Wondrous Words Wednesday

Have you learned any new words in your reading this week? Here are 6 new words to me. Visit other word-lovers at Kathy’s to see more words.

1. accretion
(n) [uh-KREE-shuhn]

Definition—any gradual increase in size, as through growth or external addition

Use—“It’s always (almost always, anyway) a matter of accretion. Drip, drip, drip.”
~ Tribes

2. loggia
(n) [LOH-jee-uh]

Definition—an open-sided, roofed or vaulted gallery, either free-standing or along the front or side of a building, often at an upper level

Use—“Pieces were found among building materials in the garden patios of Roman nobility and stairway decorations inside the loggia of Saint Peter’s.”
~ The Last Ember

3. steganography
(n)

Definition—act of writing in code or cipher

Use—“Steganography offers not only privacy, but secrecy, obscuring that you have sent any message at all.”
~ The Last Ember

4. amphora
(n) [AM-fer-uh]

Definition—a two-handled jar with a narrow neck used by the ancient Greeks and Romans to carry wine or oil

Use—“Within two months, Jonathan went from being a Rome Prize fellow to tagging amphorae in the storeroom of Sotheby’s back in New York to make rent.”
~ The Last Ember

5. ninhydrin
(n) [nin-HAHY-drin]

Definition—a chemical reagent used for the detection and analysis of primary amines

Use—“We are running ninhydrin tests for prints.”
~ The Last Ember

6. hypogeum
(n) [hahy-puh-JEE-uhm]

Definition—an ancient subterranean burial chamber, such as a catacomb

Use—“He knew the hypogeum, the labyrinth of passageways beneath the Colosseum, not excavated until the nineteenth century, leaving it mostly intact.”
~ The Last Ember