Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Word of the Week

Welcome back to our weekly word lover's sampler. When it comes to remembering these rare delicacies, I'd like to give you just a brief word of caution ... make sure that you try to use these words with someone during the week or you might just risk them falling into the oubliette of your mind.

Did you guess this week's word? Yes, our word of the week is oubliette. I remembered this word by realizing that I had forgotten something.

I had forgotten to give you a pronunciation guide for last week's word, tintinnabulation. I hope that word rings a bell for you.

So before we proceed, here is how you pronounce tintinnabulation ... [tin-ti-nab-yuh-ley-shuhn].Our word for this week, oubliette, comes to us from the French word oublier, which means to forget. It also has some Latin roots, one of which is oblivisci, which also means to forget. You might be more familiar with the English words oblivious and oblivion.

In addition to being a word that means to forget, oubliettes were particularly cruel forms of torture and imprisonment. An oubliette was a place of imprisonment (type of a dungeon) that had only one entry and exit point...a point that was located on the ceiling of the structure.

The ceiling hatch, of course, was way too high for a sole prisoner to ever have any hope of reaching it without outside assistance. The prisoners were literally dropped in there and forgotten to death, hence the use of the term oubliette!

How do you pronounce this easily forgotten word? This is an easy one! / ooh - blee - ette / That's it!

Putting this fun word to practical use is easy, so let's do it!

Of course you could simply impress your friends by telling them about your new found knowledge of the prisons called oubliettes. Or perhaps you might even choose to fantasize about tossing a few of your acquaintances into an oubliette of your design.

But oubliette can also be used in a figurative way by casually saying to a friend, "If I don't write that information down, it might just fall into the oubliette of my mind!"

Now, just stand back and watch in awe as your "deer in the headlights" friends blankly stare back at you! Ah, the joy of wielding mighty words of wonder!

Hope you enjoyed this weeks fun vocabulary word.