Word geek (Wondrous Words Wednesday)

When I’m reading, I sticky-flag the words I don’t know so I can look them up later. My internet home page is TheFreeDictionary. Anacrostics, logic puzzles, crosswords…all standard fare in my beach bag. Balderdash, Scattergories (thanks, Danielle), Boggle…bring it on, baby. 

So I’m a word geek. But I don’t mind; it works for me. (And let’s just top it off: The Man Himself is a.k.a. “the Word.” Can it get any better?)

Wonderful Words Wednesday is a weekly meme for word connoisseurs to spill out the new words they’ve learned, and shovel in a few more from other readers. So here are mine…

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I finished The Cryptid Hunters by Roland Smith last week, and he challenged me on my incredibly weak cryptozoology [the study of cryptids] vocabulary, and a few other words that I should know, but seem to forget.

1. cryptid
Usage—Book Title “The Cryptid Hunters” (I confess—I couldn’t even get past the title. A must-know word if you’re reading this novel!)

Definition—(n) UMA (Unidentified Mysterious Animal). Creatures presumed extinct, hypothetical species, or creatures from anecdotal evidence insufficient to prove their existence. (Think “Big Foot” and “The Abominable Snowman.”)

2. Chupacabra
Usage—“I’m not so sure. Have you ever heard of El Chupacabra?”

Definition—(n) from Spanish for goat sucker; a cryptid said to inhabit parts of the Americas.

3. promontory
Usage—“The house sat on a high promontory.”

Definition—(n) a high ridge of land or rock jutting out into a body of water.

4. pensive
Usage—“She looked a little pensive after her conversation.”

Definition—(adj) deeply, often wistfully or dreamily, thoughtful.

5. Mokèlé-mbèmbé
Usage—“Masalito insists that Mokèlé-mbèmbé is alive.”

Definition—(n) the name given to a large creature reported to live in the lake swamps of the Congo River basin. Roughly translated as “one who stops the flow of rivers.”