1. adumbrate — to outline; to foreshadow; to faintly indicate; to overshadow, to partially conceal
Whereas some biographies illuminate their subjects, Mr. Parker’s paean to the late colonel merely adumbrates what should have been an interesting figure.
2. beck — [North England] swift running brook
He knelt alongside the beck and read her letter over and over again, oblivious to the damp moss beneath his legs.
3. tallage — arbitrary tax of the Normans and the early Angevins
As incentive the prince was empowered to release all who joined his enterprise from tallage and most previous debts to the crown.
4. pole screen — tall thin screen mounted on a pole with adjustable panels, designed to shield a person’s face from the direct heat of a fire
As the wax-based makeup used by both men and women to hide disfiguring scars of plagues became less necessary with a general rise in health, pole screens became smaller and more purely decorative.
5. schiltron — tight formation of pikemen in which the two-handed weapons face forward, though circular formations have been noted
Though of course the ideal usage of pikes was the square which the Swiss perfected, the Scottish schiltron has the advantage of not requiring the years of training and incredible discipline necessary to make the complicated evolutions of the former.
6. eschatological — of or pertaining to the science or study of last things: death, judgment, heaven, hell
As the decade wound to a close, his articles took on a decidedly eschatological tone, mirroring perhaps his own preoccupation with the course of his partner’s debilitating disease.
7. deglutition — the act of swallowing
Alone among the foods oysters on the half shell skip mastication entirely and are enjoyed in a single savory deglutition.
8. purblind — almost entirely blind
His purblind followers have encouraged his most reactionary traits, and share the blame for the inevitable disaster shortly to come.
9. garimpeiro — [Brazil] mineral prospector
I found Jonesie sitting at a rough-hewn table of Parana pine, regaling a group of credulous garimpeiros with his usual lies about fabulous treasures he had found and lost.
10. urticaria — hives
“I’ll prescribe some antihistamines for your urticaria, and you may want to take a cool bath if the itching becomes worse.”