Wondrous Words Wednesday
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.”
One new word this week (which shows that I read pretty easy books during the Read-a-thon!). This is from page 21 of Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert:
This stretch of traveling never had the feeling of a carefree adventure anyhow. It felt more like an expulsion, a hegira.
I wanted to use the Oxford English Dictionary, but they have redone their website and the link from my library is broken so I don’t have free access at the moment (I reported the problem). So here is the definition from my print dictionary, Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, 1979:
hegira also hejira n [the Hegira, flight of Muhammad from Mecca in A.D. 622, fr. ML, fr. Ar hijrah, lit., flight]: a journey esp. when undertaken to escape from dangerous or undesirable situation: EXODUS
In the etymology, ML stands for Medieval Latin and Ar for Arabic.
I’m a bit surprised that this word isn’t used more. A great many people, including Arabic speakers, have been undertaking a hegira in north Africa recently. They are surely using that word or something similar. Since there is a related English word, it seems like we could be using it as well.
Oh I like this one. Exodus is so overused; it might be fun to replace it with hegira for a while. Thanks for sharing. Mine is here: http://readhanded.blogspot.com/2011/04/wondrous-words-wednesday.html
This is one of those words I know I’ve seen before, but wouldn’t have come up with the definition without context. Thanks for highlighting it! Here are mine: http://myreadersblock.blogspot.com/2011/04/wondrous-words-wednesday_13.html
Interesting. I’m guessing the g is pronounced like a j. I’ll try to remember this one. Thanks for playing along.
Great word, I agree with Julie-Exodus is overused. This is a great replacement.
I’m surprised I haven’t heard this word before either. It’s a good one that could be used in many circumstances in our own country by various immigrant groups.
A great find! Also a great scrabble word 🙂
How are you liking COMMITTED? I wasn’t crazy about EAT, PRAY, LOVE, so I’ve opted not to read this one (yet … I likely will, eventually!)