1. reredos — decorated screen or wall behind altar in a church; brick or stone back of a fireplace
The first project of the Church Restoration Committee will be to fund the repainting of the reredos in the Saint Matthew’s Chapel, using the extensive notes of the 19th-Century antiquarian Devon Shrikeston as our guide for the colors.
2. negus — sweetened wine and hot water, with lemon and spice
“Please take the chair closest to the fire and I’ll call for some negus from the kitchen.”
3. lawn — fine linen fabric
The frill of her brocade skirt was made from cloky sheer lawn, blistered in a badger pattern, her supposed ‘spirit animal’.
4. accidie — sloth, torpor; indifference, esp. in religious duties
Though it remains on the lists of deadly sins under the rubric of ‘Sloth’, which most today interpret as mere laziness, the religious of medieval times were all too aware of the dangers of accidie, perhaps best described by George Willis as “that causeless languor and discontent with life which we call ‘the blues.'”
5. Mohock — violent aristocratic thugs who tormented London in the early 18th Century
Though some doubt has been cast upon the very existence of an organized group calling themselves Mohocks, it is a fact that attacks by ruffians plagued Londoners in 1712, and the group—fictive or not—struck a resounding chord against the class consciousness of an England wherein aristocratic thugs could engage in violent criminality with impunity while the lowest classes could be hanged for stealing bread.
6. armscye — armhole in a garment
There are no armscyes or indeed any holes at all in a true Roman tunic, which creates its effects entirely by clever drapery.
7. houppelande — medieval long-bodied outerwear, usually with full flared sleeves and sometimes trimmed with fur
Lady Alys seemed determined to impress her noble kinsman, and wore her new houppelande with its fur collar though it was wholly inappropriate for the solemn occasion.
8. adduce — to cite, to present as evidence
Not a single example of the crime can be found in the court records, nor have the proponents of the law adduced any records from the newspapers or any other source other than the wild claims of anonymous persons on Twitter, leading one to wonder what this tempest in a teapot is truly about.
9. mitosis — (biology) part of cell division cycle in which replicated chromosomes divide into separate nuclei; by extension, cell division itself
Under the influence of the sacred plants the clouds seem to fill with the figures of all his ancestors, only to undergo a hideous mitosis where each forbear split into two people, only to split again, and again, and again, in some sort of perverse vision of his family tree written across the heavens in these fevered dreams that he realized must carry deep meaning but which were only making him nauseous.
10. anuria — lack of urine, failure of kidneys to produce urine
Though the patient’s first report of anuria suggested kidney failure, his subsequent intense pain made clear that kidney stones were to blame.