Time to exercise the brain muscle and expand the vocabulary! Rather than just guessing at the meaning of words I’m unfamiliar with based on the context they’re used in, I’ve been looking things up so I can get a better understanding of their full meaning. And why not share all that knowledge with you?
Each week I’ll post words that I looked up and their meanings. Sometimes they’ll be words I’ve never encountered before, sometimes they’ll be words that I thought I knew, but the context didn’t fit, and sometimes I’ll go with commonly misused words, or just ones that I found interesting. Basically, the only stipulation is that they’re from something I read.
And if you have some new words or additional info to add, please share with us in the comments below. We’d love to hear what words stood out for you too.
Here are the words for this week:
From The Sorceress by Michael Scott
- Sigil: statuette, figure, stamped figure
- A sign or an image considered magical
Use in book: The muddy sigil pulsed softly, like a slowly beating heart, warm against the side of her face. (Ha. That sounds kind of dirty doesn’t it? It’s really not! It is a YA novel after all.)
- Archon: a higher magistrate in ancient Athens; any ruler.
Use in book: A peculiar musky odor enveloped the Archon, the smell of wild forests and rotting vegetation.
- Kith: acquaintances, friends, neighbors, or the like; persons living in the same general locality and forming a more or less cohesive group.
Use in book: And that is more than any of our own clan, kith or kin did.
- Martial: inclined or disposed to war; warlike (I didn’t realize this word applied to more than martial arts!)
- characteristic of or befitting a warrior: a martial stride.
Use in book: Sophie had been right: when Mars awakened him, he passed on his martial knowledge.
- Cuneiform: composed of slim triangular or wedge-shaped elements, as the characters used in writing by the ancient Akkadians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, and others
Use in book: Squinting, she recognized what looked like cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphics…
- Cantrip: a magic spell; trick by sorcery
- artful shamming meant to deceive
Use in book: He had never forgiven her for defeating him on Mount Etna and over the centuries had spent a fortune collecting spells, incantations and cantrips that would destroy her.
- Igneous: produced under conditions involving intense heat, as rocks of volcanic origin or rocks crystallized from molten magma.
- of, pertaining to, or characteristic of fire
Use in book: He realized then that Clarent and Excalibur had been shaped from the same igneous rock as the great blue stones that once composed the ancient circle.
- Irascible: easily provoked to anger; very irritable
Use in book: She was a sweet but irascible old lady who fussed and worried if the twins were even five minutes late.
* Definitions were taken from Dictionary.com
