Category: Fun to say

Accretion

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n. 1. a. Growth or increase in size by gradual external addition, fusion, or inclusion. b. Something added externally to promote such growth or increase.

Now it seemed to Marta that she was filled with a vapor, such a smoke as folk have in their steadings toward the end of winter, that is the accretion of all the fires that have been made over the winter, and all the food that has been cooked, and all the breaths that have been taken.

– Jane Smiley, The Greenlanders

I saw this word at work this week and fell in love with it, and then it appeared in my book today.

Panache

Andrea BadgleyLeave a comment

n. 1. Dash; verve. 2. A bunch of feathers or a plume, esp. on a helmet.

Celia didn’t eat anything, but sat quietly on one of the couches, handling her martini glass and cigarette with more panache than anything I’d ever seen.

Elizabeth Gilbert, City of Girls

Recherché

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adj. 1. Uncommon; rare. 2. Exquisite; choice. 3. Overrefined; forced. 4. Pretentious; overblown.

58 Gin, like many distilleries, offers gin tuition… She handed each of us a clipboard, on which was a list of twenty-six botanicals. Some of these were farily mainstream, like pink grapefruit and chamomile; others were more recharché, like aniseed and cassia.”

Anthony Lane, “Ginmania,” The New Yorker