1. penetralia — innermost part (esp. of a temple); most secret or private parts
We rushed into her well-appointed toilette, and found her already dying, lying in the very penetralia of her boudoir before a beautiful Art Nouveau vanity, a tortoise-shell brush still clutched tightly in her hand.
2. chary — wary, shy, sparing, choosy
Benjamin has become much more chary of his time since Mrs. Betanthorp roped him into that charity event as an auctioneer.
3. cinchonism — quinine poisoning
Though Pete Le Gevre had the characteristic headache and deafness associated with cinchonism, we missed the confirming tinnitus because he had had that symptom for years due to his work backstage at The Angry Ratchet.
4. gentilitial — of or related to a particular people, country, or nation; belonging to family or kin
Though they continued to enjoy their gentilitial privileges for some more decades, the actual power had decisively shifted to the stewards who maintained the regency despite the opposition of the Queen Mother.
5. firk — to move suddenly, to be lively; (obsolete) to cheat
And on a beautiful spring night the lads and the lasses all would firk it beneath the ancient oak almost unto the sun’s rising, missing only the music to make it a dance.
6. micturition — the act of urinating
In almost all cultures standard taboos exist around the acts of micturition and defecation, so the research party was doubly startled by what they discovered upon the island.
7. dysuria — painful or difficult urination
What should have been a pleasurable relief was made a fiendish hell by the demon of dysuria.
8. shirty — ill-tempered
Enright was a shirty little thug who’d flunked out of reform school before his thirteenth birthday, but he possessed the native cunning of all cornered rodentia.
9. dielectric — non-conductor, insulator; electrically non-conducting
Be sure to use dielectric grease on all parts nearby the speedometer and sensor arrays.
10. impedimenta — encumbrances; baggage; traveling equipment
I quickly realized another advantage of traveling with an obscenely wealthy companion, as all of our luggage and other impedimenta were made the sole concern of several of Roger’s numerous staff, and he and I were free to saunter about the city completely unencumbered.
Bonus Vocabulary
(British slang)
cop off — to have sex with (someone)
While I were locked up my best friend was copping off my best girl, with me none the wiser.