1. prelapsarian — of or pertaining to the time before the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden; innocent and pristine; supralapsarian (vide infra)
My studies in that liberal arts college in New England were an academic prelapsarian nirvana, funded by the GI Bill.
2. blacksnake — long, heavy leather whiplash
He weren’t the worst man to work for, ‘cept he loved the blacksnake a mite much for my liking.
3. hysteresis — the lag of magnetic effects behind their causes; system phenomenon in which present reaction to change is dependent upon past reactions to change
Looking back at the Great American Hysteresis the economists were able to say, as they are always able to say, that it was obvious in retrospect just where things went off the rails.
4. anosmia — loss of the olfactory sense
Like most narcissists, Jacob exhibited that selective anosmia common to many who place their own actions and needs above those of everyone else, and believed quite fervently that his shit did not, in fact, stink.
5. infralapsarian — of the Calvinist doctrine that God’s election of some to eternal life followed His foreknowledge of the Fall of Man (opposed to supralapsarian, vide infra)
The whole mess conjured up by the supralapsarian-infralapsarian controversy should be quite familiar to anyone who has been made to suffer through the worst contradictions of time travel science fiction.
6. dysgeusia — distortion of the sense of taste
Though I stopped smoking several years ago, a lingering dysgeusia remains as a permanent reminder of that choice.
7. geep — hybrid of a sheep and a goat
Though rare, the geep manages to combine the worst elements of each of its parents, with a coarse coat and a sempiternally randy nature.
8. marcel — to make waves in hair through the use of irons; such waved hair
Aunt Regina’s beautifully marcelled hair made a stark contrast with the threadbare veil she wore over it.
9. cothurnus — tragedy, tragic style, grave style of acting; buskin, thick-soled boot worn by ancient actors
So terribly has the cothurnus been abused upon our current stages, that actors who should know better now declaim when they should soliloquize, shout when they should declaim, and make faces when they should emote.
10. supralapsarian — of the Calvinist doctrine that God’s predestination of some to eternal life and His condemnation of others to eternal damnation preceded (in some way) God’s decree of the Creation and the Fall of Man (opposed to infralapsarian, vide supra)
Eventually the entire synod found itself wrecked upon the minutest of treacherous rocks, the tiny difference between the supralapsarian predestination of the elect which implied the sacrifice of Christ only for those selfsame elect and the infralapsarian notion of the sinful nature of man which implied that God chose just whom he would save.