You can always rely on Dickens for some extraordinary words, and since I just finished reading The Cricket on the Hearth, my third and final Dickens Christmas Book for the 2011 holiday season, all of my words for Wondrous Words Wednesday this week will be courtesy of good old Charles.
1. water-butt: Sounds a bit rude, but it's just a rain barrel.
2. pattens: These are basically the rest of northwestern Europe's version of the Dutch wooden shoes. They don't cover your feet particularly well; instead, they are platform shoes, keeping your feet above the mud.
3. pertinacious: This ACTUALLY means what I USED to think "pernicious" meant, i.e. stubborn.
4. fingerpost: I didn't know there was a specific term for those old-fashioned wooden mile marker posts that used to sit in major intersections, and still inhabit some more rural intersections. But there is, and this is it.
5. gaiters: Basically a larger type of spats. These protect not just the shoes themselves, but run a fair way up the lower portion of each trouser leg. I'd heard this word many times, and had a feeling it was a garment, but I couldn't have told you what type.
Happy holiday reading!
I kind of like water-butt. My mother's neighbor has some and I'm going to try to use it the next time I visit her. I've never heard fingerpost before, but it makes perfect sense - it should be easy to remember.
ReplyDeleteLove these words! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteMegan @ Storybook Love Affair
I've come across water butt and pattens this year in my Wondrous Words too! I used to do a lot of bushwalking in my youth so know what gaiters are, think I might even have worn some at some stage. Pertinacious is knew to me, but we can always use some more words for stubborn I think. And fingerpost- thank you for that one, now that book title An Instance of the Fingerpost makes slightly more sense than it ever has (not that I've read the book, in which case it might make total sense....)
ReplyDeletelove the words - new words in the classics!
ReplyDelete