word of the day: circumvention
Margery Sharp must have had pointed out to her the challenges to a child’s comprehension that her vocabulary presented. As the Rescuers series progresses there are fewer words that are mysteries to me, anyway. I suspect she consciously chose to present fewer such challenges. And sometimes Sharp herself provides a full definition, not just the context that offers clues.
Circumvention means getting around something, as railway engineers may route a track around a mountain, or river mouth, or even stretch of bog, instead of pushing straight ahead. It is often the most practical and safest course, quite apart from saving money. There is a great deal to be said for circumvention, if no loss of principle is involved; why bash one’s head against a brick wall, for instance, if a little further on there’s a gate? Of course circumventing rather than opposing head-on some unjust tyrannous law is something else again, and less to be recommended.
source:
Miss Bianca and the Bridesmaid
by Margery Sharp
illustrated by Erik Blegveld
1972. Little, Brown & Co., Boston MA
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