Wondrous Words Wednesday is hosted by Bermudaonion’s Weblog. Kathy says: “Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our reading.”

My words this week come from Lady Macbeth’s Daughter by Lisa Klein. Since it’s a Young Adult title, I was surprised that it had so many new words to learn. I guessed that they were mostly geographical words used in Scotland, so I used the online Oxford English Dictionary as my resource. The OED is my favorite of the online sources that I have access to with my library card.

shilpit, p. 52

“I myself have seen the hag’s flowing green hair and her shilpit arms like those of a starveling,” says Colum, lifting his arms and wiggling his fingers.

shilpit: Of persons: Pale and sickly-looking; weak, feeble, puny.
Shilpit can also be used to describe weak liquor.

shieling, p. 55

Finally it is the feast of Beltane and I can go to the shieling again.

shieling: A piece of pasture to which cattle may be driven for grazing.
In this book, they are grazing sheep on the shieling.

bothy, p. 55

I am fourteen and I can build a small bothy and kindle a fire almost as well as Colum.

bothy: A hut or cottage

burn, p. 111

The burn rushes along as always, but there are no flowers blooming on its banks, and the birds sing plaintive notes as if protesting the loss.

burn: A small stream or brook.

Have you learned any new words recently? Visit today’s Wondrous Words Wednesday post for links to other bloggers words. I learned from The House of The Seven Tails, that the seasonal migration of livestock and their tending humans, as I’m reading about in Lady Macbeth’s Daughter, has a word: transhumance.