1. tarlatan — thin, open-mesh muslin, used frequently for ballroom gowns We could discern Jason’s sisters only with difficulty, hidden as they were within a cloud of tarlatan finery of pink and green. 2. scratty — (colloquial) unkempt, scruffy; scrawny By this time, Peele was living in a scratty little SRO by the bus …
Author Archives: mysterious6030
Friday Vocabulary
1. lac (also lakh) — (in India) one hundred thousand, esp. of rupees; (fig.) a large, indeterminate number He died as he lived, the master of lac on lac of rupees, without even an ostentatious tomb to mark his passing. 2. indiction — fifteen year time period used in Roman Empire from time of …
500 Books
I have finally finished reading my 500th book since I started tracking such data back in June of 2015. This half-millennium mark was crossed by the completion of the sociological study of consumer habits of the lower-class project dwellers in Manhattan, The Poor Pay More. I received this book in error thinking instead to receive …
Friday Vocabulary
1. boscage — mass of shrubs or trees, thicket His naked legs were covered with scratches from the thorns in the surrounding boscage he had forced his way through. 2. entablature — (architecture) horizontal construction supported by columns in classical temples and the like, consisting of an architrave, a frieze, and a cornice The …
Friday Vocabulary
1. barracoon — temporary holding place for prisoners, esp. slaves The king wished to drive the emigrants away from Port Cresson so that the barracoon could be reopened and his lucrative trade in human souls could recommence. 2. caftan (also kaftan) — loose-fitting, full-length garment with long wide sleeves, worn throughout the Middle East, …
Friday Vocabulary
1. draegerman — specially trained miner who is expert in underground rescue The boisterous draegermen, still prideful after their success at the Slewton Slide, kept teasing the old miner at the end of the bar. 2. ted — to spread out or to strew for drying As the orange sun cast its parting rays …
Friday Vocabulary
1. penetralia — innermost part (esp. of a temple); most secret or private parts We rushed into her well-appointed toilette, and found her already dying, lying in the very penetralia of her boudoir before a beautiful Art Nouveau vanity, a tortoise-shell brush still clutched tightly in her hand. 2. chary — wary, shy, sparing, …
Friday Vocabulary
1. nosology — classification of disease Psychiatric nosology frequently ignores the cultural determinants of so-called mental illnesses. 2. fulminate — to flash like lightning; to explode; to thunder forth condemnation(s); to inveigh violently Though the board has fulminated numberless edicts, motions, and denunciations against the developer, the situation remains exactly as it was one …
Almost Perfect
One of the reasons (among many) that I despair of ever pulling together mix CDs for my cousins, is the occasionally wondrous serendipity of random play choices by iTunes on my phone whilst driving to and fro. Recently the last two days of July saw just such fortuitous track listings pulled out of the algorithmic …
Friday Vocabulary
1. forfend — to protect by precautionary measures; to prevent, to fend off Try as they might to forfend from her everything likely to bring Clarence back to mind, they were powerless to stop the lawyers with their evil videotaped depositions. 2. glabella — line of flat space on forehead between and above eyebrows; …