1. brannigan — drinking bout; brawl
We’ve had no trouble to speak of since you left for back east, a brannigan or two but nothing me and Deputy Fievel couldn’t handle, so don’t worry about hurrying home.
2. frighten the horses — [idiom] to upset public standards, to cause moral alarm
“Now I don’t want to frighten the horses, but the issue of teenage pregnancy cannot stop merely at demands for complete abstinence.”
3. billhook — sharp bladed hand tool with hook at end
Jemmy found that a billhook was more effective than a machete for clearing this type of underbrush and breaking trail.
4. tocology — study of childbirth
At the time, of course, midwifery was thought best left to the distaff half, and in some quarters tocology seemed hardly worthy of any medical student with serious intent.
5. plaice — type of flounder fish
“Surely you cannot think that you’re the first entrepreneur to think of naming a fish shop ‘The Plaice For Chips’?”
6. metope — [architecture] panel between triglyphs in a Doric frieze (as one does)
Most of the frieze was severely damaged, and only by perhaps risky conjecture could the two stone torsos still remaining on the central metope give evidence that this site was hallowed by the Bull cult, as Braithewaite has argued.
7. fruitive — fruitful; enjoying, possessing
The Bishop of Halstead argued against Mill’s stance that man was not fruitive and active by turns, but rather in conjunction, simultaneously and by nature.
8. orgeat — syrup made from almond paste mixed with rosewater or orange water; similar syrup made from barley
Dr. Rowenthal found that an orgeat made from pumpkin seeds, combined with ether rubbed upon the sufferer’s belly, was a sovereign cure for tapeworm.
9. purulent — made of, filled with, or discharging pus
This new variety of the disease presented as a rubicund rash upon the back and legs which quickly turned into purulent sores.
10. apolaustic — dedicated to pleasure or enjoyment
Only the richest sovereigns (or perhaps the most depraved hedonist) can truly pursue an apolaustic lifestyle.
11. planxty — solemn yet convivial Irish air for the harp
Though it is true that a planxty can be a mournful tune, you will not hear it at a funeral—though you may at the wake that follows.
Bonus Vocabulary
(industrial motion studies)
therblig — basic unit of motion used by manual workers (according to system created by Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, American industrial psychologists)
Though the system of eighteen therbligs was merely an extension of the robotizing Taylorite micromanaging of industrial workers so beloved by those in the front office, and still has its place in some Six Sigma training programs, no similar system has ever been developed for the supposed work done by ‘management’—only the ‘Plan’ therblig might apply—, so perhaps a system might be created, with such new ‘thinkbligs’ as Ponder, Daydream, Meet, Ratiocinate, and PowerPoint.