1. paleography — study of writing and the evolution of writing systems
You should not be led by the failure of paleography to divine an unanswerable argument for Hand D in the Sir Thomas More manuscript as Shakepeare’s to conclude that the science has no basis in fact, as it has shown many and storied successes in tracing the development of writing over time.
2. emesis — vomiting
We simply cannot eat in that room at the Varsity, for the merest glance at that network induces near instant emesis in my cousin.
3. biltong — sun-dried strips of lean meat
After the stampede we camped for two days while Jens and Henrik made biltong from the unfortunate beasts.
4. ear — [archaic] to plow
Useless was it to ear, for all that we planted was destroyed by the marching armies long before the time to reap.
5. yobbo — [British slang] yob, young lout
But when she had her attack, and was lying almost in the gutter in her tweed coat, it weren’t the sharp-dressed man of affairs who stopped to help her, but some loud yobbo, apparently on his way back from a fight if the cut above his eye was any indication, who ran to her side and called for help and stayed with her until the ambulance arrived.
6. fissiparous — reproducing by fission
The strange Canadian sect was merely another product of the long and sometimes tortured process of fissiparous Protestant evolution.
7. devoir — duty of civility or respect (usu. pl.)
Ginny and I went out with our laden baskets to pay our devoirs to the aged women of the church, noble in their own way, I suppose.
8. djellabah (also djellaba, gallabiah, galabia) — loose hooded cloak worn by both sexes in the Maghreb
Vanessa peered out from the hood of Tahar’s djellabah, looking like a small child in the voluminous brown and grey robes.
9. detrition — abrading, wearing away by rubbing
The very stairs themselves were depressed somewhat in the center by the centuries of steady detrition by the sandaled feet of the worshipful monks.
10. steelyard — weighing balance with unequal arms
Having a long history, even the common scale once universal in doctor’s offices is merely a variant of the useful steelyard.
Bonus Vocabulary
(idiom)
chandelier bid — underhanded auction technique whereby auctioneer pretends to notice a (nonexistent) bid from a distant part of the room so as to start the bidding at a higher figure than otherwise might occur
Although chandelier bids are not technically illegal, and are, indeed, even mentioned—usually as ‘bids on behalf of the consignor’—in the auction materials, several states have recently tried to introduce legislation forbidding the practice.