1. agita — irritation, upset, anxiety; indigestion
Me? I lose it completely—but Hélène doesn’t let the agita get to her at all.
2. hobeler (also hobbler) — light horseman, retainer who supplied his own hobby (a small horse or pony)
All told we were able to assemble four score men-at-arms and sixty hobelers, with perhaps two dozen archers to screen our flanks.
3. diluvial — of or related to flooding or floods, esp. to the Biblical flood
Daddy had painted it over, of course, but you could still make out the high water mark if you knew where to look, a reminder of that diluvial summer when the water main at the top of the hill burst and the basement was filled with muddy water and the pool table was ruined.
4. shindy — ruckus, commotion
Finally we opened up the bottle of Sprirytus Zbozowy and proceeded to have such a shindy that I cannot remember a bit of it even to this day.
5. imprest — advanced monies; regularly replenished fund of money for small expenses
The payroll checks are drawn on an imprest to ensure all employees are paid in a timely manner.
6. daltonism — color-blindness, esp. between red and green
The cultural academics took the Reader’s Digest to task for allowing references to sickle cell and daltonism to remain in a reprinted article on hereditary disease, but not the mention of syphilis in the original.
7. catafalque — raised platform upon which body of deceased is placed during funeral or funeral procession
They had tried to cover the catafalque in black velvet cloth to disguise its origin, but I could make out the impression of the giant raised letter ‘N’ on the side, the initial of the general’s most detested rival.
8. sententious — given to or using aphorisms or maxims; affectedly formal or self-righteous
Polonius seems truly to love his children, in spite of his sententious bourgeois attitudes and his deluded beliefs about Hamlet’s problem.
9. caldera — deep basin formed by collapse of an ancient volcano
The sides of the caldera are so steep that it would be impossible of access were it not for a sharp cut formed by some ancient lava flow that allows ingress for the intrepid explorer.
10. rapscallion — rogue, scamp
“I’ve put up with your jokes heretofore, you rapscallion, but putting salt in the sugar bowl is going too far!”
Bonus Vocabulary
(Japanese)
tabi — Japanese split toe socks with separate chamber for big toe
If you wear thonged footwear frequently, you may want to invest in a few pair of tabi, particularly if you’re like me and get chafed between the toes.