Educated Guesswork

1. foment — to incite, to encourage; to apply heat or ointment to (body part)

After the splint has been removed, foment the limb at least twice daily.

 

2. mugfaker — [obsolete slang]

We contacted all the mugfakers within three blocks of the boardwalk to see if they might have taken a portrait of the girl.

 

3. hiemal (also hyemal) — of or related to winter

His head was crowned with a hiemal garland of holly leaves and pine boughs.

 

4. egality — [archaic] equality

The egality and fraternity of The Revolution quickly gave way to less and less liberty.

 

5. illeism — referring to oneself in the third person

Bob Dole is the obvious contemporary practitioner of illeism, though the term derives from Julius Caesar’s various self-promoting histories.

 

6. instancy — immediateness; urgency, insistent nature

The instancy of sensory experience, argued the Belgian philosopher, discounts the sort of ‘best guess’ approach offered as a counterexample by his rival at Leiden.

 

7. subvention — grant of money for aid, support, or relief; honorarium paid to supposedly amateur athlete

The Riksdag has for years paid subventions directly to the parties, the amounts apportioned according to the number of seats held.

 

8. clunch — pale limestone rock mixture (sometimes with chalk or clay) used as building material

The normal range of clunch houses is eastern England and Normandy, so it is quite unusual to find a building—even a small outbuilding such as this one—deep in the mountains of Wales.

 

9. palliasse — mattress filled with straw

The rude palliasses laid near the feasthall hearth seemed the softest featherbeds after the last three nights in the rain upon the sharp sides of that flint mountain.

 

10. sucket — sweet made from candied fruit

“No one can beat your sucket for delicious flavor, Mary Ann!” he said.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(slang originating with carnies)

donniker (also donnicker) — outhouse, privy

When last seen, Reinhard had been headed to the donniker with an old issue of Vanity Fair.

 

1. nous — mind, reason; common sense

“Use your nous, Shelly!” the captain said, “Place the pickets up on the ridge, not the tents!”

 

2. mesclun — salad of mixed young greens

The agency claimed that a pre-packaged mesclun mix was implicated in the outbreak, but this was denied by the distributor.

 

3. stridulous — harsh, annoyingly shrill; of or related to stridor

The stridulous wheels on the bus go round and round, but not very well.

 

4. tope — Buddhist memorial mound, stupa

Of the many topes around Bhilsa, none still retain the very top of the dome, though many have preserved almost every other part of their ancient architecture.

 

5. insufflate — to blow or breathe into; to introduce air or gas into a body cavity

When the carbon dioxide is initially insufflated into the peritoneal cavity, a pressure greater than 10 mm Hg may indicate that an omentum or the preperitoneal space has been entered instead.

 

6. exequy (always now in plural) — funeral rite, obsequy

He left £4 for his exequies, as well as a small stipend for annual masses in memory of his wife.

 

7. fanfaronade — braggadocio, boastful talk

I am no supporter of such fanfaronade, though it now seems the rank and file expect these loathsome displays of chauvinism and bluster.

 

8. eyetooth — upper canine tooth of men and women

Pils would have given his eyeteeth for a championship bout, if he’d still had them.

 

9. pseudologue — habitual or pathological liar

Being a pseudologue, Timmy cared little if his tales were implausible, or even physically impossible.

 

10. craton — area of the earth’s crust and mantle which has remained unchanged by tectonic activity

Diamonds originate in the cratons of the earth and are from 2 to 3 billion years old.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(UK journalism)

red top — tabloid newspaper, from the usual use of red banners atop the front page to highlight the name of the paper

She’d had success writing for the red tops, but found it difficult to transfer those skills to her new position as publicist for Lambent Records.

 

1. balestra (also ballestra) — [fencing] leap towards opponent with an immediate lunge

Dimitrios closed the distance with a balestra feint to the sword arm shoulder, followed by an imbroccata to the chest, and Gregorio was hard-pressed to keep the Greek from ending the fight then and there.

 

2. pediophobia — fear of dolls

In this Hans Bellmer nightmare workshop, Florence was glad she was only menaced by a madman, and not also hampered by pediophobia.

 

3. stale — to urinate, esp. of horses or cattle

“I drank so much I could stale like a horse!”

 

4. bord — coalface leading into the seam; roadway in mine through which coal is extracted

In traditional bord and pillar mining, after most of the coal has been removed, the remaining pillars of the seam are removed in reverse order, working back to the mine entrance, so depillaring safely is vital.

 

5. scaphism — ancient Persian method of execution, possibly specious, in which the victim is bound between two small boats with his head and limbs remaining outside and then he is force-fed milk and honey until bloated and the remaining mixture slathered upon his exposed body parts, then left facing the sun whilst insects or other animals devour him alive

It is not only the wasps and bees and flies which torment the victim of scaphism, however, as the days-long torture creates sundry worms and other vile creatures amid the sufferer’s own egesta, and as he lies in his own filth with his horribly distended stomach, he has all too much time to contemplate his sad fate as he is devoured from without and within, dying a death of thousands of tiny gnawing bites.

 

6. hyperacusis — hypersensitivity to sound, esp. loud noises

Hyperacusis in veterans with PTSD is not uncommon, requiring delicate treatment, and this condition can be aggravated greatly if tinnitus is also present.

 

7. corrody (also corody) — lifetime pension of care given by religious house to maintain grantee

Of course there were many and varied types of corrodies throughout the Middle Ages, from benevolent bequests upon stalwart laymen who had worked all their lives at an abbey to grants forced upon a monastery by the king, but in all cases this lifetime allowance functioned as an early version of a pension, a nascent form of social insurance for the weak and elderly in a society dominated by the strong and the young.

 

8. little-go (also little go) — [British] preliminary examination during university courses to determine fitness to continue studies

By the end of Victoria’s reign, however, there were already concerns that requiring knowledge of two dead languages for the little-go did not prepare the future graduates of Cambridge for the changing world.

 

9. logothete (often capitalized) — administrative executive in Byzantine empire or its successor states

All negotiations between the Porte and the Patriarch had to pass through the logothete, who held his office through hereditary custom and knew quite well the value of his role as an intermediary.

 

10. merchet — feudal fine paid to lord upon a daughter’s marriage

Analysis of the Liber Gersumarum discounts the idea that most women who paid their own merchets were widows seeking to remarry.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(religious symbol)

Faravahar — preeminent symbol of Zoroastrianism, consisting of the upper body of a Persian man in a circle from which project wings and tail feathers and streamers; same symbol used generally for Persia or Iran

Of course, the appearance of the Faravahar on the Behistun Inscription may simply indicate the personal religious preference of Darius, but may also speak to the great king’s desire to impose a single religion upon his widespread peoples.

 

1. celt — unhafted bladed tool, usu. of stone or bronze, used as chisel or handleless axe

The similarity of celts found in Europe and the New World, however, has been claimed by some as evidence for earlier connections between the peoples found in the Americas and those of the Old World, or—as some would have it—the missing Lost Tribes of Israel.

 

2. anterior — occurring earlier in time, preceding; [biology] nearer the front, the head, or further from the mainstem

But this whole argument depends upon Lord Chillithane’s contention that the excursion to the mountains described by Antylus was anterior to the development of the structures discovered in the distant Novya Spletya colony, a doubtful logical leap at best.

 

3. chide — to rebuke, to find fault

“I won’t be chid for my dress by a man whose socks do not even match!”

 

4. sluff (also slough) — to shed; to ignore, to discard; to goldbrick

But Triers had sluffed off all the talk about Emma’s frivolities, and refused to hear any comments about her all evening.

 

5. troy weight — system of measurement with a pound of 12 ounces, an ounce of 20 pennyweights, with a pennyweight of 24 grains

Though one can be easily confused, remember always that the ‘grain’ is the same measure whether one uses avoirdupois or troy weight.

 

6. candid — frank, straightforward; unposed

The best attribute he brought to his profession was the candid expression in his honest face; from this, all the other ills followed.

 

7. otaku — obsessive fanboy, esp. of computers, anime, or manga

Otaku can be quite intelligent, experience pleasure and absorbing interest more easily, and are usually more focused and centered than the median in the societies in which they are found.

 

8. aspergillum — holy water sprinkler

We offer silver and gold aspergillums for all your sprinkling needs. (Note: not actual gold or silver.)

 

9. muslin — plain weave cotton fabric

How do I repair a book bound in green muslin-covered boards with tearing at the spine?

 

10. inselberg — monadnock, hill remaining on peneplain created by erosion

Most of the flora (taking the term in its most expansive meaning) found on these isolated inselbergs were acrocarpous mosses.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(historical)

Tityre-tu — member of criminal youth gang first seen in 1620s

More recent scholarship has cast doubt on the supposed anti-Catholic bent of most Tityre-tus.

 

1. recrudescence — reappearance, renewed outbreak, reoccurrence (esp. of something morbid or bad)

This recrudescence of simony, however, left most strata of society unconcerned, couched in this somewhat disingenuous language of sympathy.

  2. chirality — asymmetry of chemical compounds which cannot be superimposed upon its mirror image, ‘handedness’

The discovery of chirality among quarks, one of the smallest subatomic particles, shows how ‘deep’ is the deep structure of the universe.

  3. junket — cream cheese, or food made from sweet curds; pleasure trip, usu. one ostensibly for business purposes

The two senators on this junket were never actually seen by the press corps, it being assumed that they were tied up in important meetings with foreign dignitaries—and not, as rumor had it, fixed to the roulette wheel in the invitation-only back room at the local casino.

  4. lorn — forsaken; desolate

Emerging from the copse of trees we saw before us a lorn landscape of gloom, a meadow or marsh made from what had once been fruitful farmland, now returned to primeval mire.

  5. wuther — to blow, to bluster; to hurry

The frame of the one window had settled poorly, and the wind wuthered through the large gap all night.

  6. oriel — [architecture] bay window; protrusion from wall in which a bay window may be sited

Unusually, the oriel of the castle spans upwards across all four stories, with clever glasswork concealing each joint with the floors.

  7. turgor — swollenness; distention of plant cells

One assumes that his frequent headaches are due to the turgor of his self-confessed enormous brain.

  8. mootah — [slang] marijuana

“Billy,” she pleaded, “you said we’d smoke some mootah when I gave you the key.”

  9. lituus — curved military horn

The standards were held high, the troops assembled, and as soon as the signal was given and the lituii sounded the force would march forth from the besieged redoubt.

  10. agenesis — failed or anomalous development of body or part; sterility

Though a debilitating condition, the agenesis of the corpus callosum has proved a boon to research psychologists and other deep thinkers on the brain.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(British slang)

spark out — entirely unconscious

I slipped on the first step, whacked my head on the bannister, and got knocked spark out.

 

1. turpitude — vileness, inherent wickedness

If you insist on demonstrating your turpitude before me, I shall have to absent myself, to take a turn or two abovedeck and try to erase these sights from my memory.

 

2. superlunary — celestial or heavenly as opposed to worldly

Maimonides here points out that, though human beings are far and away the best creation formed from this base matter, we humans are still perhaps infinitely far from the superlunary beings and realms upon which this chapter focuses.

 

3. brawn — [British] head cheese

Raffala never got used to the diet of his fellow students, which appeared to consist of little more than brawn and ale, with emphasis upon the latter.

 

4. canted — leaning, inclined, sloping; angled

Cherry held her cup so weakly that the coffee canted sharply towards the rim, almost spilling, but these places are always wise to the needs of their patients, and never fill the cups or bowls more than half full.

 

5. preterist — one who believes Apocalyptic prophecies in the Bible refer to events which have already occurred; devotee of the past

Gerry had done much research on the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD as a firmly convinced preterist who saw all of Isaiah as referencing the horrific siege of Jerusalem and its aftermath.

 

6. nyctalopia — night blindness, inability to see clearly in dim light or at night

Yes, nyctalopia may be merely a consequence of aging, but it may also be a symptom of vitamin A deficiency.

 

7. patronymic — family name, surname, patronym

Usually, the Russian standard of using the two initials with the patronymic is sufficient to avoid confusion, although in this case it obviously failed.

 

8. hippomania — enthusiasm for horses

He inherited his father’s hippomania, but without that man’s fine ability to know when to cut his losses at the track.

 

9. dight — [archaic] to dress

As he stood in particolored livery dight he seemed almost as much a fool as he truly was.

 

10. exiguously — meagerly, scantily

She appeared before him so exiguously clad that he quite forgot why he had summoned her.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(India, from Hindi)

keep chup — to keep quiet, to stay silent

But Paulie was wise to these sort of schemes, and knew he’d better keep chup or he’d find himself out on the street, no longer allowed into the hallowed halls where the Masterful Eleven made their home.

 

1. blench — to flinch, to quail

Do not stare at me so, lest I blench under your steely gaze that I would rather looked lovingly upon my face.

 

2. conation — mental facility directed towards striving, will, desire, volition

Reichholz claimed that an internal focus upon conation had unintended negative consequences, that the awareness of desire might cause a subsequent reduction in the mind’s power to achieve that very desire.

 

3. loc (also ‘loc; usu. plural) — dreadlocks

Kenny showed up bald as Annie’s sugar daddy, and we all wondered what had made him shave off his glorious locs.

 

4. lazzarone (usu. plural) — beggar, wretched person; member of poorer class in Naples

But if we allow these horrid lazzaroni to dictate how public moneys are spent, what shall become of these beautiful works of triumphant art? Those wretches prefer rough food to spiritual sustenance.

 

5. lornly — forlornly, in a pitifully sad or lonely manner

“But you must go,” she said lornly as she wiped the tears with her maunch, “before the break of dawn and Sir Reggie’s return.”

 

6. amphisbaena — mythic serpent with head at either end; genus of American lizards

And when the sixth trumpet sounded, horses set upon men who had the same peculiarity as the amphisbaena, and the horses’ tails had heads which also injured with their teeth and sulfurous breath.

 

7. aerodyne — heavier-than-air aircraft which fly through use of aerodynamic forces

The ministry added to the very pressing question of right of aerial way the strange allowance that henceforth women shall be granted license to fly aerodynes under the same restrictions and qualifications as men.

 

8. chingle — [Scots] gravel

The homestead was not even good for sheep, for not enough grass could grow on the thin soil laying upon the chingle that ran all the way down to the very shore.

 

9. runcible — nonsense word meaning nothing invented by Edward Lear

Always a leader of fashion in his runcible trousers and spliffy shirts, the new MP removed his puce gloves to take a pinch of snuff.

 

10. runcible spoon — spoon with fork tines and a cutting edge, proto-spork

His ‘tactical spork’ turned out to be merely a runcible spoon made from ‘ballistic’ plastic—whatever that might be.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(UK slang)

hand s.o. his cards (also give s.o. his cards) — to fire, to lay off, to give someone their walking papers, to make redundant

She was handed her cards the moment she complained about that strange stain in the ladies’ bathroom, so you know how concerned that firm are with worker safety.

 

1. Quinquagesima — final Sunday before Lent, beginning of Carnival

The first appearance of Quinquagesima as a pre-Lenten feast (there is some evidence for the term being used for an anticipatory fast) cannot be found in Italy earlier than the 6th Century.

 

2. bimble — [British] to walk about in a meandering way with no fixed purpose

After we’d taken care of the luggage, we bimbled about the city, or at least the rather scruffy part of it surrounding the bus station.

 

3. holland blind (sometimes capitalized) — window shade consisting of heavy fabric around a roller which is lowered or raised to cover or uncover the window

He’d hidden the dangerous document by rolling it up inside the holland blind in the bedroom, but of course the agents found it almost immediately.

 

4. defilade — protection in a military position from observation or direct gunfire

The lieutenant had selected the site because of its excellent defilade, but he hadn’t figured on the Jerry artillery already having targeted our location because of just those same supposed advantages.

 

5. cafard — overwhelming depression

When she was seized by the cafard, he’d learned that there was nothing he could do to help her, no word or suggestion or action on his part would make her melancholy any less, or any less lengthy.

 

6. mistrustless — unsuspecting, trusting

Like all of his mistrustless race he was easy prey for these first emissaries of so-called civilization.

 

7. strangury — painful and frequent urge to urinate, even when bladder is empty

While it is true that strangury frequently accompanies gonorrhea, the social disease is by no means the only cause of that painful complaint.

 

8. appulse — forceful movement towards or against; apparent nearness between astronomical objects, conjunction

The close appulse of the lips required for the ‘m’ sound being almost impossible for several weeks after the accident, he could sound only a guttural ‘Aaargh!’ sound whenever he wish to call Margaret.

 

9. recalcitrant — stubbornly defiant; refractory, unmanageable

Somehow Mrs. Srimamsadeva had managed to turn the most recalcitrant 10th grader in the school into a model student, and all of the other teachers were anxious to learn her secret.

 

10. spindly — long and thin, esp. someone or something seeming weak or fragile

Chaz was a spindly thing leaning always against the wall by the door, his left boot hooked into a chair as if he feared a sudden gust of wind might blow him away.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(slang, 1920s & 1930s, from popular brand of the time)

Merry Widow — condom

“Be sure to have a couple of Merry Widows handy, if you know what I mean.”