1. plinth — square slab supporting a column; pedestal for statue The fancifully decorated sarcophagus lay upon a rough-hewn stone plinth, upon which was a tiny inscription bearing the name of some long dead mason. 2. kedgeree — Indian dish of rice, onion, lentils, and spices; European dish of rice, fish, eggs My mother’s …
Category Archives: Vocabulary
Friday Vocabulary
1. tempestivity — timeliness, quality of occurring at the proper season or time You return from the wars with rare tempestivity, for your younger brother even this week has filed a writ with the sheriff laying claim to your mother’s property. 2. purler — spectacular fall; [obsolete] resounding blow sending one to the ground …
Friday Vocabulary
1. castellan — governor of a castle The handsome castellan worried more for his clothes and his hair than for the health of the peasantry in his care. 2. rose cold — rose fever, allergic condition triggered by rose pollen Though the storm shattered the windows, damaged the garden, and flooded the basement, at …
Friday Vocabulary
1. zone — girdle, belt, cestus Such his charm and then his force that at the end of this unequal warfare she threw away her virgin zone and ever after they cleaved together like the antient Mother and Father of our human race. 2. haycock — hay heaped into a cone We sat against …
Friday Vocabulary
1. tantalum — element with atomic number 73, a silver-grey rare metal The replacement of carbon filaments with tungsten, tantalum, or osmium was an important economic measure for the city, due to the significantly less current required to produce the same illumination. 2. cocker — patron or promoter of cockfights; spaniel breed trained to …
Friday Vocabulary
1. ontological — of or related to the nature of being or existence as such, about ontology; descriptive of category relations between concepts in a given field While in the army, his sergeant called such ontological speculation ‘pulling yourself up by your bootstraps’, but here at college his professor dismissed it as ‘circular reasoning’. …
Friday Vocabulary
1. mythomane — habitual liar, person compelled to fantasy or exaggeration Perhaps the same deep-rooted psychological propensity towards lying made him the excellent salesman he became; certainly his skill and experience as an unusually clever mythomane helped him as an active bigamist—or perhaps one should say ‘trigamist’, though of course he never solemnized his relationship …
Friday Vocabulary
1. contumelious — disdainfully insolent, contemptuous, scornfully rude Little wonder if, after hearing these contumelious remarks day after day about the laziness of modern day workers, of their lack of basic work ethic, if those selfsame workers become lazy and uncaring in response to the imprecations of their bosses. 2. union — [archaic] enormous …
Friday Vocabulary
1. arctics — waterproof overshoes appropriate for cold weather In my arctics and fur-lined gloves I thought myself ready for our little excursion, but I had not reckoned with the piercing frozen winds of that benighted valley. 2. orphrey — embroidered ornamental band or border on medieval vestments Among the heraldic devices embroidered upon …
Friday Vocabulary
1. dyspathy — antipathy, opposite of sympathy By the strange alchemy of sympathy and dyspathy, these two rivals who by common judgment should have been uncompromising enemies were instead courteous and understanding adversaries. 2. cincture — girdle, belt; enclosure He had gathered the rough buffalo hide he wore over his shoulders in a hempen …