1. purl — to flow with whirling motion; to flow and burble
They sat together on a small blanket spread out upon the grassy bank, watching the gentle brook as it purled through the mossy rocks on its lazy way to the lake.
2. coppice — copse, thicket or underwood grown for intermittent cutting
The dogs ran off at once into the tangled coppice to our left and we tried to follow, cursing and tearing our clothes in the process.
3. skewbald — marked with patches of white and brown
Jerome’s skewbald pony stood hobbled near the oak, and the embers in the fire still produced a thin trail of smoke, but no other sign of the preacher did we see.
4. behoovely — necessary, fitting [appears to be a hapax legomenon used only by Julian of Norwich]
The rough parts of the road are behoovely though this may be clear to us only at our final destination.
5. cotta — surplice, often with box pleats
The mass of seminarians, stern yet joyful in their cassocks and cottas, strode across the greensward before the assembled parents and other well-wishers.
6. farthingale — hooped petticoat or frame worn beneath a woman’s skirts to extend them
Although there is no evidence that Henry IV of France hid beneath the farthingale of Marguerite de Valois, the wife of another Henry IV—Joan of Portugal, wife of Henry IV of Castile—is credited with originating the bizarre fashion trend, perhaps to hide embarrassing pregnancies.
7. surrebuttal — (Law) plaintiff’s response to a defendant’s rebuttal
In any true debate there should be provision made for (at the very least) argument, rebuttal, and surrebuttal.
8. instauration — renewal, restoration; [obsolete] the establishing or instituting (of something)
After the devilish depredations of money upon science and education, a true instauration of those once hallowed institutions will take decades, if such is even possible at all.
9. batture — alluvial land raised from sea-bed or river-bed; specifically, land between Mississippi River and the levees
The major’s plan was to move his troops across the batture at low tide and surprise the enemy from the rear, but he reckoned without the difficulty of slogging through the mud and muck.
10. farctate — absolutely full
And into this farctate container he sought to insert just one more book, just a single slim volume of poetry, at which point the cardboard gave way and the entire box split apart.