1. whang — thong, strip of hide or leather
He knew enough of tanning to dress his own whang or glove leather from the small varmints he shot with his .22 rifle.
2. pilchard — small sea fish related to the herring; sardine
In spite of the war the Atlantic production of herring and pilchard was a major source of nutrition for the home front and, especially, the armed forces of the U.S.
3. excrescent — growing out of something abnormally; superfluous; (phonetics) without grammatical or etymological justification
While some still feel that a bureaucracy’s impulse to self-preservation is excrescent, it should be apparent in today’s world ruled by administrators and experts and promulgators of rules and proposers of grants that the urge to organizational survival is inherent, superseding any other purpose originally proposed for a bureaucracy at its creation.
4. cinchona — evergreen tree or shrub native to the Andes, now also grown in India and Java, yielding quinine
We moderns may congratulate ourselves unduly for our elevated medical knowledge, hardly acknowledging that the febrifuge cinchona had perhaps a more powerful effect upon the course of human history than all the products of our laboratories.
5. pawl — pivoting bar which engages with the teeth of a ratchet to lock it in place or to drive it
As he tightened the ratchet strap one final time the cheap brass pawl broke and the entire contents of his storage unit came tumbling out of the small pickup truck in a junk avalanche.
6. lubricous — slippery, smooth and oily; unsteady; lubricious (q.v.)
So enchanted were we by the lubricous words of his plaintive tale that we gave him $120—all our paper money—and only wished we had more to give.
7. lubricious — lascivious, lustful
She obviously thought her talk witty and lubricious while I found it merely well-lubricated.
8. crannequin — hand-crank used for cocking a crossbow
Now don’t worry too much about the crossbowmen, for if we move quickly and can dodge their first bolt, they won’t even be able to disengage their crannequins before we are cutting them down with our blades.
9. etiologic — of or relating to causes
While it is true that there may be many and varied etiologic factors in schizophrenia, it is very doubtful that the weird lip animation of Clutch Cargo would be found among them.
10. epagomenal — (also epagomenic) intercalary, particularly of the calendar of ancient Egypt
During the dangerous epagomenal days Pharaoh would supplicate Sekhmet to turn aside her wrath, while most of the populace got good and drunk.
Bonus Vocabulary
(pathology)
etiologic agent — infectious substance, material likely to contain a pathogen
The CDC worked with the Department of Transportation to develop strong protocols for the shipment of etiologic agents.