Make Your Point > Archived Issues > BITUMINOUS
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pronounce
BITUMINOUS:
Say it "bit OO min us."
To hear it, click here.
connect this word to others:
Your sanctum, adrift in this bituminous nightmare...
That's from the game Darkest Dungeon II, made by Red Hook Studios. Fist bump to my husband, who was playing and immediately notified me of this cool, unfamiliar word.
Bituminous is a fun, mystical, literary alternative to words like black, inky, ebony, obsidian, pitch-black, and cal____ous (meaning "dark, dim, misty, and murky").
Can you recall that last word? It's a rare one, with a scholarly tone.
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
The word "bitumen" (pronounced in many different ways--I'm going with "BIT you men") comes straight from Latin and means "asphalt, or mineral pitch." It's a sticky hydrocarbon similar to tar and pitch, found in nature and also created as a byproduct from distilled crude oil.
It's used for surfacing roads. And because it's found in coal, it's also used for generating power.
As you can see, it's very black, and very shiny. It may have inspired John Milton as he wrote this in Paradise Lost:
"The plain, wherein a black bituminous gurge
Boils out from under ground, the mouth of Hell."
He's describing the lake of fire and sulphur, the one from the Bible:
"The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever" (Revelation 20:10, New King James Version).
Dark, right? So if you call something bituminous, you might mean it's literally made of bitumen, or it's black and shiny, or it's hellish, like a burning lake of hellfire.
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
Adjective: "bituminous coal;" "The gloom turned bituminous."
Other forms:
Just the noun, "bitumen."
how to use it:
"Bituminous" is the semi-common, ultra-specific word you want to convey that something is so dark, and so evil-looking, that it seems to belong to a lake of hellfire. Or a nice asphalt road.
You might talk literally about bituminous coal and bituminous roads.
More generally, you could talk about bituminous objects, darkness, gloom, waters, lakes, explosions, eruptions, etc.
examples:
"An earthquake occurred in various parts of the empire... Fissures were opened in the streets from which poured forth bituminous gases; springs were stopped up, and new ones opened."
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 3, 1851
"He was alone—just Bell and a long ribbon of road, glittering and bituminous in the late afternoon sunlight."
— Pauls Toutonghi, Salon, 8 September 2013
"And swarming loathsomely on aerial galleries I saw the yellow, squint-eyed people of that city, robed horribly in orange and red, and dancing insanely to... the maniacal moaning of muted horns whose ceaseless dirges rose and fell undulantly like the waves of an unhallowed ocean of bitumen."
— H. P. Lovecraft, "He," 1926
has this page helped you understand "bituminous"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "bituminous" without saying "coal-black" or "hellish."
try it out:
From American history class, you might remember learning about the 1741 sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." It's the one where everybody's headed straight for the Flames of Hell.
In this writer's words, that sermon "dropped bituminous rhetoric upon the tender sensibilities of the unconverted." In other words, the rhetoric was dark and hellish.
Whose rhetoric these days would you also describe as bituminous? Talk about why. It doesn't have to be about hell so literally--it just needs to be dark, threatening, poisonous, and/or gloom-and-doom.
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
Our game for this month is MYP Wordles!
You're likely familiar with the popular new game Wordle, created by Josh Wardle and recently purchased by the New York Times. You can play the real Wordle each day here.
It's fun, simple, and addictive. You try to guess the five-letter word. Each time you guess, you see how close you are: a green box means you've gotten the right letter in the right spot; a yellow box means you've gotten a letter that's in the word but in the wrong spot; a gray box means you've guessed a letter that isn't in the word at all.
There's only one real Wordle every day. But luckily for us, the good folks at StriveMath.com have created a copycat Wordle tool, so you can play as many Wordles as you want, and even create and share your own.
So, in each issue this month, try the MYP Wordle linked below. The answer will be a word we've studied. I'll give a series of hints that you can reveal if you choose to. If you can't figure out the answer, you can let the puzzle reveal it, or you can scroll all the way down. Enjoy!
Click here to play today's MYP Wordle.
If you need some hints, highlight the hidden white text below.
The letter it starts with is… D
The vowels it includes are… just E, 2 of them
The part of speech is… verb
The definition is… to stop something from happening, or to stop people from doing something
review this word:
1.
The opposite of BITUMINOUS, in its figurative sense, is
A. HEAVENLY.
B. GOSSAMER.
C. INTRICATE.
2.
You're playing Magic: The Gathering, and you lay down the card Bituminous Blast. The artwork is _____, featuring _____.
A. red .. oozing lava
B. black .. a feathered demon
C. cream-colored .. a hundred doves
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
On vocabulary...
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.
From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
Your sanctum, adrift in this bituminous nightmare...
The word "bitumen" (pronounced in many different ways--I'm going with "BIT you men") comes straight from Latin and means "asphalt, or mineral pitch." It's a sticky hydrocarbon similar to tar and pitch, found in nature and also created as a byproduct from distilled crude oil.
Part of speech:
"Bituminous" is the semi-common, ultra-specific word you want to convey that something is so dark, and so evil-looking, that it seems to belong to a lake of hellfire. Or a nice asphalt road.
"An earthquake occurred in various parts of the empire... Fissures were opened in the streets from which poured forth bituminous gases; springs were stopped up, and new ones opened."
Explain the meaning of "bituminous" without saying "coal-black" or "hellish."
From American history class, you might remember learning about the 1741 sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." It's the one where everybody's headed straight for the Flames of Hell.
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. |