1. wapentake — subdivision of certain shires in Northern England and the Midlands, corresponding to the hundreds in other counties Though an orderly appropriation was to be hoped for, in some outlying wapentakes the bailiff summarily took whatever goods were upon his list, often without payment or with payment only through tallies. 2. fog …
Author Archives: mysterious6030
Friday Vocabulary
1. reredos — decorated screen or wall behind altar in a church; brick or stone back of a fireplace The first project of the Church Restoration Committee will be to fund the repainting of the reredos in the Saint Matthew’s Chapel, using the extensive notes of the 19th-Century antiquarian Devon Shrikeston as our guide for …
Friday Vocabulary
1. prelapsarian — of or pertaining to the time before the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden; innocent and pristine; supralapsarian (vide infra) My studies in that liberal arts college in New England were an academic prelapsarian nirvana, funded by the GI Bill. 2. blacksnake — long, heavy leather whiplash He weren’t …
One Hundred and Sixteen Thousand Songs (116,000)
Over 93 days after my last thousand songs were heard, I have just listened to my 116,000th unique iTunes track, a likable enough country number from Rosanne Cash, “Green, Yellow, and Red”, from her 1987 album King’s Record Shop. I am reliably informed (well, yes, I read it on the Interwebs) that Ms. Cash was …
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Friday Vocabulary
1. nastic — (biology) (of plant movement) caused by external stimulus which does not determine direction of response A strong flick of the finger against the leaf of a mimosa plant creates a strong nastic response, with the leaf quickly and visibly folding up in a striking example of thigmonasty. 2. snug — (nautical) …
Lexicographer’s Dozen
1. Desterham — Turkish minister of finance (variant of defterdar, apparently only used by Voltaire in his story Zadig) The case was brought before the Grand Desterham, who had both parties beaten soundly with knouts so that both would know the majesty of Babylonian justice. 2. bizzie — (British slang) policeman or policewoman; (pl.) …
Friday Vocabulary
1. bolus — overlarge pill; round soft mass, esp. of chewed food What it cost him to swallow this enormous bolus of shame and degradation I hope never to learn. 2. chyme — quasi-fluid mass of food acted upon by gastric processes and passed into the small intestine The presence of chyme in the …
Book Note: Photo Quotes
Friday Vocabulary
1. saveloy — highly seasoned dried sausage, usually bright red Though the white tablecloth and perfectly unctuous staff were more suited to coq au vin, my dining companion demanded two orders of saveloys and chips which were brought almost immediately to our table, perhaps procured from the fish and chips shop in the row behind …
Friday Vocabulary
1. vinegarroon — large whipscorpion found in Mexico and the southern United States, with a nasty, though nonvenomous, sting At first I thought the vinegarroon was another myth created by my dad to embellish his tales, like the two-by-two cactus, and then I saw one, though my mind still disbelieved, saying, “Oh, hell no!” …