I ran across a few new-to-me words this week.
The first three are from The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand.
banquette– a long bench with an upholstered seat, esp. one along a wall, as in a restaurant.
“that had a blackboard menu and banquettes that used to be church pews”
confit- (I’ve heard this several times on cooking shows, but wasn’t quite sure what it was.) meat, such as duck, that has been salted and then cooked and preserved in its own fat.
gaufrette– a thin crisp fan-shaped French wafer, often served alongside a dessert
“duck confit on a gaufrette“
This one is from Eyewitness to Jesus by Carsten Peter Thiede and Matthew D’Ancona.
tessera– one of the small pieces used in mosaic work.
“those tesserae, those small pieces of the Matthean mosaic”
And then I have one that is used a lot, but when Amber asked what it meant, I couldn’t quite define it. We were reading Viva Cisco by Patrick Shannon.
glen– a small, narrow, secluded valley. (Yes, I should have known this one, but I guess I only had a general idea. Sad, I know.)
Any new words for you this week? Play along at Bermudaonion’s Weblog.
You know, I completely increased my vocab while reading parts of The Meaning of Night…unfortunately they’ve fled my brain. It made me speak Victorian English 😛
Yes — Lissome (Having the ability to move with ease) and avarice (greed, excessive love of riches).
Hmm… Just noticed that picture next to my comment. What is that? lol
So many French words this week (three out of five anyway)! I know what you mean about coming across a word and feeling like you should have known its meaning — I felt that way about panzer this week.
I’ve seen and heard confit a lot, but have never bothered to look it up, and after reading the definition, I don’t think I want to eat any. Thanks for participating!
Your words are making me hungry! Oh, it’s dinner time anyway.
So none of us were right. Figures.