Friday Vocabulary

1. murmuration — flock of starlings (sometimes applied to other birds)

The gyring movement of the murmuration resembled a gentle whirlpool in the air as the birds suddenly decided to quit their perches in the elm overhanging the river.

  2. dynamics — variation in volume of musical sounds

The quiet portion of the song “Shout!”, and the subsequent build-up back to the chorus, as seen in the movie Animal House, is a classic example of dynamics in a non-classical musical piece.

  3. cantle — rear part of a saddle, often curved upward

Attempting to do the Kirk Douglas leap onto the horse just below, he tripped on a loose board on the porch and instead of gracefully falling into the saddle found himself hurled groin-first onto the cantle, which at least was not as painful as a collision with the saddle-horn would have been.

  4. sabretache — leather pouch attached to sword-belt of a cavalry officer

The young hussar affected quite the devil-may-care attitude, though we, his closest familiars, knew that in his sabretache were every letter he had received from his aged mother, as well as the small pocket bible she had given him at his first communion.

  5. prevaricate — to deviate from straightforwardness, hence a) to lie or evade the truth, or b) to transgress

Despite my best intentions not to prevaricate when the authorities came upon the bloody scene, I found myself making all manner of excuses for both my presence and my actions in that horrid melee.

  6. jauk — (Scots) to dawdle

“Don’t be jaukin’ along the road home from the Widow Green, but come home the instant you give her the news.”

  7. lithe — flexible, pliant, supple; gentle, meek

Tom Bombadil’s partner was so lithe that she could lean herself backwards head-to-heel, from which position she used to pluck blackberries from the bush behind their cabin.

  8. mensural — pertaining to measure

In a pinch, I suppose, the slide rule could be used for mensural duty, though you would have to do some further calculations to convert from the logarithmic indicium to a linear measure.

  9. coffer — sunken panel in a ceiling or soffit

Visitors to Washington, D.C. find the subway stations are all the same when one exits the train, each being a long arch of gray concrete decorated with dreary rectangular coffers.

  10. grazier — person who grazes cattle for market

Though he often fed his cattle from the public weal of public lands, the British grazier of the 19th Century rarely contributed to the public purse.

Bonus Vocabulary

(slang, current 2018-2019)

to flex on — to (sometimes subtly) put someone down by showing your superior skills, ability, or possession

He should have known better than to try and flex on an English professor by correcting her grammar.