1. plinth — square slab supporting a column; pedestal for statue
The fancifully decorated sarcophagus lay upon a rough-hewn stone plinth, upon which was a tiny inscription bearing the name of some long dead mason.
2. kedgeree — Indian dish of rice, onion, lentils, and spices; European dish of rice, fish, eggs
My mother’s recipe for kedgeree included mushrooms and lemons, but we had to make due with limp leeks from Mr. Slattery’s garden.
3. grunsel (alternate spelling of groundsill) — [obsolete] threshold, lowest timber beam of doorframe
He hesitated before the grunsel and I entertained Carpathian fears and fantasies for a moment before he finally ducked his head and entered my humble abode.
4. hind — mature female deer
The horn had sounded far off, so we were startled when a red hind burst through the thicket to our left and bounded across our path and away into the deep forest towards the old fairy pool.
5. hind — farmhand, serf, rustic; simpleton, boor
Though we affect not to be surprised at the supposed idiocy of these hinds calling for him to hang without even a token of a trial, we can hardly believe that the lord of the manor would join his rustic folk in declaiming for the poor fellow’s death.
6. salutiferous — salutary, conducive to well-being or health
After all these trials I slept in a darksome, dreamless slumber, awakening finally to the salutiferous aroma of fresh-brewed coffee, bacon, and some sort of breakfast pastry.
7. eristic — of or related to disputation, argumentative for argument’s sake
Born with an eristic nature, he should have been a lawyer, but had neither the intellect nor the moral sense for that high calling and so became a conspiracy theorist instead.
8. manchet — [archaic] wheat bread of the finest flour; loaf of such bread
“Innkeeper! Cider, a manchet, and cheese—at once!” the stranger shouted imperiously.
9. thatness — quality of existence, of being a specific thing
I had felt myself trapped among escapees from a nightmare of Alice’s adventures, and it was only with difficulty that I felt myself returning to … well, to ‘myself’, as it were, to that thatness that I had been content to be for all my years previous, found myself reasserting my very identity after those strange three days among the strangest people I hope never to encounter again.
10. illude — to trick, to deceive; to mock
Once more he was illuded by the attractive offer made by the even more attractive young lady, and found himself the recipient of several hundred cases of inferior products which he soon learned were, despite the claims of his quondam acquaintance, impossible to sell.