Word Of The Week!

I started a Word Of The Week feature/event/whatever last summer on my other blog, loniseye.blogspot.com. I had been frequently coming across words I didn’t know and thought I’d share them with the blog world. I’ve decided to start cross-posting the Word Of The Week here. I think as a writer, it’s important to keep my vocabulary growing. You never know when you’ll stumbled upon the right word that sums up exactly what a character is feeling or a word that can move the plot in a whole new direction.

I’ve decided, to make things simple for myself, using Wiktionary and Wikipedia as my sources for definitions. If I can not find a definition/explanation on one of these two sites, then I’ll go out into the interwebs to find something. If that doesn’t work, then I’ll try to glean a definition from the context of the story.

From In The Skin Of A Lion:

Naphtha [Lamp] (pg 14)

• Naturally-occurring liquid petroleum.
• Any of a wide variety of aliphatic or aromatic liquid hydrocarbon mixtures distilled from petroleum or coal tar, especially as used in solvents or petrol.
• A naphtha lamp is what young Patrick used to light his home one evening.

From Herman Wouk Is Still Alive:

Assignation (pg 7 – if you print it)
• An appointment for a meeting, generally of a romantic or sexual nature.
• Modern usage of the word has narrowed the meaning to an agreed upon place for illicit sex. The earlier use of the word was broader an in general more innocent.
• A reader might think that assignation is being used in reference to the two women in the van, but it’s actually referring to the elderly couple at the rest stop.

I hope I find the time and the words to post again next week. Anyone else come across a new word or two?