1. abseil — to rappel
I knew we were in trouble but I only began to suspect just how much trouble when a helicopter appeared overhead and four men in black began abseiling from it on long ropes down into the clearing next to the charred remains of the ice cream van.
2. irredentist — of or related to policy of acquisition by a country of territory belonging to another because of historical or cultural ties; advocate of such policy
The commission hoped to avoid such irredentist squabbles by a forced migration of the two peoples, though any historian could have advised them against such dislocation.
3. growler — four-wheeled carriage, hansom cab; large container for beer
Leaving the rest of our breakfast upon the table, we rushed quickly to the street and hired a growler to take us to the depot.
4. Bantustan — one of the quasi-autonomous ‘homelands’ for blacks under South Africa’s apartheid regime
Of course the Bantustans were some of the most sterile land in the region, obligating those residing within to work cheaply at the pleasure of the whites to obtain the necessities of life.
5. precipitate — very sudden, abrupt, heedlessly quick; to make happen prematurely, to cause to suddenly occur; to hurl down
Because of your precipitate release of this buggy software we have lost an opportunity to make serious inroads into our competitors’ market.
6. precipitous — steep
Charley finally staggered still moaning away from the precipitous cliffs, but the crisis was not yet fully over.
7. parison — mass of molten glass just before being blown into a final shape
At Williamsburg the boys liked nothing better than to watch the glassmaker take the glowing parison and shape it into a pitcher, a tumbler, a vase, or seemingly any shape he desired.
8. arnophilia — bestial sexual congress between men and sheep
But of course the perverted pleasures of arnophilia are not nearly no frequent as you seem to believe, especially out here in the country.
9. niello — black mixture usually consisting of silver, sulfur, copper, and lead, used as fill in silverwork, leaving black lines or background when the surrounding silver is polished
But the real stunner of the find was a 9th-Century Anglo-Saxon dagger with silver and brass inlay, with the name of either the owner or the craftsman in niello letters.
10. obambulate — to walk around, to wander
One day God was out walking with his angels when he came across Satan, who was also obambulating about.
Bonus Vocabulary
(British nautical)
Irish pennant — untidy loose ends of rigging or lines
“How can you call your boat shipshape when you’ve got dozens of Irish pennants hanging about everywhere?”