new words – palpitant and accipitral

Still in the first half of The Orchard Keeper, I continue to encounter these rare and lovely words.

Palpitant I guessed the meaning, because it seemed related to palpitate, but this suffix was new to me.

Palpitant – marked by trembling or throbbing.

Accipitral – resembling that of a hawk.

What luxury, to have such words at ones fingertips. I can’t wait to use them. Here is the sentence, describing a wounded sparrowhawk:

“It followed his movements as he approached and then turned its head when he reached out his hand to it, picked it up, feeling it warm and palpitant in the palm of his hand, not watching him, not moving, but only looking out over the valley calmly with its cold-glinting accipitral eyes, its hackles riffling in the wind.”