Word of the Week..6?
gamin, \ˈga-mən\= urchin
They’ve been having a 50% off all Barnes and Nobles Essential Library books for the last few weeks, and out of curiosity I picked The Secret Adversary, by Agatha Christie. Anyway, so “gamin” came from that book. Here’s the sentence.
There was a certain gamin element in the girl, at all events she invariably got on well with small boys.
It’s a really good book actually, though the plot is pretty thin. Somehow, I’d never read anything by Agatha Christie before, which is strange since I do like mystery. But, here’s the weirdest thing: according to Wikipedia, Agatha Christie is the single most popular author of all time. I was flabbergasted when I read that. At 4 billion volumes sold, she’s topped Shakespeare. Her works only trail the Bible in sales. Is there some conspiracy to hide this news from…well, everyone? I mean, I don’t think I’ve heard Agatha’s Christie’s name mentioned once in my 17 years of schooling and I’m pretty sure I haven’t heard it mentioned, period, in the last few years. But, here she is quietly selling 125k books a day for the past 80 years. Is there some secret contingent of Borneans who worship a Malayian translation of The Secret Adversary?
