1. pongo — [British slang] soldier; [obsolete] large ape, as an orangutan or gorilla “I’m not about to let some bloody pongo wheedle his way into Lucy’s affections!” 2. perennial — perpetual, enduring; [biology] of a plant with a life cycle lasting over two years; recurrent Usually Garland found the perennial vigor and enthusiasm …
Category Archives: Vocabulary
Friday Vocabulary
1. choler — anger, ire, irritability Nothing could raise Ira’s choler so much as the suavity of robots. 2. cat — [UK slang] to vomit “Sorry I almost catted back there,” Timothy said in his oh-so-serious voice, “but the news took me somewhat by surprise.” 3. cannikin (also canikin or canakin) — small …
Friday Vocabulary
1. trotter — animal that trots; foot of an animal (esp. sheep or pig) used as food Harqma, a spicy stew of lamb trotters, is a delicious Ramadan dish. 2. taphonomy — study of processes affecting living tissues after death, esp. with regards to fossilization Shriver was an expert in forensic taphonomy, and had …
Friday Vocabulary
1. undulate — to move in a wavelike manner; to look like a wave Keith dropped to the dance floor to do The Worm, and proceeded to undulate as if he had never seen Dune, Part Two. 2. thermotaxic — of or related to biological heat regulation Petey shivered in thermotaxic response to the …
Friday Vocabulary
1. thirl — to pierce, to drill To signify his acceptance by the tribe they thirled a hole through his right nostril, and he ever after wore there a ring of gold as a token of that day. 2. sallow — of pale sickly yellow color, esp. of skin Since last I had seen …
Friday Vocabulary
1. orthoepy — study of pronunciation; correct pronunciation No matter how many times he was told that pronouncing ‘Jacobean’ as if accented on the second syllable with a long ‘o’ was not correct orthoepy, Yakov insisted upon mispronouncing it so, until it became a sort of proud talisman of error for the staunch Pynchonophile. …
Friday Vocabulary
1. polysemy — quality of word, sign, phrase, or concept having multiple (often similar) meanings Translation is made even more difficult, of course, by the ingrained polysemy present in every human language—with the possible exeception of some artificial, invented tongues. 2. hymeneal — of marriage; of the hymen Not until he saw the overtaut …
Friday Vocabulary
1. infandous — of that which should not be told; odious in the extreme, horrid I shuddered and steeled myself once more to descend those irregular stairs and enter the wretched basement where Jeremiah had spent the last days of his tortured life, to gaze once more upon the infandous figures in the charcoal drawings …
Friday Vocabulary
1. loosestrife — common name of flowering plants of two distinct genera: Lythrum and Lysimachia So many flowers fall under the general rubric of the loosestrifes that it is often unclear which is meant, as—for example—the scarlet pimpernel from which the famous hero took his name, which is one of over two hundred plants bearing …
Friday Vocabulary
1. toerag (also toe-rag) — [British colloquial] worthless or despicable person; vagrant But I’m not about to be made to feel guilty by some toerag whose problems are all his own. 2. noddle — [British] the head This job’s not a very good use of your fine old noddle, now is it? 3. …