Welcome to Wondrous Words Wednesday, a meme hosted by Kathy at Bermudaonion.net. Today’s Word Nerd Word comes from my guest and fellow writer from Wordsmith Studio, Jennifer Chow. Jennifer has recently published her first book, The 228 Legacy, and I’m so honored to have her as a guest! Go for it Jennifer:
I’m excited to be on this blog today! Thanks for helping me to embrace my inner nerd, Julia!
Tween deck \ˈtwēn\ \ˈdek\ noun: the space between two continuous decks in a vessel’s hull; also any deck below the main deck
This nautical term comes from Julie Otsuka’s The Buddha in the Attic, winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award For Fiction. The book tells the story of a group of young women brought from Japan to San Francisco as “picture brides” nearly a century ago. The first section of the novel describes the women’s rough and lonely boat voyage:
“And when they asked if they could see us alone—that very evening, say, on the tween deck, at quarter past ten—we stared down at our feet for a moment”
Word Nerd Note: In the early days of emigration, people traveled on ships built for carrying cargo. Immigrants were placed in the cargo hold to carry them across the seas. In fact, some cargo ships are known as tween deckers; these have two or sometimes three decks. The upper deck is known as the main deck or weather deck, while the lower one is the tween deck.
Word Nerd Workout
Use tween deck in a sentence. For example:
I felt cramped on the tween deck and moved up to the main deck to glimpse the stars swirling against the night sky.
Now it’s your turn, fellow word-lovers! Come back on Friday for a full review of The Buddha in the Attic.
Jennifer J. Chow, a Chinese-American, married into the Taiwanese culture. The 228 Legacy was inspired by the family stories she heard after viewing photos of a two-million-person human chain commemorating 228. She has traveled multiple times to Taiwan and visited places dedicated to the incident. Her experience with the elderly comes from a gerontology specialization at Cornell University and her geriatric social work experience. You can visit her online at www.jenniferjchow.com.
Hmmm…interesting. I was totally expecting some connection between playing cards and pre-teens. LOL.
I’m actually working on a piece with some nautical elements. I’ll totally have to use “tween deck!”
This is great! I am learning something every where I go! Hope to see you next week too!
Awesome! It’s nice to meet you.
My first thoughts were of tweens, ie preadolescents, and I couldn’t imagine a deck of them… It makes more sense to think about boats.
Yikes! A whole ship deck of tweens. SQUEAL!!! 😉
Thanks, Susan! It was good working out with everyone 🙂
Nice to meet you, Jennifer! Your book sounds intriguing, and thank you for the “word nerd workout!”
Tween deck does make sense.
http://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2013/08/wondrous-words-wednesday_3604.html
I’m reading a book with Japan as a setting too. Your book sounds interesting.
I would have guessed the “between decks — within the hull” definition, but not the one that meant any decks below the main one. Misleading, huh?
Tween deck makes sense. I don’t think my grandmother immigrated to this country in a tween deck – I think she was in steerage.