Word of the Day

Word Nerd has a word-of-the-day calendar.
Because she likes words. Because vocabulary lessons were fun and she always did well.
The word for Jan 31 was:
Scabrous: adj. 1. Having or covered with scales or small projections and rough to the touch. 2. Difficult to handle; knotty: a scabrous situation. 3. Dealing with scandalous or salacious material: a scabrous novel. (this definition comes fromthe American Heritage Dictionary Word-a-Day calendar.)
This one was new. Many of the words are vaguely familiar, or just too odd to really be valuable. But Word Nerd got to wondering just how this word would be used effectively in a sentence.

And then, enter Arturo Perez-Reverte. On the bottom of page 43 of Purity of Blood, there it was.

Even I, in my hiding place, understood, though I didn't yet comprehend exactly what role don Franciso was playing in such a scabrous affair.

No other word would have fit there quite as well. And Word Nerd (and now you) know what it means.