Friday Vocabulary

1. dogsbody — drudge, person given menial work

Once I lowered my expectations from Senior Vice President to dogsbody I finally found a job opportunity.

  2. pyogenic — pus-producing

As if an antibiotic-resistant staph infection was not enough of a worry, now we learned that Larry was also in the throes of pyogenic meningitis.

  3. bumbailiff — low-rank bailiff

He held the job of bumbailiff as a sinecure and was quite surprised Harry expected him to serve the writ.

  4. elenchus — Socratic method of argument by cross-examination; refutation of syllogism by another syllogism

Epicurus famously turned the Eleatic elenchus on its head, arguing from the proofs of ever-present motion that a void was a necessary complement, thus positing null space as a requirement for his atoms to move through.

  5. ween — to think, believe, conjecture

The wounds are much too large for even a large wolf, as I ween, but seem to indicate some monstrous beast is at work.

  6. hale — to draw, pull

If he will not do the honorable thing I shall demand the sheriff hale him to the Justice of the Peace to make an honest woman of my daughter.

  7. blear — dim from tears or inflammation

She seemed unshaken by the terrible news, as if one more travesty no longer had power to hurt her, and so she sat with her shoulders hunched and eyes blear from either hunger or past tears.

  8. nosocomial — acquired because of hospitalization

Disgustingly, the most common nosocomial infection in the United States is that of the urinary tract.

  9. sublunary — worldly, earthly, terrestrial

No longer will I bother with sublunary things, for I am now concerned only with heaven and the music of the spheres.

  10. obstupefy — to stupefy, esp. mentally

It was not the fact that the poodle talked in plain English that left me obstupefied, but my realization that the small dog was wearing a tiny NASCAR jacket featuring a Taco Bell logo.