1. lord of misrule: a master of Christmas revels in England, especially during the 15th and 16th centuries
The lord of misrule was in charge of the Christmas revelries, which included partying and drunkenness. Wild partying aside, I love this humorous title, and think I'll start using this term, although I'm not sure anyone in my family will understand what it means (unless they happen to stop by here).
The next word is also from my desk calendar, from November. Originally, my idea was to collect a few book-related words and present them together in a Wondrous Words Wednesday post, but because the year is almost over, I decided instead to "hurry up" and put the word I've been saving in today's post. Literature students are most likely familiar with this word:
2. bildungsroman: a novel about the moral and psychological growth of a main character
Bildungsroman is a combination of two German words, bildung, which means education, and roman, which means novel. There are many bildungsromans, including Jane Erye, David Copperfield, and The Catcher in the Rye (Holden Caulfield). Do you have a favorite bildungsroman?
The last word is from the novel I'm currently reading, A Matter of Mercy by Lynne Hugo, which I'll review next month during the TLC book tour.
3. cultch: the mass of broken stones, shells, grit, and gravel that forms an oyster bed
Here is the sentence from the book:
"Caroline walked off the grant, cultch crunching under her boots."
I could picture this, and hear the crunch, but I looked cultch up to get a precise definition (and to help me remember how it's spelled--it can also be spelled without the 't', as culch).
Hosted each week by Kathy from BermudaOnion's Weblog, Wondrous Words Wednesday is a fun celebration of words. What are your latest word discoveries?
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I love 'lord of misrule' what a brilliant title. I wondered if bildung was danish or german and roman of course novel, interesting! Cultch kind of reminds me of mulch in the sense it is a mix. Great words. :)
ReplyDeleteExcept for the drunkenness, I want to be lord of misrule! If I'd seen cultch, I would have thought it was a typo.
ReplyDeleteI love words too and these are some really good ones.
ReplyDeleteI too want to begin using. In fact, I want to take on the part :)
Lovely tree. May the Lord of Misrule behave this Christmas~
ReplyDeleteBeautiful tree Suko. All of your words are new to me. They are all interesting and fun.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Pat. I've added a few more ornaments. :)
DeleteLoving this selection and especially the thought of the lord of misrule even if, being English, it is a term I have come across before.
ReplyDeleteI actually have bildungsroman as a tag in my book review blog. :)
ReplyDeleteThat's an excellent tag, Satia!
DeleteThanks for all the wonderful comments! This meme is a lot of fun, and I wish I could do it more often.
ReplyDeleteI've loved the word bildungsroman since I learned it back in 10th grade--these are some of my favorite books as well.
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a fun meme and you can learn so much from it.
ReplyDeleteI really like the spelling and look of this word, bildungsroman. I can't imagine how to spell it. Merry Christmas. Keep safe.
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