1. bleb — vesicle, blister; bubble of air in fluid
But the original insight was confirmed only when scientists inspected the steam blebs of ancient lava flows beneath the microscope.
2. assort — to distribute like things according to type
Our first day in the creaking house found us assorting the heaps of material in each room into very rough piles of goods, papers, questionable items, and mere trash.
3. inapprehension — lack of apprehension, want of grasping or perception; absence of anticipation
But the entire nation seemed beset by an incredible political inapprehension, an almost spiritual failing, a complete vacuity of understanding wherein was lost all comprehension of the necessity for laws and rules or any social mores at all.
4. lazarette (also lazaretto) — hospital for contagious patients, esp. lepers; glory hole, storeroom aboard ship set within the hull
We finally found the jewels within the lazarette, where the mate had hidden them within bags of sand stored there.
5. wheeze — whistling sound of difficult breathing; comic gag or old joke frequently used or repeated
Though I thought my ‘uncle’ (he was not an actual relation, just a sometime friend of the family) was a wonder when I was very young, even I became tired of his gags and wheezes as I approached adolescence, rolling my eyes at his whoopee cushions and hand buzzers and other relics of the vaudeville era.
6. agynary — [botany] not having female organs
You may need to pollinate your eggplant by hand, as the wind cannot always be trusted to carry the pollen from the agynary flowers to the pistillate flowers on the same plant which bear the visible ovaries.
7. plenipotent — invested with or having full power
You can see it in the grins they showed in that snapshot taken at the long ago meeting in the Colorado ski lodge, the almost arrogant smiles of the wealthy and plenipotent youngsters who knew they were going to change the world, who were going to leverage their power to the hilt, and only searched for the right fulcrum against which to shove it.
8. weasand — [archaic] esophagus; trachea; throat
“Best set down that trumpet, buddy, or I’ll slice your weasand before you can blow a note.”
9. sine die — [Latin] indefinitely, without fixing a date for resumption
The lack of funds and the growing threat of plague finally convinced the commissioners to adjourn sine die, and so the glowing prospect of peace was once more dimmed in the region.
10. sweetbread — thymus gland used as food; pancreas used as food
Unlike liver, it is nearly impossible to overcook sweetbread.
Bonus Vocabulary
(British)
Nissen hut — prefabricated building of arched metal developed by Major Peter Norman Nissen in World War I
Unlike the Quonset huts developed later by the Americans for use in World War II, the Nissen hut has an internal framework upon which the metal sheeting is affixed.