May 22, 2009

wondrous words

I've been so out of it I missed posting for wondrous words on wednesday- so here are my finds, on a friday. Hope no one minds.

These new words are from Dolphin Chronicles:

Proprioceptive- "A dolphin might have a hard time conveying an accurate acoustic image he'd echolocated on if the other party didn't also have access to his proprioceptive information..."
Definition: the ability to sense the body's location, position and orientation

Antiphonal- "They often whistle in antiphonal fashion- when one whistles, another calls in response."
Definition: occurring or responding in turns

Vicissitude- "She'd suffered through the various vicissitudes of the project, all the waiting and all the uncertainties."
Definition: a change or variation

Prophylactic- "Forrest prescribed a prophylactic regimen of antibiotics for both Echo and Misha..."
Definition: acting to defend against or protect something

Anthropogenic- "Excluding the mad slasher, anthropogenic causes include fishing nets, pollution, and boats."
Definition: caused by humans

Seriatim- "Not all at once- they don't necessarily need to broadcast along the whole length of the bay- but seriatim."
Definition: one after another, in a series

These words are from Ice Bound:

Antipodal- "Other points of departure for the huge continent include Cape Town, South Africa; Punta Arenas, Chile; and a few other antipodal ports."
Definition: situated on opposite sides of the Earth

Austral- "But it was late in the austral summer, and almost everybody was already in place at the three US bases."
Definition: relating to or of the southern region of the globe

Ablate- "I had to surgically ablate the dead skin, cut below it to loosen and stretch it and repair the wound..."
Definition: to remove an organ or body structure

Sastrugi-"We were airborne, skimming the tops of sastrugi."
Definition: a long wavelike ridge of snow formed by wind

4 comments:

  1. Better late than never!! You're reading some tough books these days. I did know prophylactic because we used to live somewhere that had a prophylactic factory. Thanks for participating.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ok, so I've gotta know--what is your rentention of these words once you look them up and post about them? I have the toughest time remembering words I have learned unless I suddenly see them all over the place (especially if they're not words I can use in conversation). I wish I had a stronger vocabulary, but not sure how to retain them better.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love ablate. It feels good in my mouth, although the meaning makes me a little shivery.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Woa those are some impressive words.

    There is an award waiting for you at my blog here. Congratulations.

    ReplyDelete

Comments are screened due to spam.