1. spile — large wooden piling; wooden plug used as a spigot; to tap (a tree, a keg) by means of a spile
Even with the dark lantern I could hardly make out the body beneath the pier, so dense was the forest of tarry spiles.
2. piacular — making atonement, expiatory; requiring atonement, sinful
But still he knew that no amount of piacular fasting could ever bring back poor Dennis from his watery resting place.
3. amaurosis — total or partial loss of sight, usu. without external changes to the optic orb
Kincaid was initially diagnosed with a fleeting amaurosis which a later specialist correctly identified as merely a symptom of his recurring migraines.
4. longanimously — with forbearance or patience
Jolene sat longanimously upon the bench before the county seat, waiting for a man who would never come.
5. riggish — promiscuous
Ah, but she is a right riggish maid, especially when the moon is full.
6. hellion — troublemaker or rowdy person, esp. a child
With the television their only parent, the three hellions respected no person or property, and had no moral sense except that whatever gave them pleasure was good.
7. sneap — to pinch; to repress, to chide
So poorly joined were the rough timbers of his cabin that the icy wind did sneap me all the night, until I arose with the sun only slightly better rested than if I had slept out of doors.
8. finical — finicky
Our tabby, like all his finical breed, will not eat unless everything is just so, and the repainting of the kitchen seemed to have unnerved him so that he would only take his supper in the dining room.
9. paletot — loose or fitted overcoat or jacket
Jessalyn thought she looked splendid in her red moire gown with the matching silk paletot with black trim.
10. busby — tall fur hat with colored cloth hanging down right side; tall bearskin hat
As proud as I was of my black busby trimmed with red, I was relieved to remove my headgear as we entered the back room of Mrs. Sweeney’s establishment.
11. cordwainer — [archaic] shoemaker, leatherworker
Let us meet, then, at noon, beneath the sign of the boot before the cordwainer‘s shop.
12. riverine — of or related to a river; situated upon a river
Yunkel’s village turned out to be a riverine collection of rude wooden huts held above the water’s edge on stilt-like posts.
13. adit — horizontal opening into a mine
The city had grown up around the ancient church, and the earth of the old burial ground was now below the street level surrounding, so that a sort of adit had been dug to permit access to the sepulchers of the twice-buried dead.
14. tepidarium — warm room in ancient Roman baths
The tepidarium where the bathers assembled before entering either the hot or the cold baths was heated by a hypocaust.
15. pendency — state of being undetermined or awaiting settlement
You must understand, of course, that the building was made available to you only on a temporary basis, during the pendency of your cousin’s estate.
16. impennous — without wings
It was Sir Thomas Browne who first noted that the earwig did not belong among the impennous insects, but in fact had two wings which it kept folded back upon its body.
17. younker — youngster
“Blast me, younker! You did not think to best Old Jack, did you now?”
18. floccule — thing resembling a small tuft of wool
The wiring problems were caused by tiny floccules of dust which had collected in the ports.
19. sanguinaria — bloodroot
The red sap of the beautiful sanguinaria is quite poisonous, and the Abnaki used the root as an abortifacient.
20. fumid — vaporous, having or emitting fumes
Sitting at the traffic light behind the vaping driver, his fumid fruit-scented cloud nearly made me retch.
21. chaogenous — born from chaos
The scar across Nicolai’s face, and his inability to speak, were reckoned as merely another of the chaogenous evils which befell our city on that terrible day.
22. decollate — to decapitate
The savage general ordered the mutineers to be decollated and their heads displayed on the garrison walls.
23. nutant — drooping
The wearisome heat and humidity began to tell upon the group, until even the nutant tail of the dog bore witness to the fatigue felt by all.
24. murgeon — [Scots] to mock, to make faces, to grumble; grimace, wry face
Dovey would cavil at his every pleasantry, would murgeon him unrelentingly, and rebuffed every attempt he made to woo her.
25. debenture — unsecured loan certificate; fixed-rate bond; drawback certificate against imported goods
He realized over one hundred thousand on the cocoa imported, less the debenture.
Bonus Vocabulary
(British military slang from WWI)
blighty — (often capitalized) England; wound necessitating soldier’s removal from the front to the homeland
Roslyn volunteered to learn the new equipment, hoping perhaps that he might be sent to Blighty for instruction.