Wordsmith

I love to read.  Absolutely love, love to read.  As a kid, I couldn't wait to get the newest Nancy Drew book.  I would finish them fast and then I would snag the book that Debbie was reading whenever she put it down.

It dawned on me a few months ago that sometimes there are words in books that I just don't know the meaning of.  I assume the meaning from the context of the sentence and the book itself, but I never have taken the time to actually look the words up.

Until ..

... I started reading electronic books on my Kindle.  All I have to do is select the word and a dictionary pops right up.

Ohhh ... I think that I am in love with words!

I won't get started on a thesaurus.  Not only is saying 'thesaurus' fun (depending on whether it is a wine night or not), but delving into a thesaurus is almost as good as reading a book.  I could look up words forever.

Without further ado, here are today's words, pulled from various novels that I have read.  Yes, I am keeping track of all these strange and wonderful words that I have happened across.  That's how I roll.

Monolith
  monolith |ˈmänl-iTH|
noun1 a large single upright block of stone, esp. one shaped into or serving as a pillar or monument.• a very large and characterless building: the 72-story monolith overlooking the waterfront.• a large block of concrete sunk in water, e.g., in the building of a dock.2 a large and impersonal political, corporate, or social structure regarded as intractably indivisible and uniform: the U.S.–E.U. trade rules-dictating monolith is no more.

Oblique
oblique |əˈblēk, ōˈblēk|adjective1 neither parallel nor at a right angle to a specified or implied line; slanting: we sat on the settee oblique to the fireplace.• not explicit or direct in addressing a point: he issued an oblique attack on the president.• Geometry (of a line, plane figure, or surface) inclined at other than a right angle.• Geometry (of an angle) acute or obtuse.• Geometry (of a cone, cylinder, etc.) with an axis not perpendicular to the plane of its base.• Anatomy (esp. of a muscle) neither parallel nor perpendicular to the long axis of a body or limb.2 Grammar denoting any case other than the nominative or vocative.noun1 a muscle neither parallel nor perpendicular to the long axis of a body or limb.2 Brit. another term for slash1 ( sense 2 of the noun).

Insidious
insidious |inˈsidēəs|adjectiveproceeding in a gradual, subtle way, but with harmful effects: sexually transmitted diseases can be insidious and sometimes without symptoms.• treacherous; crafty: tangible proof of an insidious alliance.

Quixotic
quixotic |kwikˈsätik|adjectiveexceedingly idealistic; unrealistic and impractical: a vast and perhaps quixotic project.

Asceticism
asceticism |əˈsetiˌsizəm|nounsevere self-discipline and avoidance of all forms of indulgence, typically for religious reasons: acts of physical asceticism.

Irascibleirascible |iˈrasəbəl|adjectivehaving or showing a tendency to be easily angered:an irascible man.

I guess that I should thank my trusty dictionary that Steve Jobs so kindly loaded onto my MacBook for the above definitions.  
The formatting is screwy, too, but I am tired of messing with it.Have the BEST day ever!~ Dorothy