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susurrus suh-SUR-uhs noun a gentle whispering sound; a soft humming sound; a soft rustling sound 1911Max Beerbohm Zuleika Dobson Echoes of his boots fell from the upper stairs and met the ascending susurrus of a silk skirt. 1984Eric Van LustbaderThe Miko...he heard nothing above the soft susurrus of the faraway traffic on Highway 70.1994Poul Anderson The Stars Are Also FireBackground noise was a susurrus through which a gust of music would twang…Labels: Eric Van Lustbader, Max Beerbohm, Poul Anderson
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Entry By: CJ Cooney
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avidity uh-VI-duh-tee noun keenness; eagerness; enthusiasm; craving 1826Mary Wollstonecraft ShelleyThe Last ManMy active mind, when once it seized upon this new idea, fastened on it with extreme avidity. 1893Mungo ParkTravels in the Interior of AfricaExcessive thirst made many of them furious; others, being too weak to contend for the water, endeavoured to quench their thirst by devouring the black mud from the gutters near the wells, which they did with great avidity, though it was commonly fatal to them.1923Marcel ProustWithin a Budding GroveThose tender speeches, that invitation or acceptance, we think only of the pleasure which they would have given us, and not of all those other speeches and meetings by which we should have wished to see them immediately followed, which we should, as likely as not, simply by our avidity for them, have precluded from ever happening1990Eric Van Lustbader The White NinjaThe Pack Rat's attention drifted back to the girl who was sipping tea with the avidity of a lioness hunkering down to her fresh-killed meal.Labels: Eric Van Lustbader, Marcel Proust, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Mungo Park
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zaftig ZAWF-tig adjective full-figured 1990John UpdikeRabbit at RestWebb does like them zaftig.1995Eric Van LustbaderSecond SkinOne year the zaftig look was in among models, the next year the waif was all the rage.2000Robert J. SawyerCalculating GodI think Marilyn is lovely, but, well, she's quite curvy-zaftig, even.2000James MorrowAuspicious Eggs (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 2000)Valerie Gallogher, his nephews' zaftig kindergarten teacher, seems on the verge of tears.Labels: Eric Van Lustbader, James Morrow, John Updike, Robert J. Sawyer
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quotidian kwo-TI-dee-uhn noun, adjective something which occurs everyday; everyday; ordinary; daily 1849Edward Bulwer-LyttonThe CaxtonsWith what an effort we reconcile ourselves to the trite cares and vexed pleasures, 'the quotidian ague of frigid impertinences,' to which we return! How strong and black stands my pencil-mark in this passage of the poet from whom I have just quoted before!—'We are here among the vast and noble scenes of Nature—we are there among the pitiful shifts of policy; we walk here in the light and open ways of the Divine Bounty—we grope there in the dark and confused labyrinth of human malice. 1931Clark Ashton SmithAn Adventure in FuturityWhen Fancy's vivid spark impels the soul | To scorn quotidian scenes, to spurn the bliss | Of vulgar minds, what nostrum shall compose | Its fatal tension?1984Eric Van LustbaderThe MikoIt was as if she had been spun down the awful tunnel of legend, as if quotidian Tokyo with its hordes of rushing people, thick pollution, and bright neon lights had disappeared entirely.Labels: Clark Ashton Smith, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Eric Van Lustbader
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