Wondrous Words Wednesday

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Kathy at Bermudaonion, where we post about the unfamiliar words we have encountered in our reading the past week.


My words come from Random Acts of Heroic Love by Danny Schienmann

1) Splenetic: "chased all the way by Mrs Hardman's splenetic insults and the sorry screams of her abandoned baby"

Meaning:

adj.

1. Of or relating to the spleen.
2. Affected or marked by ill humor or irritability.

n.

A person regarded as irritable.

2) Muerta: 'Where is Eleni?'
'Muerta,' says the doctor.

Meaning:

Death

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Now a word from a poem, , The Pond by Jim Powell. I read this online today.

3) periphrastic:

"in the pond dreaming
at the secret center
past the last screen
of ferns and creepers, bramble
entanglements

and periphrastic
evasions this place
a steady witness for
the rehearsal of a ghostly
life in signs"

Meaning:

adj.

1. Having the nature of or characterized by periphrasis.
2. Grammar. Constructed by using an auxiliary word rather than an inflected form; for example, of father is the periphrastic possessive case of father but father's is the inflected possessive case, and did say is the periphrastic past tense of say but said is the inflected past tense