I have a bunch of great words this week! I just finished A Lonely Death by Charles Todd. Lots of interesting new characters and some old-fashioned English phrases.

1. Sapper – A military engineer who lays, detects, and disarms mines.

“Like his brother, he qualified as an officer and he chose to join the sappers.”

2. Funicular – A cable railway on a steep incline

“Rutledge was silent as he made his way to the funicular that ran up the cliff face just beyond the black net shops.”

3. Salient – A military position that projects into the position of the enemy.

“He was buried alive on the Somme, when their salient had been blown up by a shell falling short of the German lines.”

4. Unshriven – Without having made confession and receiving absolution

“He came to see me because he had something on his mind. He said that he didn’t want to die unshriven.”

5. Secateurs – a small pair of shears for pruning

“Brown hair, shaggy, falling into his face. Looked like it had been trimmed with his own secateurs.”

And there you have it – some new British and military phrases. Look for more new words at Bermuda Onion’s Weblog.  What new words did YOU learn this week?