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.
Todays words come from my recent reading of The Secret of Hanging Rock. It's only a slim little volume, but you can find new words anywhere.
1. Raddled (Adjective)
Used twice just a few pages apart, both times to describe the same character.
It was a woman with a gaunt, raddled face trimmed with bushy black eyebrows- a clown-like figure dressed in a torn calico camisole and long calico drawers frilled below the knees of two stick-like legs, feebly kicking out in black lace-up boots.
The raddled face was radiant.
i) Worn-out and broken-down
ii) (esp of a person) unkempt or run-down in appearance. The free dictionary.
2. Rebus (Noun)
A rebus-model accounts for the brain full of intelligence and the heart full of understanding that the McCraw claims to perceive; (the rest of this sentence which I don't pretend to understand gives major spoilers for The Secret of Hanging Rock so I will omit it here).
A representation of words in the form of pictures or symbols, often presented as a puzzle. The free dictionary.
Todays words come from my recent reading of The Secret of Hanging Rock. It's only a slim little volume, but you can find new words anywhere.
1. Raddled (Adjective)
Used twice just a few pages apart, both times to describe the same character.
It was a woman with a gaunt, raddled face trimmed with bushy black eyebrows- a clown-like figure dressed in a torn calico camisole and long calico drawers frilled below the knees of two stick-like legs, feebly kicking out in black lace-up boots.
The raddled face was radiant.
i) Worn-out and broken-down
ii) (esp of a person) unkempt or run-down in appearance. The free dictionary.
2. Rebus (Noun)
A rebus-model accounts for the brain full of intelligence and the heart full of understanding that the McCraw claims to perceive; (the rest of this sentence which I don't pretend to understand gives major spoilers for The Secret of Hanging Rock so I will omit it here).
A representation of words in the form of pictures or symbols, often presented as a puzzle. The free dictionary.
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| Picture source, includes the solution |
I've heard of people being rattled, but raddled is new to me. At first, I thought it was just a different spelling but the meanings are different too.
ReplyDeleteI knew rebus because my son had a teacher who used them a lot in her classroom.
I've seen raddled used before, and had an idea of what it meant but I wouldn't have been able to give this definition properly.
ReplyDeleteI've not come across rebus before, that's really interesting, thanks for sharing the picture too!
Here's mine: http://thelittlereaderlibrary.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/wondrous-words-wednesday-1.html
They are two interesting words.
ReplyDeletehttp://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2013/09/wondrous-words-wednesday.html
Great words! I'd never heard raddled before.
ReplyDeleteHi Louise,
ReplyDeleteI have heard of rebus before, but wouldn't have been able to give you a definition fot it, the picture link is a great addition to the explanation, thanks.
I have never come across raddled before, the closest word to it I could come up with, is ravaged.
I have seen the film of this book, but that was many, many years ago and I can't really remember much about it. I have definitely never read the book. It sounds like an intriguing and mysterious storyline, that perhaps I should become acquainted with.
Thanks for an interesting post.
Yvonne
Nice words. I think I know some people I could describe as looking raddled at times.
ReplyDeleteI tried this meme for the first time this week and my post can be found HERE.