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Wondrous Words Wednesday

Wondrous Words Wednesday @ BermudaOnionWhat new words have you learned this week? Join Kathy at Bermuda Onion to see more.

All my words are from Elephant Run, a novel by Roland Smith set in Burma in the 1940s.

1. nat
(n)

Definition—in Burmese folk religion, any of a group of spirits

Usage“If the nats didn’t like the offering, they came out and tormented the mahouts and their families.”

2. mahoutmahout
(n) [ma-HOWT]

Definition—the driver and keeper of an elephant

Usage“A group of mahouts working in the forest found him beneath a banyan tree and took him back to their village.”

3. singoung
(n)

Definition—foreman

Usage“Magwe was always second-guessing the singoung’s decisions.”

4. cherootcheroot
(n) [sher-ROOT]

Definition—a cigar with both ends cut off squarely

Usage“He paused to stick a cheroot into his mouth, but didn’t take both hands off the steering wheel to light it—to Nick’s relief.”

7 comments:

bermudaonion said...

If I used "nats" around here, everyone would think I meant gnats! Great new words! Thanks for participating!

Tea said...

I like all these words, very interesting. For some reason that "cheroot" looks really, really big. Maybe because it's a closeup view??

http://readwithtea.blogspot.com/2009/10/wondrous-words_07.html

Margot said...

I like your words this week. I've seen cheroot before and, from the context, figured it was something to be smoked. But I never looked it up. I'm glad you did.

Beth(bookaholicmom) said...

I never knew what an elephant handler was called. Now I know! Great words. They were all knew to me. Sounds like an interesting book.

Unknown said...

Great words! I only knew cheroot


Here's are my words

ibeeeg said...

Very interesting words. I most especially was drawn towards the word mahout. Elephants happen to be one of my favorite animals so that is why the word was intriguing.

Here are my Wondrous Words

The Westie Loving Therapist said...

Sounds like an interesting book that is teaching you all kinds of new words! Thank you so much for sharing. :)

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