1. excogitate — to think over, to plan, to scheme
As the garbage truck pulled into the alley, blocking his exit, Benny reflected how the brilliant plan the boss had excogitated kept running aground when trying to navigate the turbulent river of reality.
2. shelve — to slope gradually
We made anchor in a bend in the river by a sharply shelving bank, where the bottom turned out to be three fathoms below us.
3. titubate — to stagger, to reel, to stumble
The tarp over the dump truck’s load suddenly tore away, and—caught in the tempest—titubated back and forth across the road right at eye level like a drunkard trying to stay on the sidewalk.
4. awhile — for a short period of time
We stayed our speech awhile, expecting response, but our fey hostess remained mute.
5. marchioness — [British] wife or widow of a marquis; woman holding rank equal to that of a marquis
One would hardly accuse the marchioness of having the ‘common touch’, as it is commonly called, but, when alone or with her closest family or friends, she could curse to make a sailor blanch.
6. ibogaine — hallucinogenic alkaloid derived from West African members of the dogbane family
Edmund Muskie’s 1972 presidential bid hit the skids after Hunter S. Thompson reported the rumor (started by Thompson himself) that the senator from Maine was hopelessly addicted to ibogaine.
7. morion — open-faced helmet associated with the Spanish Conquistadors
So saying, he went to the figure in the diorama, hoping to use the soldier’s morion to protect his head somewhat from the villains marauding the museum, only to discover to his disgust that it was made from molded foam, painted to look like bronze.
8. sploot — to lie flat upon the stomach with outstretched legs
I’m told that it is a mechanism for cooling down an animal’s body, but the first time we came upon a splooting squirrel while hiking around Bandolier we called him ‘Crazy Squirrel’.
9. consanguinity — blood-relationship
I had noticed a definite cooling of his affections once he learned of the tenuous nature of my consanguinity to Mr. Helder, more evidence that Cousin Dell’s assertions were correct after all.
10. expatiate — to write or to speak copiously; to wander, to walk about at length
I tried to at least seem attentive as once more he began to expatiate about the need for sound currency based upon silver, though I felt my heart freeze as soon as he uttered the words ‘sound monetary policy’.
Bonus Vocabulary
(Latin)
tertium non datur — Law of the Excluded Middle, lit. “no third (option/choice) is given”
Kolmogorov claimed that Brouwer’s proof that the tertium non datur principle may be incorrect in certain applications of transfinite deduction is obviated in all finitistic cases by a strict analysis which escapes the need to appeal to that precept.