1. orthoepy — study of pronunciation; correct pronunciation
No matter how many times he was told that pronouncing ‘Jacobean’ as if accented on the second syllable with a long ‘o’ was not correct orthoepy, Yakov insisted upon mispronouncing it so, until it became a sort of proud talisman of error for the staunch Pynchonophile.
2. haver — to be indecisive, to hem and haw; to natter, to chatter
And worse even than his dull and lifeless hair was his havering inconstancy, the fact that you couldn’t be sure he’d turn up when he said he would and that half the time he’d have trouble expressing pleasure at your company when he did.
3. eo ipso — [Latin] by that very fact, thereby
Bringing Lacan up in casual conversation eo ipso signals that the speaker is a very deep thinker, very deep indeed, and that others need do little save make small signs of wonder at the brilliance which it shall be their pleasure to endure.
4. suasion — act of persuading or influencing
One of the most important aspects of suasion, as the ancient teachers of rhetoric emphasized, is to know your audience.
5. morphew — mark or blemish on skin, esp. a blister caused by scurvy
Most will not get near enough to smell her vile breath, warned off by her evil visage, the pustules and morphews that cover her face and arms like Satan’s own spotted livery.
6. chastise — to punish; to castigate, to criticize severely
Though I felt chastised enough by the sad look Mother gave me when I returned home, still I had to suffer through a painful hour with Papa as he ranted at me about the consequences of the foolish act I’d committed.
7. cottar (also cotter) — [Scots] peasant living in a cottage in exchange for service
“He’s no more ambition than is right for a cottar: to make straight furrows, to plant his seeds well, and to have a glass of ale at week’s end.”
8. conurbation — metropolis, large urban area formed from expansion of several cities into each other
The cost of modernizing the railway throughout the conurbation proved to be prohibitive, requiring as it did both a high tax burden and the wholesale destruction of large swathes of old communities.
9. foremother — female ancestor; female predecessor
One of the most important foremothers of the women’s rights movement, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, died nearly two decades before the United States belatedly passed the 19th Amendment.
10. stannary — [British] of or related to tin mining
Lewes found evidence to support his contrarian views in, of all places, the records of the Welsh stannary courts, citing several cases from the late 18th Century.