they are: Coomb (also …
Jonas David 