Educated Guesswork

1. campanology — study of bells and their making, ringing, etc.

After enlisting the minister’s support in refocusing your church on the wonders of campanology, you shouldn’t immediately seek to introduce grandsire doubles to your bellringers.

2. veneer — thin layer of decorative wood, usu. placed over other cheaper wood; layer of wood used to make plywood; superficial attractive surface covering less attractive substance beneath

It wasn’t the lack of a plum in his mouth that betrayed his lower class origins—that could have been cured with elocution lessons—but rather the grubby neediness to be liked and approved which he covered in a veneer of brash confidence, both of which made him unattractive to just those people from old money whom he wished to appeal to.

3. tansy — herb with yellow flowers; 17th century dish using tansy for seasoning

On either side of the path grew happy little patches of tansy and verbena.

4. oscitant — yawning, gaping; tired, drowsy

He seemed an oscitant fellow, nearly nodding off behind his lectern, but he became a veritable whirlwind the moment Taylor’s name was mentioned.

5. hincty (also hinkty) — smugly superior, conceited

“Ever since Cab Calloway told him he blew real good he’s been too hincty to sit in on our sessions at Pete’s.

6. huarache — [Spanish] leather Mexican sandal

Of course he should have stopped talking such nonsense long before he felt his mother’s huarache slapping into the back of his head.

7. dacron — polyester material used for thread and cloth

He always looks sharp in his Dacron blend shirts and 100% Dacron slacks.

8. acerbly — sourly, bitterly

Of course she couldn’t leave it there and had to acerbly point out that she’d gotten three degrees in the same amount of time.

9. placket — slit in skirt or other clothing to facilitate putting on or taking off; pocket, esp. in a skirt; petticoat

The pants all had plackets with buttons, so that band members of various sizes could use and re-use the black trousers for years and years, no matter how much the waistlines diminished or grew.

10. decalcomania — transferring decals onto surfaces

But from fake tattoos her decalcomania moved on to decoupage and then to fabrics and grew and grew until every article of clothing in the house—even Billy’s athletic socks!—were covered in cheery slogans and cute images transferred from her burgeoning collection of iron-on decals.

11. cynosure — center of attention; guiding star

From almost the moment of their arrival in Peacock Village the Wilsons became the cynosure of all eyes, and they could hardly have a couple over for afternoon tea without starting new trends in fashion and politics.

Bonus Vocabulary

(British idiom)

plum in one’s mouth — speaking in a posh style associated with the upper class

We kept him around because he had a plum in his mouth from watching all those old actors like Gielgud and Guinness, though really he was just as naff as me.

1. marcescent — [botany] withered yet still attached

He still felt the pain when he thought of the door slamming his fingers during that drunken escapade, but also felt pride that his marcescent fingernails were still clinging stupidly to his fingertips, just as stubborn as he always was in the face of brute necessity.

2. slope — [British] to go surreptitiously

As soon as Dad turned back to his paper, I sloped out the back door, not wanting to be present when he noticed the broken vase.

3. sorites — [rhetoric] series of propositions or syllogisms where each conclusion becomes the subject of the next

Talking with Nana was like talking to an eight-year-old girl, in that every statement was sure to be followed by “Why?”, like some sort of infinite sorites in which like as not you’d end up with the very statement which had began the series, at which point you could be sure that Nana would once again simply say, “Why?”, though you could never be quite sure whether she noticed the infinite repetition or not.

4. sorb — fruit-bearing deciduous tree of the old world, the service tree; the fruit of this tree

Both the sorb and the medlar ripen only off the tree, and the sorb in particular attains a delicious mellow flavor about a month after being stored up.

5. astragal — anklebone; bead-shaped molding; molding at junction of double doors to prevent drafts

Copies of the astragal (or even the bone itself) were used by children down through the ages to play games similar to dice or jacks.

6. philoprogenitive — prolific, producing (many) offspring; of or relating to love of one’s offspring

Originally constructed as a maternity hospital, with three floors of birthing rooms and eight more of singles and doubles for the new and prospective mothers, this philoprogenitive brick structure had been converted to a more general hospital as the baby boom subsided.

7. pollard — to prune a tree almost back to its trunk so as to produce massed branches

One of the pollarded willows had either been pruned poorly, or had some other deficiency, as its branches seemed thin and dying.

8. cockshut — [obsolete] twilight, evening

Andy planned to move at cockshut time, hoping that the gloaming might hide his movements from the patrols.

9. hent — [obsolete] to seize, to take

This potroon, who the style of king has hent, shall trouble these green hills no more after tomorrow morn.

10. jessie — [UK slang] sissy, coward, effeminate boy or man

“So I told the little jessie if he wanted his money back he could fight me for it, and that’s the last I heard of him, innit?”

11. legicentric — organized around and dedicated to the supremacy of statutes and the law

In the seemingly infinite regulations of the European Union one can see the influence of the French État idéal, the legicentric state where primacy must always be given the the law, even if the rules promulgated have precious little to do with the reality of life as lived by most of its subjects.

Bonus Vocabulary

(French)

en grande tenue — in full dress uniform, in elegant style

Though she may keep a household almost filthy by our standards, this woman of the working class will be seen on a Sunday always en grande tenue, wearing clothes and jewelry that might feed her hungry children for months.

1. brannigan — drinking bout; brawl

We’ve had no trouble to speak of since you left for back east, a brannigan or two but nothing me and Deputy Fievel couldn’t handle, so don’t worry about hurrying home.

2. frighten the horses — [idiom] to upset public standards, to cause moral alarm

“Now I don’t want to frighten the horses, but the issue of teenage pregnancy cannot stop merely at demands for complete abstinence.”

3. billhook — sharp bladed hand tool with hook at end

Jemmy found that a billhook was more effective than a machete for clearing this type of underbrush and breaking trail.

4. tocology — study of childbirth

At the time, of course, midwifery was thought best left to the distaff half, and in some quarters tocology seemed hardly worthy of any medical student with serious intent.

5. plaice — type of flounder fish

“Surely you cannot think that you’re the first entrepreneur to think of naming a fish shop ‘The Plaice For Chips’?”

6. metope — [architecture] panel between triglyphs in a Doric frieze (as one does)

Most of the frieze was severely damaged, and only by perhaps risky conjecture could the two stone torsos still remaining on the central metope give evidence that this site was hallowed by the Bull cult, as Braithewaite has argued.

7. fruitive — fruitful; enjoying, possessing

The Bishop of Halstead argued against Mill’s stance that man was not fruitive and active by turns, but rather in conjunction, simultaneously and by nature.

8. orgeat — syrup made from almond paste mixed with rosewater or orange water; similar syrup made from barley

Dr. Rowenthal found that an orgeat made from pumpkin seeds, combined with ether rubbed upon the sufferer’s belly, was a sovereign cure for tapeworm.

9. purulent — made of, filled with, or discharging pus

This new variety of the disease presented as a rubicund rash upon the back and legs which quickly turned into purulent sores.

10. apolaustic — dedicated to pleasure or enjoyment

Only the richest sovereigns (or perhaps the most depraved hedonist) can truly pursue an apolaustic lifestyle.

11. planxty — solemn yet convivial Irish air for the harp

Though it is true that a planxty can be a mournful tune, you will not hear it at a funeral—though you may at the wake that follows.

Bonus Vocabulary

(industrial motion studies)

therblig — basic unit of motion used by manual workers (according to system created by Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, American industrial psychologists)

Though the system of eighteen therbligs was merely an extension of the robotizing Taylorite micromanaging of industrial workers so beloved by those in the front office, and still has its place in some Six Sigma training programs, no similar system has ever been developed for the supposed work done by ‘management’—only the ‘Plan’ therblig might apply—, so perhaps a system might be created, with such new ‘thinkbligs’ as Ponder, Daydream, Meet, Ratiocinate, and PowerPoint.

1. non sequitur — [Latin, sorta] disturbingly inapt transition or sequence; statement not logically following its precedent

I had already given up trying to follow the plot with its plethora of holes and non sequuntur, but the literal resurrection of the bishop killed so drastically in the very first scene of the movie solely so that he could reveal the location of the treasure map was a ludicrous bridge too far for me.

2. sucker — [obsolete] inhabitant of Illinois

A rowdy crowd of hoosiers joined the suckers around the debate stage in Jonesboro.

3. imbrute — to transform or devolve into a brute; to make brutal

Olmsted’s relentless inventory of missed opportunities, failed projects, passive squalor, and degraded morals makes clear how slavery had imbruted the owners as much as the slaves themselves, if not moreso.

4. hygroscopic — absorbing moisture from the surrounding atmosphere

But the hygroscopic crystals used in these dehumidifiers can be quite toxic if ingested, so proper disposal is important.

5. greengage — light green plum

While we were talking my horse nibbled at some greengages that had fallen to the ground.

6. conglobulate — to make into a ball

Now the worms began to writhe and join together in a horrid mass, conglobulating into a leprous sphere that made my stomach heave.

7. brevier — size of printing type, usu. judged nowadays equivalent to 8 point type

By trimming the contents header, we were just able to add an inch-and-a-half in brevier stating this new information in such a way as to avoid the legal danger Mr. Markus had pointed out.

8. aerobate — to perform dramatic maneuvers with aircraft

After the war Nicholas became a barnstormer, aerobating for the farmers outside Dubuque with an old Jenny he’d patched up, but never really approaching the thrill he’d felt when contending with other warriors of the air in skies where death was a constant companion.

9. zeugma — [rhetoric] use of a word to modify two other words either in two different senses or in an inappropriate (sometimes for humorous effect) fashion

Cornball then shred the eviction notice and his guitar, a zeugma which unfortunately only occurred to me much later.

10. vorlage — skiing position in skier leans well forward while keeping heel down on the ski

Somehow the back heel clip had become damaged, making impossible the extreme vorlage I needed to escape these skiing gunmen.

11. Vorlage — [German] earlier version of a text

Even the interesting symmetry shown by Paskukov between the two cantatas cannot prove the existence of a heretofore undiscovered Bach Vorlage, as Scott claims in his recent article.

Bonus Vocabulary

(Soviet Union)

nomenklatura — official list of bureaucrats and appointees to government posts in the Soviet Union; the people on such lists; any elite or other privileged group

In trying to storm the citadel held by the academics of this most conservative (if not most prestigious) state university system, the revolutionary professors succumbed to the risk faced by all exorcists, becoming members of the nomenklatura themselves, and defending the high towers of academe just as vigorously (and viciously, at least in the Tennis Elbow Affair) as had their quondam opponents.

1. cambion — child with one human and one demonic parent

As no one suspected Marta of being anything but a gullible human girl, and since the fishermen all knew her boy Toby to be a cambion, the village was convinced she’d been seduced by an incubus, likely taking the form of her own Long Tom, lost these many years ago in the storm of ’86.

2. patria potestas — [Latin] absolute power in law of a father in Roman times over his progeny

Still the debate rages today over whether the ancient claims of female guardianship came before those of patria potestas, the advocates of an archaic matriarchal society, of course, favoring such precedence.

3. spit — measure based on length of a gardening spade

Rhododendrons will grow well in furrows dug two spits deep.

4. hegumen — monastery head in Eastern Orthodox churches

By the time of the NEP the hegumen had become head of the committee providing aid to single mothers.

5. colorable — seemingly true

While both teams of lawyers were making colorable claims about jurisdiction and prior claims, Ernest was making his own arrangements with both sets of potential heirs.

6. vernal — of or related to spring; of youth

He stood, transfixed, as Ashley removed her large floppy hat and rolled her head back, eyes closed, enjoying the sun’s vernal warmth upon her face and shoulders.

7. anosognosia — neuropsychiatric disorder in which sufferer takes no cognizance of their own serious disability

Though Henry must have been found it quite painful to walk with the foot-long metal spike embedded through his heel, some strange anosognosia held him in thrall all during that long march back to camp, and his only complaints were directed at his boots, which he swore must have been manufactured poorly to cause him such difficulty in hiking across the rocky terrain.

8. barbola (also barbola work) — decorative fruit or flowers made from barbotine; such decoration when added to a craft piece

The top of the mirror was covered with fanciful barbola, as if the cornucopia of harvest fruits might make more fruitful the woman using the looking glass.

9. kudu — large striped African antelope

Our fears were raised when we saw a party of jackals feasting on a corpse, but when we got closer we discovered they were merely tearing the flesh off of a kudu carcass.

10. badmash — miscreant, ruffian, dishonest man or youth

Annie had no idea who the actual thieves were, and though the colonial police questioned the filthy badmash who had first stopped our party, he firmly denied any involvement in the affair.

11. drumlin — small elongated hills formed by glaciation

This part of Wisconsin is known for the highest concentration of drumlins ever seen, so you can be sure to find a geologist in every bar or restaurant, should you ever need one.

Bonus Vocabulary

(British)

twoc — to steal, esp. a car (from the phrase ‘taking without owner’s consent’)

As somebody who thought of twocking as merely a youthful folly, a rite of passage for certain chavs, I was surprised to find that in Australia it had the aspect of class war between bourgeois shop owners and aboriginals.

1. langlauf — to ski cross-country

He thought of langlaufing to the forester’s hut, but decided it was impracticable with these wide skis he’d been forced to use.

2. antetype — prototype, early form

Thus these radio clubs were the antetype of the grand scheme of fan clubs which became so important to the Argentinian film industry of the 40s and 50s.

3. sit-upon — [informal] the buttocks

“Well, I’ve got a slash across my sit-upon that’ll have me favouring a standing desk for a week or two, but other than that I’m all right.”

4. erst — [archaic] once, formerly

See you there that wretch that erst commanded men, troops, yay, even whole armies, now laid so low as to come begging at my door?

5. nootropic — cognition-enhancing drug

Although much hullaballoo is made about nootropics or so-called “smart drugs”, such noise has been bruited since at least the era of Mondo 2000, when people were advised to take acetylcholine to enhance their brain function.

6. irid — iris of the eye

His steely irids completed his aloof visage, and I found I could not endure their cold focus and must look away.

7. bootjack — forked device designed to assist in removal of riding boots

Ebenezer was furious when he learned that Glory Ann had broken apart the bootjack for firewood, partly because it was a useful item, but mostly (as I think) because he had received it from his grandfather before everything fell apart.

8. bedad — euphemism for ‘By God’

“Tell them to leave, and quickly, but that if they return, bedad, they’ll learn how far they’ve worn out their welcome to this house!”

9. rushlight — rush-candle, weak candle made from dipping dried pith of a rush into grease; the light emitted from a rush-candle

We awoke several hours before dawn, dressed ourselves by rushlight and began our numerous chores.

10. photophobia — pain or discomfort in eyes due to exposure to light

The medication worked well to alleviate her symptoms, but we had to discontinue its use due to her constant reports of photophobia.

Bonus Vocabulary

(Japanese)

sanpaku — condition in which whites of the eyes are visible below or above the pupil

Charles Manson, Lady Diana, and JFK were all noted for their sanpaku eyes, which according to Chinese medicine indicates an imbalance in the psychic and physical system.

1. calipee — food delicacy made from fatty substance immediately above lower shell of a tortoise

Besides a fine stew, I was invited to enjoy the calipee, my first experience with this delectable treat.

2. pastophore (also pastophorous) — lower priest of ancient Egypt charged with keeping the door of the temple

If this reading be credited, this lonely pastophore was quite content in his role, feeding and caring for the holy birds used in temple rites.

3. peristyle — [architecture] row of columns around a yard or buiding; yard within such a colonnade

Within the central peristyle formed by sixteen columns stands a marble fountain depicting either the rape of Leda or some darker fantasy of the artist.

4. terebinth — tree of the Mediterranean region noted for its longevity and turpentine

Eusebius himself saw this famous terebinth still living late in the fourth century of the Common Era.

5. ad libitum — [Latin] as much as one wishes, without restriction, ‘according to pleasure’

Breadsticks ad libitum turned out to be much safer for Olive Garden than the endless shrimp which put paid to Red Lobster.

6. photism — luminous hallucination

But each phrase, sentence, each word of that fateful letter seemed imbued to MacReady with a shining tinge of light, a photism of great import that surrounded each letter of her message as he read the words her beautiful hand had impressed upon the ragged edge paper.

7. imprescripible — absolute, incapable of being taken away by law

Thus the close of the 18th Century found lawyers and philosophers alike fixated upon defining rights in this negative sense, drawing up lists of these imprescriptable rights and qualities, rather than setting their shoulders to the proper task of law, prescribing limits and procedures for legal actions.

8. fellah — peasant, worker, or farmer of Egypt or North Africa

The ox was followed by the inevitable fellah holding the arms of the wooden plow just as his father and his father’s had done since time immemorial.

9. fathomer — [nautical] sailor assigned duty of sounding depth

The fathomer sounded out “By the mark, six” in the silence of the night and the hushed crew.

10. lapstone — [archaic] stone placed in lap against which shoemaker beat and stretched leather

The pensive cordwainer now stretched the dyed goatskin by hand against his lapstone, manipulating it into its final shape for these most precious boots.

Bonus Vocabulary

(idiom)

beggar’s lice (also beggar’s-lice, beggars’-lice, beggar lice) — any of many plants which deposit sticky bits onto clothes

I usually didn’t mind the beggar’s lice you got when rutching through bushes and brambles to avoid the main paths, but this time I’d gotten some piece stuck on my sock just at my inside ankle and it made every step a pain, but I couldn’t see any clearing where I could take my shoe off to get at it, and besides, I’d just get more stuck to me before I got through this underbrush and away from Sheriff Parker.

1. Flemish horse — [nautical] extra footrope along yardarm

As he clutched to the foremast yardarm with his fearsome thighs, his feet comfortably standing on the Flemish horse, Logan spied the telltale spume of their prey.

2. darbies — [British slang] handcuffs

Somers had somehow slipped his darbies, and now he held a pistol in either hand and demanded we unlock the door.

3. lout — [archaic] to bow, to stoop

And as he louted so, his eyes fixed upon the stones, I made a sign to Lance to prepare for action.

4. intarsia — elaborate Italian form of marquetry; decorative yarnwork using multiple colors of yarn

X-rays revealed the device hidden beneath the intarsia panel of the cabinet.

5. ophthalmia — eye inflammation, esp. conjunctivitis

Morning spit used to be thought beneficial for relief of ophthalmia, though nowadays you’re more likely to be prescribed eyedrops.

6. bilboquet — child’s toy consisting of stick with cup and attached string; game using such toy where player attempts to catch the ball in the cup of the toy

Beneath the eaves of the restaurant were painted scenes of mysterious women engaged in nonsensical activities: a milkmaid changing a tire, a medieval lady retrieving a cellphone from her maunches, an Asian beauty reading the newspaper while playing with a bilboquet with her other hand, and a jogger shooting bolts from her mirrored sunglasses at hexawinged insects.

7. vair — [heraldry] regular tesselated cup-shaped design in alternating colors, usu. blue and white (‘argent’); fur of a white-bellied squirrel used often in medieval times for trimmings of coats, etc.

I stared jealously at the gorgeous vair lining of his riding cloak, coveting its warmth even as I resented its owner.

8. inenarrable — inexpressible, unable to be described, not narratable

I retain a memory of the weather, the setting sun and the slight breeze through the trees, and seem even to recall a slow cicada’s cry and my own pulsing heartbeat, but only the sense of the experience remains to me, profound and life changing (as you shall see), though the inenarrable details and even so obvious a fact as just how I ended up sitting in the wet grass with the bird in my trembling hand elude me now and I think eluded me even at that long ago moment of piercing significance.

9. transpicuous — transparent, easily understood

Welton stood in the transpicuous shade of the elms, the dappled light making his knowing smile more friendly, if that were possible.

10. fard — to apply makeup, to paint one’s face

She had so farded herself as to resemble no woman ever I saw, and I could scarcely recognize my lovely Jessie beneath the deep slathered layers of clownlike colors.

Bonus Vocabulary

(British & Australian slang)

play silly beggars (euphemistic form of play silly buggers) — to fool around, to engage in stupid or rash behavior

“Okay, now, man,” the constable said, not unkindly, “but that’s no reason to play silly beggars and end up in gaol for disturbing the peace.”

1. naff — [British colloquial] vulgar, tasteless

She wore some naff green and yellow stretch pants which rather emphasised just those portions of her anatomy which she should have downplayed.

2. draw — [slang] marijuana; bag of cannabis

We all figured Tammy turned a blind eye to the draw, just as she had to the incident with the plowblade and the ball bearings, but eventually we decided she was just ignorant.

3. congress gaiters — ankle boots with elastic on sides

Those boots I bought at that Alabama store took me all over the foothills and moors of England, but my absolute favorite pair of shoes were those very chic congress gaiters I picked up for a song while out for a stroll on a Saturday morning after I’d first moved to Spotsylvania.

4. cut the cackle — [British idiom] stop messing about (and move on to serious matters)

“Well, I’m sure we’re all very interested in Miss Peavsney’s latest woes with her snake farm, but it’s time to cut the cackle and figure out what we’re going to do about the damage to the roof of the vicarage.”

5. eftsoons — [archaic] soon after

The peal of the bell began to fade, eftsoons he turned the earth with his spade.

6. apical — of or related to an apex

Unbeknownst to we three smiling lads, this was the apical moment of the company’s history, and soon the indictments and injunctions, the backbiting and accusations, the lawyers and the prosecutors, every force in the universe it would seem would seek to tear us down and apart, as indeed those forces and our own unconquerable greed did in fact do.

7. eximinous — [obsolete] noteworthy, excellent

While we awaited the judgment of that eximinous personage we distracted ourseves with several hands of euchre.

8. perscrutation — penetrating and minute inquiry

The subject of his perscrutation had been the original architecture of the old manor house and its environs, and this explained (as best anyone could explain such a useless and academic madness) Beverill’s sojourn among the outbuildings, armed only with his transit, plumb, and compass.

9. discobolus — discus thrower; statue of same

Even the most untrained eye can perceive that the head of the discobolus is not the work of the same artist who carved the remainder of the statue.

10. cozenage — scam, fraud; practice of cheating

So beware the practitioners of cozenage, certainly, but not so rigidly that you flee all society and adventure.

Bonus Vocabulary

(British idiom)

more power to your elbow — expressing approval of someone’s actions and hopes for their continued success

“But he’s not drunk a pint since his Mam was taken to hospital—more power to his elbow—though it’s anyone’s guess as to how long he’ll be able to keep on the water wagon.”