Wondrous Words Wednesday

Bermudaonion asks you to share new words that you have learned during your reading adventures in the last week. Feel free to join in the fun!

The Year of Living Biblically
by A.J. Jacobs
One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible

atavistic –adjective
of, pertaining to, or characterized by atavism; reverting to or suggesting the characteristics of a remote ancestor or primitive type.

Page 10
…having hundreds of decrees, including the crucial Ten Commandments, as well as some of the more seemingly atavistic ones about executing homosexuals.



osprey -noun

Also called fish hawk. A large hawk, Pandion haliaetus, that feeds on fish.

Page 17
The Bible bans many things: pork, shrimp, rabbit, eagle and osprey, among others.



Turducken (this one required some research as it is not in the dictionary)
-noun

A Turducken is a dish consisting of a partially de-boned turkey stuffed with a de-boned duck, which itself is stuffed with a small de-boned chicken. The name is a portmanteau of those ingredients: turkey, duck, and chicken. The cavity of the chicken and the rest of the gaps are filled with, at the very least, a highly seasoned breadcrumb mixture or sausage meat, although some versions have a different stuffing for each bird.

Page 20
Humans have come up with some astoundingly bizarre stuff ourselves: biathlons, turducken, and my son’s Chicken Dance Elmo, to name a few.



Double entendre
-noun

Ambiguity of meaning arising from language that lends itself to more than one interpretation.

Page 30
…I’m proud to say that I had absolutely no urge to make a double entendre when we passed Intercourse, Pennsylvania….