Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Kathy aka Bermuda Onion where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our reading. Feel free to join in the fun.THE RED QUEEN by Philippa Gregory
virago - We may be of the House of Lancaster; but everyone who lives close enough to London to hear the gossip of the court knows better than to lay down his life for a king that they have heard is half-mad, and a queen who is a Frenchwoman and a virago as well. (p. 94)
virago: a loud-voiced, ill-tempered, scolding woman; shrew.
quintain - So I sit with little Henry when he takes his lessons from the tutor that Jasper has employed, I ride with him in the morning, I watch him as he jousts at the little quintain that Jasper had built for him in the field behind the stables. (p. 152)
quintain: an object mounted on a post or attached to a movable crossbar mounted on a post, used as a target in the medieval sport of tilting.
tocsin - We are wakened by the clanging of the tocsin, and I jump out of bed, throw on a gown, and run to the nursery. (p. 155)
tocsin: a signal, esp. of alarm, sounded on a bell or bells.
What new words did you discover this week?
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3 comments:
The only one I knew was virago and I'm not sure why I knew that one - maybe someone's used it to describe me before? Great words! Thanks for participating.
All of these words are new to me too. I bet The Red Queen is a really good book.
http://readwithtea.blogspot.com/2010/08/wondrous-words.html
A virago sounds like a woman I want to avoid. Ha. I would have had to look up tocsin, too, in that sentence—just would have to know!
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