Tag: New Words (Page 2 of 20)

Triune

August 18, 2025 / Cadie / 0 Comments

Triune – a triad; the Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit)

“I see it clear: June coming in bright on the breeze through open window: there is no real reality, no full life, outside of the relationship with Love, because God Himself wraps Himself eternally in relationship: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit existing in relationship, an encircling dance of communion sweetest. God is Love – everywhere! everything! – and He can only be love because He exists in triune relationship.“
One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp, 2010

Inscrutable – not capable of being searched into and understood by inquiry or study; incapable of being discovered, comprehended, or accounted for; incomprehensible; unfathomable; completely obscure or mysterious

“Your wife is quite lovely, you know, so doll-like and inscrutable.”
Grace Wexler to Mr Hoo, The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin, 1978

Purgation

July 22, 2025 / Cadie

Purgation – a purging; the act of clearing oneself of crime or guilt

“Purgation was the first step toward full life in God, according to ancients. Awakened to the chasm separating from God, one prays for divine assistance to purge the soul of self-will.”
Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts, 2010

Agoraphobic

July 19, 2025 / Cadie

Agoraphobia – an abnormal fear of being in open or public places

“The agoraphobic farm hick who has spent a lifetime wrestling fears? Jetting off to Paris? … My sister laughs…”
Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts, 2010

Quotidian

July 16, 2025 / Cadie

Quotidian – occurring or returning every day; daily

“Children play in the basement below my domestic choreography, thunder of feet and crazy laughter. Swoop and drape, quotidian work, familial cadence constant as rising and setting sun and God fills the common moments.”
One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp, 2010

Punctilious

July 12, 2025 / Cadie

Punctilious – careful in the observance of the nice points of behavior, ceremony, etc; very exact or scrupulous

“I am a punctilious man, Miss Doyle. Without order there is chaos.”
Captain Jaggery to Charlotte Doyle, The true Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, by Avi, printed 1990

Elegiac

June 24, 2025 / Cadie

Elegiac – (1) of or composed in dactylic hexameter couplets, the second line (sometimes called a pentameter) having only an accented syllable in the third and sixth feet: the form was used for Greek and Latin elegies and various other lyric poems. (2) of, like, or fit for an elegy. (3) sad; mournful; plaintive

“In Nine Horses, Billy Collins, America’s Poet Laureate for 2001 – 2003, continues his delicate negotiation between the clear and the mysterious, the comic and the elegiac.”
back cover description of Nine Horses by Billy Collins, printed by Random House Inc, 2003

Dictum

June 5, 2025 / Cadie

Dictum – an authoritative assertion; a saying; in law, a statement of opinion expressed by the judge on some point not vital to the principal issue of the case

“Everyone who contributes to the Dictionary will leave a trace of themselves, no matter how uniform Father, or Mr Dankworth, would like it to be. Try to take Mr Dankworth’s comments as suggestion, not dictum.”
Elsie to Esme, The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams

Codswallop

June 4, 2025 / Cadie

Codswallop – nonsense (Merriam-Webster online dictionary)

“I know it sounds like codswallop but there are [different ways of writing and spelling], and the smallest thing can cause the biggest arguments.”
Esme to Lizzy, The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams

Loquaciousness

June 3, 2025 / Cadie

Loquaciousness – loquacity (talkativeness; the habit or practice of talking continually or excessively)

“Mr Pope and Mr Cushing rose from their chairs every time Elsie, Rosfrith or I entered, and competed to help or pay the nicest compliments. Their loquaciousness was an irritation to almost everyone except Da, who rewarded their attentions to me with small smiles and nods. Dr Murray was not so encouraging.

“Gentlemen, the more words you employ to flatter the ladies the fewer you define. Your constant use of the English language is, in fact, doing it a disservice.” They quickly turned to their work.”
The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams

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