Friday Vocabulary

1. parergon — embellishment, thing subordinate to main subject

Burgess maintains that the final chapter of A Clockwork Orange was essential to the novel and should never have been removed from the American edition, but Kubrick and many other readers have found it an unconvincing parergon.

  2. adust — burnt up, scorched

But under the noonday sun our desert camp became unbearable even in the scanty shade as the temperature rose and rose until the very air was adust and seemed painful to breathe into our lungs.

  3. shend — revile, scold

By every voice in the mainstream media his actions were shent, yet he remained unashamed.

  4. effluvium — vapor or exhalation perceptible only to the sense of smell, esp. one that is noxious or disgusting

The community break room was bright and clean, yet opening the refrigerator released a repulsive effluvium reminiscent of both spoiled milk and dying flowers.

  5. larrup — flog, beat, thrash

If he comes ’round here again, I’ll larrup him until he cannot stand upright.

  6. iritis — inflammation of the iris

The cortisone he used for treating his chronic iritis had an expired several months past, but he swore that the medicament would still be “just fine”.

  7. costermonger — person who sells fruit and vegetables from a street cart; (fig.) hawker of any wares

Virtue is of so little regard in these costermongers‘ times that true valor is turned bear-herd.

Henry IV, Part 2, Act I, Scene 2

  8. ochlocracy — mob-rule

Fans of the movie Heavy Metal will recall the paean to ochlocracy by Black Sabbath (from the eponymous album) used in the story of the mute warrior maiden Taarna.

  9. equerry — officer in charge of the horses of a royal or an exalted noble; groom

We found the body of the equerry in the stall belonging to the lord’s prize charger; we could not find the massive black Percheron anywhere upon the grounds.

  10. fribble — to act aimlessly; to trifle, to behave frivolously; a trifler

He seemed to me to be the worst type of fribble: stupid enough to be convinced of his innate ability and insight, yet powerfully connected enough to cause real damage.

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