Friday Vocabulary

1. valetudinarian — person obsessively concerned with his or her poor health

Their daughter caught what I call the valetudinarian disease, her parents worrying her so about any possible vector for germs in her environment that she seemed to have built up no resistance whatsoever to even the simplest illnesses, and thus she was always sick.

  2. shabracque — saddlecloth used by European hussars

Our regiment’s brave green and gold uniforms were repeated upon our shabraques, where the regimental crest was detailed in lustrous golden threads.

  3. sunder — to split or cleave

He continued to defend his peculiar concept of liberty and in that moment of excited over-explanation our partnership was sundered for evermore and I realized that I must needs search for a new knifeboy.

  4. outwith — outside

They will have to learn how to function outwith the European Union’s regulations.

  5. flavescent — yellowish, turning a pale yellow

My ill mood was not helped by the dawning morn, as the fog clung stubbornly and gave the daylight a sickly flavescent aura that betokened no good.

  6. logy — dull in thought or movement

I pulled myself out of the couch where I had passed out earlier and trod with logy steps up the stairs, every muscle in my thighs and knees protesting.

  7. merlon — upright section of battlement between crenels

I ducked back behind the merlon to quickly reload my crossbow, turning the cranequin as quickly as possible, when I spied a small enemy party that had breeched the wall opposite.

  8. hobbledehoy — an awkward youth

Do not be fooled into thinking that these ideas are merely the vain musings of some hobbledehoy upon subjects outside his ken, for just as all youths grow and and some grow wiser, so may these ungainly ideas mature into persuasive thoughts which could set the pattern for decades to come.

  9. goffer — to flute or crimp by means of a heated iron

She sat in the dark with her costume discarded, save for the goffered collar always associated with the first Queen Elizabeth.

  10. slattern — slovenly woman or girl

We were served weak ale by a short, plump slattern who refused to serve young John until we gave her an extra copper.