Wondrous Words Wednesday

One of my favorite weekly memes is Wondrous Words Wednesday, hosted by Kathy from Bermudaonion's Weblog. Today's words are from Heaven to Betsy by Maud Hart Lovelace.


1. leadplant (Amorpha canescens): North American herbaceous flowering plant; other names: false indigo, prairie shoestring, wild tea
~Photo from WildOnes

Native Americans used the dried leaves of this bushy prairie shrub for pipe smoking and for tea.









2. butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa): species of milkweed native to eastern North America; other names: Canada root, Indian paintbrush, orange milkwood
~Photo from Wikipedia

Butterflies are attracted to the color and copious nectar produced by this plant. Native Americans used this plant as a remedy for wet coughs and other pulmonary ailments.

"The roadsides offered no shade, only thickets of purple spiked leadplant and gaudy butterfly weed."
~Heaven to Betsy, Maud Hart Lovelace

The next two words sound like Armenian last names.

3. Philomathian: lover of learning

This word began in ancient Greek as philomathia from philos "love of" and mathos "learning".


4. Zetamathian: investigator

Information about this word is scarce. Luckily, Bonnie--a character in Heaven to Betsy--defines the word in the book, because I didn't find it elsewhere.

"The students were divided between Philomathians and Zetamathians, societies which competed in athletics, in debate, and in essay writing as the three cups testified."
~Heaven to Betsy, Maud Hart Lovelace

I'm not sure I'd choose to be a Philo or a Zeta based on the meaning of the words; I enjoy both learning and investigating (which is often part of learning).

What wondrous new words have you encountered during recent reading?

Wondrous Words Wednesday

Today's new words for Wondrous Words Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Kathy from Bermudaonion's Weblog, come from two different sources.

The first is from a wonderfully written blog I discovered a few months ago.

1. chary: very cautious, wary, careful

"I am very chary about saying this too loudly, but I think we may have the phone problem solved."
~Ann from Table Talk

Ann has a sophistication about her that shines through her writing. Table Talk is a blog I hope to frequent more often in the future.


2. grandiloquent: full of fine words, flowery language, and fancy expressions (as found in much 19th century poetry); use of impressive-sounding but mostly meaningless words and phrases (political rhetoric)

"Sometimes Tacy enlivened the envelope by putting the stamp on upside down to signify love, or by addressing her with some grandiloquent string of names such as Miss Elizabetha Gwendolyn Madeline Angeline Rosemond Ray, or by adding BC for Best Chum or HHAS for Herbert Humphreys Admiration Society."
~Heaven to Betsy, Maud Hart Lovelace

I think this word sounds very much like its meaning. I won this very enjoyable book, which contains two Betsy-Tacy novels, Heaven to Betsy and Betsy in Spite of Herself, on Kate's Book Blog. I've finished reading Heaven to Betsy and am currently reading Betsy in Spite of Herself. Having never read these charming classics as a child, I am relishing them for the first time now. Harper Collins has recently republished books from the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace.


3. triumvirate: a government of three officers; any group or set of three

"What, Betsy wondered, was a Triumvirate?"
~Heaven to Betsy, Maud Hart Lovelace

Of course, tri means three, but I didn't remember reading or hearing this word before. A quadrumvirate means--you guessed it--a governing or managing group, coalition, or set of four people.


What wondrous new words have you encountered during recent reading?