1. fjeld — elevated plateau barren of all except rocks
To cross the fjeld is only a matter of traversing the hundred miles of wasteland to attain the sources of the Bergen Fjord, but the mere distance rather understates the difficulty of the journey, with only mute rocks for company, and the dreadful sameness of terrain has made more than one traveller almost quite mad.
2. cess — tax, assessment
After the resurvey, the cess on quitrents was reduced in most cases, by a substantial figure, as the actual area under cultivation was in most cases much smaller than the original figures reported by local administrators.
3. bad cess to — [idiom] a curse upon, may evil befall
“Well and if he canna’ be concerned wi’ us simple folk and our sma’ affairs, then bad cess to him, and to his son too.”
4. bedight — [archaic] to adorn, to bedeck
So shiny was the knight’s armor, and so daintily bedight his handsome head and hair with silver filagree and a gentle garland of honeysuckle rose, that the assembled ladies agreed that never was a finer figure seen in all Christendom.
5. taphophile — lover of cemeteries, funerals, or gravestones
But of course the cemeteries of New Orleans are of interest to more than just the common taphophile.
6. redingote — double-breasted topcoat for men; woman’s coat with cutaway skirts
In 1757 the King forbade the wearing of redingotes by university students, having learned that some students forebode to wear full dress beneath the outer garment.
7. chapiter — [architecture] decorated capital atop a pillar
Of course these two brass chapiters were melted down and taken along with all the rest of the wealth of the temple by the conquering armies of Babylon.
8. tilbury — open light two-wheeled carriage
The advantage of the tilbury, of course, is its exceptional maneuverability, making it the perfect vehicle for traversing the twisting paths surrounding the manor.
9. enteric — of, related to, or occurring in the intestines
The body is equipped by nature with processes to handle enteric gas production, so reports of bloating require particular care to assess accurately.
10. enteric fever — typhoid fever
The onset of enteric fever can be quite subtle, and cases which occur after a bout of influenza may be difficult of diagnosis.
Bonus Vocabulary
(Latin)
modus ponens — logical principle governing ‘if-then’ statements, whereby given a true conditional statement and a true antecedent (e.g., “if A then B”, where A is presumed to be true), the consequent must be true (B in the example); literally “affirming mode”
It was Lewis Carroll who showed in his dialogue “What the Tortoise Said to Achilles” that the plausibility of the modus ponens ultimately (and circularly) depends upon a belief in modus ponens.