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Wondrous Words Wednesday

Wondrous Words Wednesday @ BermudaOnion What new words have you learned this week? Join us at Kathy’s blog to learn more.

I ran across 8 words in my reading that I didn’t know. (Does that mean it was a good week or a bad one?)

1. concatenation
(n) [kon-kat-n-EY-shuh n]

Definition—a series of interconnected events, concepts, etc.

Use“There is here, as in so many other instances, a certain concatenation by which the efficacy that accrues from the atonement is conjoined with the atonement.”
~ Redemption—Accomplished and Applied

2. arrogate
(v) [AR-uh-geyt]

Definition—to take or claim for oneself without right

Use“But, if so, it is because we are averse to the grace of God and wish to arrogate to ourselves the prerogative that belongs to God.”
~ Redemption—Accomplished and Applied

3. achromatopsia
(n) [ey-kroh-muh-TOP-see-uh]

Definition—color blindness

Use“The high percentage can be traced to the fact that several people in the surviving gene pool carried a rare gene responsible for congenital achromatopsia.”
~ Primal

4. liminal
(adj) [LIM-uh-nl]

Definition—relating to a sensory threshold

Use“Acedia’s liminal status in the history of Western culture, and in the Christian east, has allowed it to be a slippery operator, persistently eluding our attempts to comprehend it.”
~ Acedia & Me

5. baleful
(adj)

Definition—full of menacing or malign influences; pernicious

Use“I am deeply indebted to the work of Reinhard Kuhn who examines acedia’s baleful effects on the human spirit over many centuries.
~ Acedia & Me

6. cairn
(n)

Definition—a heap of stones set up as a landmark, monument, tombstone, etc.

Use“Among the several other worshipful acts of the descendants of Abraham, we read how Jacob and Laban marked out their border with a monolith and a cairn and then sealed the agreement by a sacrifice that was a shared meal (Gen. 31:44-55).
~ Recalling the Hope of Glory

7. cochineal
(n) [koch-uh-NEEL]

Definition—a red dye prepared from the dried bodies of the females of the cochineal insect which lives on cactuses of Mexico, Central America, and other warm regions

Use“The whole carcass was burned along with some cedar wood, hyssop, and red cochineal.”
~ Recalling the Hope of Glory

8. lustral
(adj) [LUHS-truh l]

Definition—of, relating to, or used in a rite of purification

Use“When needed, some of the ashes were mixed with fresh water to make lustral water for purifying anyone who had touched a corpse or a tomb or the house of a dead person (Num. 19:11-22).
~ Recalling the Hope of Glory

* * *

How many did you already know?

6 comments:

bermudaonion said...

I knew a couple, but I was totally wrong about cochineal - I thought it had something to do with ears. Thanks for participating!

Brook said...

Wow! It looks like you have been doing a lot of reading. :) The first two words I had heard/read before, probably in regards to theology as well.

I thought cairn was just a type of terrier. :) Thanks for expanding my vocabulary!

Margot said...

Wow, you spent the week with the dictionary wide open. I knew none so thanks for enlightening me.

Stephanie said...

It means you're a GOOD reader who chooses challenging books. Most of these are new to me, too. I really love the word "concatenation." it's just fun to say! :-)

Unknown said...

interesting list as always
kinda had a guess on arrogate, since i had a bunch of junk hit me in 2000 where i learned the legal words of insurance, subrogate is where your own policy pays you right away as their client but a third party is actually responsible for the accident / injury so your insurance subrogates the claim they paid to you to them (or their insurance), so I expected arrogate would be something about claims...

liminal, well, most of us have heard of subliminal, so that one wasn't too hard to figure out

Ray Romano has a new drama / comedy on TBS called "Men of a Certain Age" (I like it, Jeff probably would too, of course it's worldly values, but it's not titillating but realistic, and the character Owen has a strong moral base, good stuff, things most of our friends are going thru) and part of each show is their new resolve to go hiking together, I'm not sure if it's multiple times a week or just Saturdays or what, but on like the second show, they ran into a cairn

Lisa notes... said...

G,
Sounds like "real life" education paid off on vocabulary words. ;-)

We watched the first half hour of Ray Romano's show the first night it was on, but it was so slow that we gave it up, and haven't tried again. Maybe it deserves one more shot before I totally write it off...

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