a Dogberry Pages

Vocabulary: balletic – just add ‘ic’ to make an adjective


Title: Radio Shangri-La
Author: Lisa Napoli
Sentence: Out of the airport and onto the eight-lane freeway we went, weaving through the balletic tangle of traffic.
Page: 206

Word: balletic
Definition:
  • adjective form of ballet
   Source: YourDictionary.com

Thought this was some fancy new word only to find out it is just the adjective form of ‘ballet’


March 8, 2011 | GaryPaulson
Tags: balletic, Lisa Napoli, Radio Shangri-La
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Vocabulary: rictus – mouth wide open


Title: Unbroken
Author: Laura Hillenbrand
Sentence: When the bombs were falling, the Bird would snap, running through camp with his sword in the air, wailing at the men, foam flying from his mouth, lips peeled back in a wicked rictus, eyelid drooping, face purple.
Page: 276

Word: rictus
Definition:
  • the gape of the mouth of a bird.
  • the gaping or opening of the mouth.
   Source: Dictionary.com

That is quite a rictus you have there….


March 8, 2011 | GaryPaulson
Tags: Laura Hillenbrand, rictus, Unbroken
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Vocabulary: tony – high toned manner


Title: The Inner Circle
Author: Brad Meltzer
Sentence: All cities have old money, Washington D.C. has old money, but it also has old power. And Oak Hill [Cemetery], which was tucked into one of the toniest areas of Georgetown and extended its sprawling 22 acres of rolling green hills and obelisk dotted graves deep into Rock Creek Park, was well known, especially by those who cared to know, as the resting place for that power.
Page: 257

Word: tony
Definition:
  • marked by an aristocratic or high-toned manner or style
   Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/toniest

Definitely not the circles I run around in…


March 7, 2011 | GaryPaulson
Tags: Brad Meltzer, The Inner Circle, tony
1 Comment »

Vocabulary: namaste – greetings in Hindu


Title: For the Win
Author: Cory Doctorow
Sentence: He checked to see if he'd laid it on too thickly, decided he hadn't, grinned and namasted to her, just to ice the biscuit
Page: 213

Word: namaste
Definition:
  • a conventional Hindu expression on meeting or parting, used by the speaker usually while holding the palms together vertically in front of the bosom.
   Source: Dictionary.com

Namaste is a combination of two Sanskrit words: nama meaning “to bow” and te meaning “you.”


March 7, 2011 | GaryPaulson
Tags: Cory Doctorow, For the Win, namaste
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