1. sulky — light two-wheel cart with having only a seat for the driver
The springs on the aged sulky were now next to worthless, and I felt every bump and pebble as I made my slow way back to the cottage with my precious cargo.
2. paralogism — instance of spurious logic or fallacious reasoning
On the one hand, Henry believed that a concerted effort and rigorous axiomatic analysis of the specific arguments mustered by his professor would demonstrate the pernicious paralogism lying at the heart of these ideas; on the other hand, it seemed sheer nonsense and buncombe, not worth the effort to refute, let alone to apprehend.
3. bridewell — prison, reformatory
Certainly there is a vast difference between not sparing the rod and sending the unfortunate youth to bridewell.
4. roundsman — [US] policeman having charge of a patrol; [Brtish] deliveryman with regular route
I had expected even upon first acquaintance that he would go far, and my expectations were borne out on my return to New York, when I learned Timothy had been promoted and made roundsman of a bicycle patrol operating near the Battery.
5. nonplus — paralyzing perplexity
The dire news about Warren’s sock garters put me at such a nonplus that I kept peeling the egg even though I’d already completely removed the shell.
6. porcupig — [obsolete] porcupine
I was happily surprised to discover that the porcupigs were quite endearing, at least the young examples the widow Fletcher showed me.
7. scissel — metal scrap left behind after punching coin blanks
From the child’s cap gun he tore the long wax roll the expended caps had left behind, throwing the paper scissel to the ground.
8. scission — splitting, separating, cutting, division
Rumors of a final scission between the two have been bruited before, but it appears that the last tenuous threads which linked their disparate destinies have been completely severed by the news about the lawyer’s geese.
9. French leave — unannounced or surreptitious departure, absence without authorization
Being then still young and foolish (I can affirm I am no longer young), I stayed to face the music, though all in all I perceive that it would have been better for all concerned if I had just turned tail and taken French leave.
10. afflatus — divine inspiration, inner creative impulse
Time alone can judge the ultimate worth of this artistic juggernaut, and perhaps even the writer herself may be hard-pressed to distinguish the source, to differentiate between afflatus or flatus, logos or logorrhea in this outburst of prolixity.