Lately while reading I came across some words which I couldn't say with confidence that I knew the exact meaning. I listed them on a piece of paper and I now have a little time to check the dictionary. Here they are, I like them as words.
ATAVISTIC- 1/ relating to or resembling ancestors. 2/ involving reversion to an earlier type.
I remember when reading a book of short stories by Carlos Fuentes (which Maria lent me and I enjoyed) this word popped up a number of times. I looked it up more than once but still forgot it's meaning. Hopefully this time by blogging it I will remember it forever.
PERIPATETIC - 1/ travelling about from place to place. 2/said of a teacher employed by several schools and obliged to travel between them. 3/denoting the school of philosophers founded by Aristotle, given to promenading while lecturing. noun- a peripatetic teacher or philosopher.
CONFLATED - to blend or combine ( eg. two different versions of a text, story, etc) into a single or whole.
EGREGIOUS - outrageous, shockingly bad.
EPIPHANY - 1/ a Christian festival on 6 Jan which, in western churches, commemmorates the showing of Christ to the three wise men, and, in Orthodox or other eastern churches, the baptism of Christ. 2/ a sudden appearance of a god. 3/ literary, a sudden revelation or insight.
Then I heard one on the radio when I drove the boys up to catch the bus at 6.00am, INSOUCIANCE - noun lack of concern; indifference; carelessness. INSOUCIANT - adj. without cares or worries; light-heatedness.
I love learning new words, but I find if you don't use them you forget their meaning. I'll tell people today, if I'm asked how I am, that I'm peripatetic, insouciant, and hoping for an epiphany. Or that I feel conflated with egregious atavism, and see what the response is. But I probably won't be able to remember the words.
The drizzly mist accompanied Snowy an I on our morning walk. It's another cold dreary day.
