1. malacologist — one who studies mollusks The French malacologist Pierre Denys de Montfort is most famous for his fanciful descriptions of the kraken, a enormous octopus that supposedly pulled large ships down beneath the waves. 2. cochineal — scarlet or crimson dye primarily used in cookery, made of a dried powder derived from …
Author Archives: mysterious6030
Friday Vocabulary
1. skew-whiff — askew, obliquely And just as we had gotten Mrs. Heriot back up on her feet, here came Jon the cooper charging down the hillside riding skew-whiff on his dappled gray mare. 2. antimasque — grotesque dance preceding or appearing between acts of a masque And finally the rude players of the …
Friday Vocabulary
1. bariatric — of or related to treatment of obesity and associated conditions He was too tall to use the ordinary walker whilst recovering from surgery, so they gave him a bariatric rollator instead, as that device could be adjusted to suit his great height. 2. carceralism — philosophy of or belief in prisons …
Friday Vocabulary
1. spadroon — straight single-edged light sword of the 18th and 19th Centuries Few weapons have been as poorly designed and as badly executed as the British Army’s spadroon of 1796. 2. cock a snook — [idiom] to show contempt; to make rude hand gesture with thumb on the nose with fingers extended The …
Friday Vocabulary
1. holism — theory or system asserting that the whole is greater than the parts From this youthful belief in a spiritual and psychological holism he moved to an even more radical reductionism, preaching that all so-called ‘elevated states’ stemmed from a combination of a mere three substances found within brain chemistry. 2. pig …
Friday Vocabulary
1. equipollent — of equal power; logically equivalent The first mistake in Wilber’s reasoning came when he declared that this negation was equipollent with absence, whereas even a schoolchild could have told him that not getting dessert was not the same as getting nothing at all. 2. misease — [archaic] misery, discomfort, suffering The …
Friday Vocabulary
1. bdellium — fragrant gum resin; the plant producing this resin We are told that manna was the color of bdellium, which can be found in several shades similar to those of amber, though in plant form it is a greenish white berry. 2. pteruge — protective strip of leather or stiffened linen, used …
Friday Vocabulary
1. bleck — black fluid; soot, smut He broke up the blecks at the back of the fireplace with a long staff of ash. 2. abulia — loss or severe reduction of volition, as symptom of mental disorder With the unending drumbeat of bad and worse news, how long before a citizen just gives …
Friday Vocabulary
1. scantling — small piece of wood, usu. used for studs etc.; blocks of wood of a given size; [nautical] framing timber of a vessel Finally we found the missing doubloon, covered in pitch and hidden in the scantlings just aft of the bilge. 2. pygarg — food animal, perhaps a species of antelope …
Friday Vocabulary
1. bolt — [botany] to change rapidly from growing primarily leaves to produce instead seeds and flowers Spinach plants will bolt in hot weather conditions, leaving a plant with a very bitter taste (if it does not become entirely inedible). 2. verge — rod or staff carried as badge of office You can see …