melisma
(en)
(noun) a group of notes or tones sung on one syllable in plainsong / (noun) melodic embellishment / (noun) cadenza
3
It was a bit like mine (a guttural Liverpool k; some of the same distended vowels), but with a northeastern melisma that turned “module” into mod-joo-al, “sure” into shower.
uncertain
1 year, 9 months ago
It was a bit like mine (a guttural Liverpool k; some of the same distended vowels), but with a northeastern melisma that turned “module” into mod-joo-al, “sure” into shower.
uncertain
1 year, 9 months ago
ineluctable
(en)
unable to be resisted or avoided; inescapable
95
borstal
(en)
(noun) reformatory (a custodial institution for youthful offenders)
119
“I like this. You look like all my borstal fantasies made flesh.”
sooo interesting - in the paperback version it's borstal but in the ebook [presumably the US ebook] it's "reform school"
unknown
1 year, 9 months ago
“I like this. You look like all my borstal fantasies made flesh.”
sooo interesting - in the paperback version it's borstal but in the ebook [presumably the US ebook] it's "reform school"
unknown
1 year, 9 months ago
prelapsarian
(en)
(adjective) characteristic of or belonging to the time or state before the fall of humankind
141
Already, I was feeling nostalgic for those prelapsarian weeks before she knew my name.
notable
1 year, 9 months ago
Already, I was feeling nostalgic for those prelapsarian weeks before she knew my name.
notable
1 year, 9 months ago
creosote
(en)
(noun) a clear or yellowish flammable oily liquid mixture of phenolic compounds obtained by the distillation of tar derived from wood and especially from beech wood / (noun) a brownish oily liquid consisting chiefly of aromatic hydrocarbons obtained by distillation of coal tar and used especially as a wood preservative / (noun) a dark brown or black flammable tar deposited from especially wood smoke on the walls of a chimney / (noun) creosote bush / (verb) to treat with creosote / (noun) a resinous desert shrub (Larrea tridentata) of the caltrop family found in the southwestern United States and Mexico
206
His screen saver was a picture of them, in matching soccer jerseys, standing in front of a freshly creosoted fence
notable
1 year, 9 months ago
His screen saver was a picture of them, in matching soccer jerseys, standing in front of a freshly creosoted fence
notable
1 year, 9 months ago
traduce
(en)
(verb) to expose to shame or blame by means of falsehood and misrepresentation / (verb) violate betray
210
Her snapping voice in my ear acquired a strange familiarity over those hours, her careless traducing of my character came to feel almost companionable by the end
strange
1 year, 9 months ago
Her snapping voice in my ear acquired a strange familiarity over those hours, her careless traducing of my character came to feel almost companionable by the end
strange
1 year, 9 months ago