Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Wondrous Words Wednesday - January 5, 2011

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.

CROOKED LETTER, CROOKED LETTER by Tom Franklin

mumblety-peg - The boys would their rifles, play  mumblety-peg with Larry's knife, play chase, war, cowboys and Indians, climb trees. (p. 73)

mumblety-peg: a children's game played with a pocketknife, the object being to cause the blade to stick in the ground or a wooden surface by flipping the knife in a number of prescribed ways or from a number of prescribed positions.

What new words did you discover this week? 

7 comments:

bermudaonion said...

I knew that one! I can remember my dad talking about playing that when he was a kid.

Tea said...

I've seen little boys play that game. Never knew the name of the game. The word reminds me of Treasure Island or Great Expectations or just plain pirates. I like it.

Anonymous said...

Being a bit of a tom boy growing up in VA. I actually played this game with my brother and my best friend (a boy).

Here are my new words: http://marthalama.wordpress.com/

Margot said...

The game is familiar to me too. I remember the older boys playing it during recess. Of course, that was in the day when every boy carried a pocket knife. Today, they'd be sent home for carrying such a weapon.

Anonymous said...

Les Miserables

Translated variously from French as The Miserable Ones, The Wretched, The Poor Ones, The Victims

From the book The Note (page 3) by Angela Elwell Hunt.

Alyce said...

I have heard this phrase and never knew what it meant. I never would have thought that's what it was!

Veens said...

I have never heard of this game, sounds fun!