Wednesday 6 June 2012

Wondrous Words Wednesday 6/6/12




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.  

All my words this week come from the Stuff Quiz. The Stuff website is a New Zealand news website. It has an excellent daily quiz. Sure, lots of it is based on a knowledge of NZ politics, or rugby. Mainly rugby. At least I usually have a 25% chance for those questions. But lots of it is a broader general knowledge, clearly broader than I currently possess, as I often learn a new word. 





1. Erinaceous (Adjective)

Of, relating to, or resembling hedgehogs. The Free Dictionary.

The European hedgehog's scientific name is Erinaceus europaeus.


2. Bodger (Noun)

A labourer who traditionally lived and worked in the forest, making chairs from felling trees. The Free Dictionary. Other sites talk of bodgers making things of beech wood, or green, unseasoned wood. 

This makes me wonder at the origin of an Australian word bodgy, meaning dodgy or of poor workmanship, it must be related I should think. 


3. Culverin (Noun)

i) A long-range medium to heavy cannon used during the 15th, 16th, and 17th century.
ii) A medieval musket.

Actually a demi-culverin. Picture source.





4. Urupa

A Maori burial site.



10 comments:

Kevin Smith said...

Such kind of posts always helpful for Free Online Quiz Maker.

Anonymous said...

Interesting words.

http://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2012/06/wondrous-words-wednesday.html

Libby said...

Oh - that is fun! It is amusing that there is a word for things resembling hedgehogs! LOL! My kids have two pet hedgehogs, so I am going to show them this :)

Margot said...

That was a fun quiz. Bodger was the only one I knew and, actually, that was a guess. I was thinking of the animal - badger - who cuts down trees, and guessed that bodger might have something to do with trees too.

Anonymous said...

Good to learn a few new words every now and then. But doubtful that I'll be able to use them though. ;)

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz said...

I love learning new words and using them in conversations and in my blog, even when the words sound extraneous, superfluous, and redundant.

bermudaonion said...

This was fun!! I'm rather embarrassed to say I guessed every single one wrong.

Cipriano said...

Jeepers!
These were tough.
See, that last one, before I looked at the four choices I was way off on a different angle altogether.
I was thinking like, when you write something, and it isn't quite right, and so you grab the paper and "urupa" it up and throw it in the garbage.
I was WAY off.

Yellow Brick Reads said...

Great list Louise. Really want to put erinaceous in a sentence now!

Lady In Read said...

loved the words today and given the answers in the choices, Erinaceous was the only word for which I could guess correctly..