1. hustle-cap — old penny pitching game where coins are shaken in a cap In the colonial days of Pennsylvania there is even one report of a deadlocked jury determining their verdict by playing a quick game of hustle-cap. 2. tomelet — small tome The new (1929) tomelet from the World’s Classics Library containing …
Author Archives: mysterious6030
Friday Vocabulary
1. bonhomous — cheerful, full of bonhomie But don’t let his bonhomous front fool you, for inside that genial clumban lurks a cunning and devious mind, always set upon gaining profit and power by any means fair or foul. 2. slewfoot (also sluefoot) — [slang] detective, policeman; clumsy person “Ain’t gonna let no tinhorn …
Friday Vocabulary
1. beg the question — to assume the conclusion in a premise of a logical argument* But to claim that the Holy Bible—and specifically the King James translation in English of the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek originals—is the direct word of God, is merely to beg the question when this assertion is used to …
Friday Vocabulary
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 …
Friday Vocabulary
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. …
Friday Vocabulary
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 …
Book List: 1200 Books
As I told you over two months ago, I recently finished my twelve hundredth book in my little silly book tracking project. So—though we won’t be talking about the silly book pictured here (if you must know more about this awful and boring religious book masquerading as a science fiction slash fantasy novel, check out …
Friday Vocabulary
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 …
Friday Vocabulary
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 …
Friday Vocabulary
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 …