Good morning! Time for more interesting words from the pages of this week’s book, The Glassblower of Murano by Marina Fiorato. Now, there’s a lot of Italian in this book, but it didn’t seem fair to include those words in this list, but I still managed to find a few that were new or that I was only glancingly familar with. Here goes:

1. Hermetic – Referring to Hermeticism, a search for God and the secrets of the cosmos through magical and mystical means; obscure, secret or unrevealed.

They were both taken by the figure of Spring in her flowing white gown sprigged with flowers, smiling her slight, hermetic smile, beautiful and full of promise.

I had only heard this word used to mean airtight, as in hermetically sealed, so this was a new definition for me.

2. Candling – I could not find a definition for this word that matches its use here. Since candling normally refers to using a bright light (originally a candle) to inspect an egg, I have to assume that this refers to candlight, illuminating something from behind and seeing the shadows cast.

She peered into the candling shadows beyond the pillars, where keen locals stood to hear the music, and looked fancifully for his red head amongst them.

3. Loggia – An open-sided, roofed or vaulted gallery, either free-standing or along the front or side of a building, often at an upper level.

4. Gnomon – An object, such as the style of a sundial, that projects a shadow used as an indicator.

The Campanile loomed over the square like the giant gnomon of a sundial; the loggias housed elongted arcs of light.

5. Parison – A spherical mass of glass, rolled immediately after being taken out of the furnace.

His fellows joked that he was such a perfectionist that, were the parison not perfect, Manin would never take another breath in, and expire on the spot.

What new words did YOU learn this week?