1. tantalum — element with atomic number 73, a silver-grey rare metal
The replacement of carbon filaments with tungsten, tantalum, or osmium was an important economic measure for the city, due to the significantly less current required to produce the same illumination.
2. cocker — patron or promoter of cockfights; spaniel breed trained to start woodcocks
He always felt most at home there among the jockeys and the cockers, talking over the prospects for the next race or bout, with a sense of sage knowledge and easy camaraderie that escaped him among the social elite who made up Eliza’s own circle.
3. cocker — to pamper
He that cockers his child will find to his dismay that he has raised a weak and vainglorious gentleman.
4. trews — close-fitting trousers, often of tartan pattern
“Now you take those trews off as well,” she said, smiling, “or you’ll be catching your death of cold.”
5. verandah (also veranda) — roofed gallery or porch
At that time the screens surrounding the verandah were still in good repair, so we could sit together upon the settee and chat for hours, watching the fireflies and conspiring thick as thieves over nefarious plans for the next morning—plans which, needless to say, were forgotten in the morning in the rising heat and the promise of further lazy adventures.
6. accumbent — reclining, lying against something; dining while reclining
And with sharp wit and erudite allusions the so-called professor demonstrated that the accumbent posture was the best and healthiest way to eat food, affording much less strain to the liver and other elements of digestions, though, as Fordham pointed out sotto voce, all the Romans who’d practiced the art seemed to have died out pretty thoroughly.
7. weskit — waistcoat, vest
When we was finished the scarecrow looked powerful pretty, dressed up in that white shirt of mine that had turned pink when Mollie’s red bloomers was washed with it, and Pa’s old yellow weskit that had the torn lining, and my old green checked trousers, though the pants were a trifle short on his long legs, truth be told.
8. acephalous — headless; leaderless
The society’s structure is not truly acephalous, however, though it can seem so to the outsider, as every leadership role is rotated on an almost continual basis, so that the person charged with the care of indigents, for example, will be replaced by another every two or three days, easily confusing the newcomer.
9. stook — bundles of grain arranged in a standing pile, shock
Aye, it was hard work, cutting the wheat with the hand sickle and binding up the sheaves, and then painstakingly stacking up each bunch into stooks to dry, all the while watching grimly the bizarrely dressed man painting all day at the edge of the field.
10. tabor — small drum, esp. as used by piper as percussive accompaniment
Byrd was a very unprepossessing fellow, but once let him get started on pipe and tabor and you’d find yourself unable to stop tapping your feet, and like as not to jump up dancing with the barmaid, so merry and fey was his music.
Bonus Vocabulary
(Irish variant of loch)
lough — pool, lake
Between the bog and the lough he constructed a rude hut, humble precursor of the grand mansion that was to supplant the shack during his days of glory and success.