Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Wondrous Words Wednesday - September 8, 2010

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Kathy aka Bermuda Onion where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our reading. Feel free to join in the fun.

RUSSIAN WINTER by Daphne Kalotay

agitprop - Nina sees them often enough, in the theater's personnel department, where government agents in civilian clothes comb through everyone's paperwork for anything worth reporting to their superiors; and at her performances at the various ministries, where officials in dark wool suits say demeaning things to their subordinates; and even in the Bolshoi concert hall, agitprop men from the Central Committee every now and then silently watching from dark seats all the way at the back of the theater, while the poor director trembles his way through a dress rehearsal. (p.177)

agitprop: an agency or department, as of a government, that directs and coordinates agitation and propaganda.

karakul - A week later Vera installs her black karakul coat and five pairs of shoes and a large travel trunk in the apartment that Nina left nearly a year and a half ago. (p. 182)

karakul: one of an Asian breed of sheep having curly fleece that is black in the young and brown or gray in the adult: raised esp. for lambskins used in the fur industry.

What new words did you discover this week?

3 comments:

bermudaonion said...

Those are both new to me! I'll try to remember them for when I read this book. Thanks for playing along!

Beth Kephart said...

How could you not have known karakul? Seriously.

:)

Julie P. said...

Beth,

I was familiar with the word. I just didn't know the derivation! LOL!