How Dromedaries Made Me Feel Foolish

wondrous memeWelcome to Wondrous Words Wednesday, a great meme for people who want to be brainy, hosted by Kathy at Bermudaonion.net.  Join the fun and share some new words you’ve learned recently.  You know, the ones you stumble upon in your reading and need to look up.

What!  You don’t look them up?  Shame!  A good word nerd would.  😉

I had to investigate this week’s word as I  prepared to lector (read scripture) at church last Sunday. The reading came from the book of Isaiah:

They shall bring all your brothers and sisters from all the nations as an offering to the Lord, on horses and in chariots, in carts, upon mules and dromedaries;

What in the world are dromedaries?  For such a big word, I envisioned large carts or wagons, perhaps ornately decorated.  I whipped out my Merriam-Webster dictionary app and looked it up.  In front of my children, so they might learn from my example.  (Hint, hint, kids).

When I saw the definition, I felt so stupid!

dromedary \’drā-mə-der-ē\ noun  from Latin dromaddromoas, from Greek, running; a camel

He's laughing at me, I know it!
He’s laughing at me, I know it!

Yup.  That’s it.  A camel.  Now why couldn’t Isaiah just say that?

At least I learned something new.  And if I ever come across it in the Bible again, (because I’m sure I won’t see it anywhere else),  I’ll know what it is.

Word Nerd Workout

Please make me feel good.  Please share another big, fancy sounding word for something simple that threw you once too.  Can’t wait to read your comments!

Have a great nerdy day!

Julia 

Nice teeth, huh?
Nice teeth, huh?

Update:  My friend Rachel told me that dromedaries are one humped camels and that bactrians are the more rare two humped Asian species.   Thank you Rachel!  She also shared this picture from her recent Australian adventure.  

Julia Tomiak
I believe in the power of words to improve our lives, and I help people find interesting words to read. Member of SCBWI.

8 Comments

  1. Oh, dear! Now you are all making me feel really old!. When I was little my momma baked a lot. One of our favorites at holiday time were date filled cookies. YUMMY! Well, in the olden days, the orange Dromedary date package had a camel on it! That’s how I learned what dromedary is. Whoda thunk!! 🙂

  2. oh wow ~ i wouldn’t have gotten to camel from the Latin or Greek ~ what a very cool word! Now I must figure out how to use it this week ~ ah, i’ve got it! my daughter just got back from Spain and she’s got a picture of her on a camel…. I shall ask her if that’s a dromedary she’s riding or a silly looking horse 😀

  3. For what it’s worth, I didn’t know what a dromedary was either! I confess that I’m reluctant to pull out a dictionary, opting to read on and figure out words based on context clues. But now that I have my Kindle, VOILA — tap the word and get the definition!

    Ok, the words that trip me up? Most of the ones you post on your Word Nerd workouts 🙂

  4. I always thought dromedaries were slightly different than camels because they had two humps instead of one. I wonder if that’s true or not?

    1. Interesting point, Emily. I did more research and found that dromedaries are “camels of unusual speed bred and trained especially for riding.” But nothing about humps. Maybe?

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