1. polysemy — quality of word, sign, phrase, or concept having multiple (often similar) meanings
Translation is made even more difficult, of course, by the ingrained polysemy present in every human language—with the possible exeception of some artificial, invented tongues.
2. hymeneal — of marriage; of the hymen
Not until he saw the overtaut muscles of the bride as she hurled her bouquet towards the gathered maidens did Mr. Robertson realize how overwhelmingly important to his formerly spinster cousin had been this grand hymeneal performance.
3. irriguous — [archaic] well-watered
From the moment he came through the final pass and beheld before him the lush green irriguous valley he was decided that this was where he would make his home.
4. impudically — immodestly
He wandered out into the corridor dragging his IV pole with him, uncaring that his light hospital robe barely came down to his thighs and that his bottom was impudically revealed behind him as strode angrily to the nurses’ station.
5. canorous — musical, melodious, resonant
As I sat on the stone bench in the box-like chamber I thought of Ron’s canorous voice, and wondered again at how his poor impulse control had gotten me into this fix.
6. tetany — medical condition characterized by involuntary muscular spasms
But as I glanced back I caught upon her face a horrid almost devilish look of pure hate, as if some psychic tetany had overwhelmed Georgette’s heretofore perfectly polite interest in my news and had revealed in its shuddering spasm the seething antipathy within her soul towards me and my fiancée.
7. hight — [archaic] named, called
“How be ye hight, then, ye stranger whose arrival comes so timely?”
8. compend — summary, epitome, compendium
But most important were the four handwritten compends he had made of all the experiments and their results, with his notes outlining further ideas for future research.
9. hassock — thick pillow usu. used for kneeling at prayer; cushion used as a seat, ottoman
I found her in the sitting room, darning a worn spot in a hassock for the vicar.
10. lumme — [British] expressing surprise
“Lumme, but you’re a cool customer,” he said as he slowly folded the knife and put it back in his jacket pocket.
Bonus Vocabulary
(psychology)
Electra complex — psychoanalytic concept in which a girl competes with her mother for possession of her father
Plath herself confessed that her famous poem Daddy is about a woman with an unresolved Electra complex.