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.

I found the following word in Breathing Out the Ghost by Kirk Curnutt

Adamantine: I've lashed myself to a boulder with adamantine chains to pick my liver's with an eagle's beak.

Pronunciation:

\ˌa-də-ˈman-ˌtēn, -ˌtīn, -ˈman-t^ən\

Function:

adjective

Etymology:

Middle English, from Latin adamantinus, from Greek adamantinos, from adamant-, adamas

Date:

13th century

1 : made of or having the quality of adamant 2 : rigidly firm : unyielding <adamantine discipline> 3 : resembling the diamond in hardness or luster

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Next one, I read in Sweet Voices by C.P.Cavafy on knopf's Poem-a-day:

Sweet Voices

Those voices are the sweeter which have fallen
forever silent, mournfully
resounding only in the heart that sorrows.

In dreams the melancholic voices come,
timorous and humble,
and bring before our feeble memory

the precious dead, whom the cold cold earth
conceals; for whom the mirthful
daybreak never shines, nor springtimes blossom.

Melodious voices sigh; and in the soul
our life’s first poetry
sounds — like music, in the night, that’s far away.

Function:

adjective

Etymology:

Middle English, from Medieval Latin timorosus, from Latin timor fear, from timēre to fear

Date:

15th century

1 : of a timid disposition : fearful timorous and cautious — Daniel Defoe> 2 : expressing or suggesting timidity timorous steps — Edward Gibbon>

— tim·o·rous·ly adverb

— tim·o·rous·ness noun