Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Wondrous Words Wednesday

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme, started by Bermudaonion where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our reading. Feel free to join in the fun.

This week's words come from The Tudor Rose by Margaret Campbell Barnes, which I am actually enjoying very much.

1. obsequy n. pl -quies: a funeral or burial site (usually used in plural)

There were all the outward forms and ceremonies to go through, the solemn obsequies in the Abbey to be borne.


2. impecunious adj.: having very little or no money usually habitually

And woman-like, she let her tender heart yearn a little over her impecunious but practical husband, so that it drove her out into Goldsmiths Row to empty her own slender purse in exchange for some of the brightest jewels she could find.


3. extortionate adj.: 1. characterized by extortion 2. excessive, exorbitant

And the people who were left alive found it rather a poor one anyway, because Archbishop Morton and Sir Reginald bray not only set their underlings to collect the promised sums from every individual, house by house, and town by town, but were so extraordinarily thorough and extortionate in their demands that they were soon suspected of having enriched the King's coffers by a sum far in excess of the agreed amount.


Have you heard these words, have you known of them? And what interesting words did you learn this past week?

10 comments:

  1. I'm pretty sure I've seen obsequies before, but I couldn't define it when I saw it. The other words are all new to me, but I should have known your second word since I am impecunious! Thanks for participating!

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  2. Yay, I knew them all but haven't read the book.

    Here's are my words

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  3. I didn't know any of them. Would have only been able to guess the definition of extortionate. Great words.

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  4. Great words this week! I think I remember obsequies also, but still didn't know the definition! lol

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  5. What a great feature! I was familiar with #2 and #3, but #1 is new to me.

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  6. I knew no 1 and 2, probably from reading Dickens & old, British poetry.

    The third one was new, though.

    The word verification: horrande - sound like it is Spanish for horrendous ;)

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  7. I haven't read the book either but I have heard of extortionate and impecunious.

    obsequy is new to me (yay, I learned a new word). I learned a new word from reading this week- it was in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. But it wasn't very ladylike (blushing)...

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  8. These are great words, Lilly. I have always liked impecunious. Obsequies is very interesting, I like the meaning. I'm glad you are enjoying Tudor Rose.

    Happy Reading!

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  9. That's such a great meme. I always love reading these!

    And I wanted to say thank you for commenting on my FTC post yesterday. I hope Jeff was able to help & you all got a great discussion going!

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