Welcome to another edition of Wondrous Words Wednesday, where we share all the interesting words we’ve learned in the past week.

Most of my words come from the book I just finished, The Rule of Nine by Steve Martini.  Fabulous political thriller – I really enjoyed this one.  But my first word is one I came across on a blog — Mistress Matisse’s blog, to be exact.  It’s important to have wide-ranging reading tastes, after all.  🙂    (By the way, that site is really NSFW.)  So, here we go with this week’s list:

1. Gynarchy – government or rule by women

2. Pitot tube – A tube mounted on the outside of the airplane that is exposed to the relative wind and provides ram air pressure to the airspeed indicator.

“He had one of the service attendants at the yard make sure the altimeter was perfectly calibrated and then checked the external pitot tubes to make sure they were not clogged with debris.

3. Thermobaric device – a weapon, such as a “fuel-air bomb” which produces a significantly longer blast wave than condensed explosives.  It relies on oxygen from the surrounding air, making it more powerful than condensed explosives.

“He was one of the operatives moving the massive thermobaric device that got grounded in Thailand.”

4. Cooper Vane – also sometimes called a “Dan Cooper switch” or “D.B. Cooper device”) is a mechanical aerodynamic wedge that prevents the ventral airstair of an aircraft from being lowered in flight (the method D.B. Cooper used to make his famous parachute escape).

“This morning Thorn was busy at the airfield in Puerto Rico removing the old Cooper Vane from the tail section of his plane.”

5. Gimbal – a pivoted support that allows an object (such as a ship’s compass) to remain horizontal even as its support tips

“The camera and the laser diode were mounted on a gimbal, like a compass on a ship.”

So, I bet you can guess what this book is about, can’t you?  Scary stuff!

What new words did YOU learn this week.