Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Wondrous Words Wednesdays

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Kathy aka Bermuda Onion where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our reading. Feel free to join in the fun.

I recently finished reading a compilation of Poe stories and while there were certainly many wondrous words in his writing, I was intrigued by moiety:

From The Pit and The Pendulum:

Scarcely had I dropped my head back into its original position, when there flashed upon my mind what I cannot better describe than as the deformed half of that idea of deliverance to whick I have been previously alluded, and of which a moiety only floated indeterminately through my brain when I raised food to my burning lips.

Here's the definition from Merriam Webster:

Moi-e-ty

noun \ˈmi-ə-tē\
plural moi·e·ties
1 a : one of two equal parts : half b : one of two approximately equal parts
2: one of the portions into which something is divided : component, part moiety>
3: one of two basic complementary tribal subdivisions


3 comments:

  1. What a great word! I'm sure I'd confuse everyone if I tried using it.

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  2. That's a cool one. I feel like I should have known it, but no such luck.

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  3. Cool. Good idea, putting the definition of the word there.

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