Welcome to Wondrous Words Wednesday, a great way for word nerds to learn new vocabulary. To join in, visit Kathy at Bermuda Onion and be sure to share new words you’ve discovered recently.
My word comes from my Merriam-Webster Word of the Day email, but it reminded me of a great scene from Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex. In the story, Artemis and his friends face attack in arctic conditions. Artemis’s alter ego suggests that the crew “bivouac”.
First of all, the word is a mouthful. I’ve included an easy pronunciation guide to help. Second, even though I heard bivouac used in context, I didn’t get the meaning right. M-W cleared things up.
bivouac \BIV-uh-wak\ verb from the German biwacht, meaning “by guard”; the French word bivouac came from biwacht and could mean the guard of an army (noun) or the act of guarding (verb). Today the word has more to do with taking shelter than guarding. It means to make temporary camp under little or no shelter.
After listening to the story (I enjoyed the Artemis Fowl series via audio book), I thought a bivouac was a tent, or shelter. I didn’t realize it was a verb! Thanks, Merriam-Webster.
Word Nerd Workout
Have you ever bivouacked? (Yes, that’s a word.) Any bivouac experience could be the inspiration for awesome stories! Please share.
Also, this weekend I heard Jeff O’Neal use one of my Wondrous Words from Where’d You Go, Bernadette on the Book Riot podcast. The word: insouciant. Does anyone remember what it means? I do. 😉
Recommended Reading
Today I have a guest post up at Eli Pacheco’s blog Coach Daddy on how I apply coaching to parenthood. It involves giant lollipops. Eli is hilarious, a fellow word nerd with lots of fun insights on fatherhood, soccer, and doughnuts. Please visit!
Thanks for getting nerdy with me.
Julia
Julia – thanks again for such a stellar guest post today! It’s good for coaches to cavort now and then. Keeps us off the streets.
This word I knew and was familiar with.
I’m familiar with bivouac (probably from watching WWII era movies) but haven’t used the word in daily life.
I’ve heard of this one, I like how you describe the pronunciation of it as a mouthful, it is one that kind of works out your face muscles as you say it! Thanks for sharing this one.
I’ve been around military people most of my life so I’ve heard bivouac a lot and have to admit that I never really knew what it meant. I assumed it meant something similar to deployment but, obviously, I was wrong. I can’t think of a time I’ve ever bivouacked. Great word today!
Yes I’ve come across bivouac or bivvy. As commented above associated with backpacking and camping.
I just finished reading THE ATLANTIS COMPLEX last night, which is kind of a coincidence. 🙂 I loved how the word was used facetiously, as in suggested repeatedly by both Artemis’s alter ego and Trouble Kelp as a totally passive and inadequate response to deadly danger.
Yes, exactly – bivouac becomes a joke term. My kids actually use it now if we have some kind of a “crisis” – They say, “Oh, no, Mom, time to bivouac.” Thank you for so succinctly capturing the humor. Did you like Atlantis? A lot of AF fans say it’s their least favorite book (my kids included), but I really liked it.
I enjoyed it, but it’s never going to be a favorite because Artemis just wasn’t himself.
My favorite part, though, is the phone call between Artemis and his mother when she tells him about his birthday present.
Back in my younger days, I spent a lot of time outdoors~ casual camping, longer backpacking trips, etc. On longer trips, sometimes it’s nice to take a little overnight to a place to want to explore, but isn’t necessarily on your route. In those cases, sometimes we’d take small day packs and carry bivy (short for bivouac) sacks to sleep in, on the off-chance we got too far away to hike back before nightfall. Fun times 🙂
“Bivy” sacks – thanks for introducing another iteration of this word! Sounds like you had lots of great adventures. Thanks for sharing.