Words I Learned While Reading - How 'Bout You?

[Tome]

I try to make sure that I look up any words that I do not know while I am reading a book. There were more than a few that I took note of while reading this book. The two that stood out the most were:

1) Countenance - or should I say the overuse of it to mean the word face. I had always known the meaning of countenance to be "approval or favor", but surprise surprise, it also means face. And boy, does Edith like to use it to mean face - a lot! I sort of wonder how many times in the past I have misunderstood it while reading other books, but glossed over it.
http://dictionary.reference.com/brows...

2) Antimacassar - This one fascinated me. Apparently it's the drape that grandmothers use to protect the fabric of their couches or armchairs (no offense to those in this group who use them that are not grandmothers - I should probably say, my grandmother used them :P).
http://dictionary.reference.com/brows...

After looking up the meaning, I had to know a bit more about the etymology of the word. I found the Wikipedia entry to be really enlightening:
"Macassar oil was an unguent for the hair commonly used in the early 19th century." ... "The fashion for oiled hair became so widespread in the Victorian and the Edwardian period that housewives began to cover the arms and backs of their chairs with washable cloths to preserve the fabric coverings from being soiled. Around 1850, these started to be known as antimacassars. They were also installed in theaters, from 1865."

I also found it amusing to learn that the drape around a Navy-man's neck is also called an antimacassar because that is what they use to wipe away oil while on the job.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimaca...

Did anyone else find any words in the book, that made them scratch their head?

A tip: I have found that the ibooks app for iphone and ipad have a great feature where you can highlight text and click define very easily - even when you are offline in the subway.

[Mart]

I was looking definitions up a lot for this book, but the three that jump to mind are:
Bedizened - gaudily decorated
Dyspeptic - indigestion or bad tempered
Valetudinarian - a hypochondriac.

I wonder if people (or at least people who read) had larger vocabularies pre-television?

(Love the antimacassars tale, by the way, thanks for sharing!)

[HeatherIlene]

I was thinking something similar this morning while reading the book. There have been so many words I have never heard of or didn't know the definition to. I'm really grateful for the dictionary feature on my Kindle.

I'll have to post a few words when I run across them again.

[Karena]

HeatherIlene wrote: "I was thinking something similar this morning while reading the book. There have been so many words I have never heard of or didn't know the definition to. I'm really grateful for the dictionary fe..."

I agree about the Kindle feature as well as the Wikipedia one. Helps bunches.

[CassieV]

I'm usually bad about skipping over things when I can generally get the flow from context. I don't usually stop to get the specific meaning, so you all have inspired me to take more time with that!

Two that I looked up today:

Ida Lewis- she lived at the Lime Rock lighthouse and helped her mother take over duties when her father had a stroke. She saved her first person at 16, rowed her siblings to school and back everyday, and eventually became the highest-paid lighthouse keeper for a while. Not bad for a woman in the 19th century :).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_Lewi...)

Also, I looked up Conanicut, which is an island near Newport. I'm not very familiar with New England, so I'll admit at first I thought this was a typo for Connecticut :).

[Judith]

I've always learned to read the context, and only look up words if I can't make out the meaning... I saw some words here that I have completely overlooked! Perhaps I do need to pay more attention to what I read