Wonderful Words

Words not very often used 02:04

Anne C West

Blog post heading_ Words not very often used (4)

Here are some more words that surprised me this week with interesting meanings.

As a writer and a general word nerd, I find words fascinating. And beautiful and all those lyrical things.

Enjoy!

boughs

  • a large branch of a tree

fetters

  • LITERARY to keep someone within limits or stop them from making progress (e.g. He felt fettered by a nine-to-five office existence)
  • to tie someone to a place by putting chains around their ankles
  • chains for a prisoner’s feet (e.g. he saw a boy in fetters in the dungeons)

doggedness

  • persistent in effort; stubbornly tenacious (e.g. a dogged worker)

gaudily

  • tastelessly showy; ostentatiously ornamented (e.g. gaudy costumes)
  • a British celebratory reunion feast or entertainment held at college

juggernaut

  • DISAPPROVING a very large, heavy truck (e.g. the peace of the village has been shattered by juggernauts thundering through it)
  • a large powerful force or organisation that cannot be stopped (e.g. an advertising juggernaut)

noggin

  • head (e.g. we’re still scratching our noggins after figuring out what he’s done)
  • a small drinking vessel or measure of alcohol (e.g. a noggin of whiskey)
  • end of a loaf of bread (not confirmed)
  • ‘blow job’

traversed

  • to travel or move through an area (e.g. they traversed the city from clubs to gardens)

cudgel

  • a short heavy club (e.g. but critics say Trump is using Christmas as a cudgel in cultural warfare)

chalice

  • in Christian ceremonies, a large, decorative gold or silver cup from which wine is drunk
  • in magic, a cup representing the element of water
  • the cup shaped interior of a flower
  • a drinking cup or goblet

vittles (an obsolete or dialect spelling of victual)

  • food or provisions for human beings; victuals, food supplies; provisions (e.g. He fixed it so as we could both go in with aperns on and toting vittles)
  • to take or obtain victuals
  • Archaic. to eat or feed

And that is it on my list of weird and wonderful words.

Please share some of your unique or seldom used words with me on Twitter @ac_west_author

Until next time!

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