1. Telfordize — to pave a road using Telford principles The sudden squalls inundated the terrain and flooded the newly constructed roads, damaging them after each reconstruction until the captain decided to Telfordize the roadways, raising them above the surrounding ground with large stones creating a foundation which helped quickly drain the road surface after …
Category Archives: Vocabulary
Friday Vocabulary
1. dawamesc (also Dawamesk) — greenish edible paste or marmalade consisting of hashish mixed with butter, sugar or honey, pistachios, cinnamon and other spices, musk, nutmeg, pine nuts, orange juice Perhaps the Algerian dawamesc was the first introduction into Europe of cannabis edibles, being served in 1844 at the Club des Hashischins in Paris. …
Friday Vocabulary
1. verisimilar — appearing true or real At first I thought myself deceived by a demonic phantasm, some tool of the dark forces assuming a verisimilar likeness to my favorite actor playing his most famous role, but then I realized it was just a cosplayer. 2. thrang — [Scots, N. England] busy, occupied with …
Friday Vocabulary
1. finca — large estate in Spain or Hispano-America The Labor Law of 1894 established the right of any worker in Guatemala to seek employment outside his finca on days when the owner was not using his labor. 2. trichiliocosm — [Buddhism] third order world of thousands of thousands of worlds, conception of universe …
Friday Vocabulary
1. dapperling — dwarf or child, esp. one neatly dressed; mushroom of the Agaricaceae family Face to face finally with my tormentor, I found him to be a smartly turned out dapperling with the missing monocle suspended like a mayoral chain beneath his chic imperial beard, and confess I did not know whether to bow …
Friday Vocabulary
1. crocodile — line of walking persons, esp. when composed of children Like some strange Pied Piper I led the crocodile through the rubble and broken walls, hoping the older children would encourage the younger and prevent those toddlers from falling aside before we had reached some semblance of safety. 2. gramercy — [archaic] …
Friday Vocabulary
1. ogee — [architecture] double curve with S-shaped cross-section Looking like a bubble or onion atop the larger main chamber of the still, the ogee before the neck allows the distillate to cool and condense, dropping some of the heavier products back into the pot and creating a purer, more satisfying, product. 2. Hierosolymite …
Friday Vocabulary
1. pasquinade — lampoon, satire The plywood boards over the old store windows were covered with rude (and crude) pasquinades of The Leader’s dalliance with the Princess of Earl, which some soul had tried to counter rudely (and crudely) by smearing the word ‘NO!’ over the broadsheets in black house paint. 2. circumjacent — …
Friday Vocabulary
1. ragout — highly seasoned meat dish I despise mutton in all its forms, and no amount of spices will make this ragout palatable to me. 2. connubial — of or related to wedlock or the state of marriage If it was not in the eyes of law and society exactly connubial it was …
Friday Vocabulary
1. perissodactyl — ungulate with an odd number of toes, such as equids, tapirs, and rhinos I slunk back into the bushes and retreated across the wash to avoid the perissodactyl and allowed a wide margin before returning to the path, hoping I’d left the rhino far behind. 2. quadragesimal — of or related …