Thursday Thirteen #2

Thirteen New Great-Sounding Words I've Learned From Reading Books by P.D. James and Now Try to Inject into Everyday Conversations 1. Wodge: as in "Carlotta stuffed large wodges of paper towelling into the gaping wound in Hubert's chest but just couldn't seem to stem the geyser of blood." 2. Badinage: as in "failing utterly to amuse Cynthia with his badinage, Wilson's mood turned black leaving Cynthia's future looking bleak." 3. Frisson: as in "plunging the bread knife ever deeper into Garth's back Gwendolyn experienced an intense delicious frisson and wondered where she had left her cardigan." 4. Factotum: as in "Chief Inspector Tollerby tossed his overcoat, drycleaning, grocery list, several boxes of cold-case murder files and tea order in the general direction of his factotum, Gloria. as she hunched over to give his shoes a quick polish." 5. Rebarbative: as in "a smell so rebarbative the uniforms couldn't control their gagging; it emanated from the bath, where a bloated body had obviously been soaking for far too long..." 6. Plimsolls: as in "Farrell tiptoed down the alley hoping that no one would notice all he was wearing was an over-sized pair of neon orange plimsolls..." 7. Venal: "Trevor, with his usual venal charm, smirked widely as he accepted the usual payoff for his amorous, if quickly efficient, attentions." 8. Insouciance: as in "with deceptive insouciance, Belinda chuckled as her husband's blood dripped steadily from a three inch slit in his throat onto her white satin pumps as he lay sprawled across her lap." 9. Ersatz: as in "would you like some coffee? Well, I don't know...is it real coffee or ersatz?" 10. Perfidy: as in "by the perfidy of her ex-lover, Barbara's current lover, Frederick, hung upside down at the bottom of the well, slowly drowning in six inches of mosquito infested sludge." 11. Effluvium: as in "an unpleasant effluvium of death invaded the outer office as the door swung steadily open causing Edward to back up step by step until he felt the icy tip of a steely blade press into the back of his neck..." 12. Filth: as in "we'd better get out of here before the bloody filth arrive and haul us off to the clink..." On second thought, I don't think it would be wise to use this one too often. 13. Quartosized: as in "with shaking hands, Timothy opened the quartosized letter, knowing without a doubt it was his long dead wife's handwriting...how could this be?" I'm rather late getting this list out. I play volleyball on Wednesday nights and then worked all day today. Now I have a lovely four day Easter weekend - what a treat! Happy TT everyone!

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