1. wapentake — subdivision of certain shires in Northern England and the Midlands, corresponding to the hundreds in other counties
Though an orderly appropriation was to be hoped for, in some outlying wapentakes the bailiff summarily took whatever goods were upon his list, often without payment or with payment only through tallies.
2. fog — long and thickly growing grass
In the winter, the partridge will often roost within the dead fog above the fallow fields or among the roots of trees.
3. tympanic — related to the eardrum; of or resembling a drum
Though my trap caused no harm—at least no physical harm; I am unable to speak to the psychological damage to tiny rodents from being captured in a large plastic bin—my sleep was fitful all that night, as the little jumping mouse flung himself against the clear plastic lid in a fruitless though tympanic attempt at escape.
4. mickle — (archaic) much, a large amount
Mickle cares make a weary soul if you’ve not got something to help you bear the load.
5. edema — morbid accumulation of watery fluid into serous cavities or interstices between joints, dropsy
Malnutrition had taken its toll on the poor girl, though the edema in her ankles and legs was only the most obvious sign of the damage that lack of vital proteins had wreaked upon her frail body.
6. coscinomancy — divination by use of scissors and sieve
Just as the exact details of reading portents by pawing through a dead animal’s entrails are now lost to us, nobody alive today (which exempts any summoned spirit, I suppose) can honestly be sure of just how conscinomancy was performed.
7. clough — valley or ravine with very steep sides, defile
Down the clough flew the rough rider upon a coal-black stallion whose clattering hooves somehow maintained its vicious pace across the scree and shale that littered the valley floor.
8. architrave — primary beam or lintel lying atop a series of columns, the lowest section of a classical entablature (below the frieze and cornice), epistyle; frame with mouldings around door or window
Entering the prison I felt its oppressive force weighing me down as if this should be my last sight of the outside world, condemned to fall into a black pit beneath the dank and dark architraves of that ancient building made darker still by the humid air which had turned the stones themselves a Stygian black.
9. synoptic — of or taking a comprehensive view of a subject
It is doubtful whether any such synoptic sociology could survive in the current environment of modern academia.
10. draggle — to soil by dragging through mire or wet grass; to make wet and dirty
Stephen Douglas himself warned preachers not to draggle their long robes in the foul pool of partisan politics.
Bonus Vocabulary
(Latin)
sub verbo (also abbreviated as s.v.) — “under the word”, citation form for entry in dictionary or encyclopedia
Many quotations using this abstruse term may be found in the Glossar zu Psychologie-Begriffen of Professor Helmut Birke, sub verbo.