1. sennit (also sinnet) — braided straw or grass used for small crafts or hats
Soon he replaced this rude headgear with a wide sennit hat shaped much like the latest fashions he’d seen in London, although with a wider brim.
2. cit — derogatory term for citizen or city folk
We tried not to laugh at all the silly questions of this cit, since some said it was his daughter that the captain had ideas of courting.
3. revetment — external layer of hard material supporting an embankment or wall
Perhaps the rock revetment made the shoreline promenade less ‘pretty’, as Susie had complained, but it protected this fine construction against the ravages of the waves and tides, and was the reason why St. Lugons could still boast of its walkway upon the beach, while the new construction at Pelleret was already beginning to crumble.
4. Urschleim — primordial soup
And from this Urschleim emerged the various organisms, formed of the ‘vesicles’ which—according to the professor—comprised this ur-slime.
5. puerperium — [biology] month-long period after childbirth
She devoted herself to these exercises during her puerperium, aiding the restoration of the pelvic wall.
6. neurasthenic — person suffering from a nervous breakdown
He had the pallor habitual to the neurasthenic, as well as a tendency to tire easily, even in mere polite conversation.
7. maven — expert, aficionado
Gerald was quite the maven of old nautical knotwork, and consequently looked down upon the paracord craze, short-lived though it was.
8. compeer — person of equal rank or ability, peer
Though Reggie felt he had no compeers in his department, in truth he was a merely average worker, no better nor not much worse than his fellows.
9. demimondaine — promiscuous woman, woman belonging to the demimonde; prostitute, courtesan
Once acquired, she discovered, a reputation as a demimondaine was not easily lost without obtaining somehow an entirely new identity.
10. misdoubt — [archaic] to doubt, to disbelieve; to suspect
I misdoubt ’twill be so easy a conquest as Sir Richard promises.
Bonus Vocabulary
(Latin)
sacer vates — sacred poet
Believing that a prophet is scorned by his own country, Trevalian left for the continent to pursue what he conceived of as his calling to be a sacer vates, divinely inspired to bring the truth to an uncaring world, and he thought true in the last part of this conception, for uncaring was his reception everywhere he traveled.