Wednesday 16 November 2011

Wondrous Words Wednesday 16/11/11



Wondrous Words Wednesday is a fabulous weekly meme hosted by Bermuda Onion, where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our weekly reading.  


My words this week are from some unusual sources. I'm pretty sure this qualifies as the first word I've ever learnt from facebook!

1. Murmuration

i) The act of murmuring; a murmur
ii) a collective noun for starlings- a murmuration of starlings. The Free Dictionary.




My second word came from Stephen Fry's wonderful show QI. It was the 2010 Christmas edition. 


Stephen said something like "Do you have a trick or a jape?"


Jape.


Noun.
A jest or a joke. 


Verb.
To joke or jest (about). The Free Dictionary. 



8 comments:

Jennifer said...

I always find it interesting to found out the collective nouns for animals. "Murder of crows" is probably my favorite, because it pops up in one of my favorite Sting songs, but I never knew there was one called a murmuration before!

bermudaonion said...

Who knew you could learn a word from Facebook. I was able to figure out the first definition of murmuration, but would never have figured the second one out. That video is amazing!

Julie @ Read Handed said...

Murmuration of starlings! I love it! Thanks for sharing. If you get a chance, my words are here.

Kath Lockett said...

A murmuration of starlings is a new one for me (knew about japes and caperings). It sounds like it could be used to describe a group of well-behaved library users too :)

Annie said...

I like your definition and the video ! I think I saw and heard (!) murmuration of boreal birds a few years ago in Switzerland : it was a wonderful experience !

Anonymous said...

Enjoyed your video, thanks! for sharing.

Margot said...

Those starlings were AMAZING! That's a good way to remember murmuration. I've only seen something like that one other time. It was a huge flock of snow geese. When they rose off the water they did not murmur, they roared. It was quite incredible.

Lady In Read said...

murmuration of starlings - really sounds nice. Love the video. Thanks for sharing.