Friday Vocabulary

1. palestra — (ancient Greece) place devoted to public teaching and wrestling and athletics

Epicurus knew well how divisive his teachings were and preferred to instruct his followers at his home, shunning outdoor schools such as the Academy where onlookers would kibitz as if at the palestra.

  2. ataraxy — state of freedom from emotional distress and anxiety

Though sometimes confused with stoical indifference, ataraxy engenders a calm demeanor due to the strong philosophical foundation of the person blessed by its presence.

  3. contumacy — perverse and obstinate resistance to authority

Though the modern age may hardly give credence, a person’s indulgence in contumacy was once seen as a greater evil than his actual criminal acts.

  4. Toby — jug or mug formed in likeness of fat old man wearing a tricorn hat

One thing led to another, she pulled when I pushed, and with a cry from both of us the brightly colored Toby fell from our hands to shatter upon the faux marble tile, revealing an aged parchment which had been concealed therein.

  5. cumshaw — gratuity, present, tip

The British agents were completely ignorant of the cult of cumshaw and missed every hint I made of a bribe to speed us along our way.

  6. imprecation — act of cursing or invoking evil upon

Despite the muttered imprecations from the sullen crowd surrounding us, we removed the police tape and entered the supposedly abandoned warehouse.

  7. brassard — decorative cloth band worn on upper arm

I quickly removed the sergeant’s brassard and whipped it over my own right shoulder, hoping that my khaki shirt and the dim light would let me pass myself off as a military policeman.

  8. footy — paltry, worthless

For all your vain plaints, you shall see that this footy search for crimes will come to naught.

  9. apotheosis — deification, elevation to the rank of a god

Jon McNaughton brings a problematic set of allusions and portrayals in his charged and political art, not least of which is his apotheosis of the current occupant of the White House.

  10. plenum — space conceived of as completely filled with matter (usu. opposed to vacuum)

Descartes argued that all motion in the plenum was necessarily circular, and required an infinitely small division of matter.