1. beg the question — to assume the conclusion in a premise of a logical argument*
But to claim that the Holy Bible—and specifically the King James translation in English of the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek originals—is the direct word of God, is merely to beg the question when this assertion is used to ‘prove’ that Christian holy writ has priority over all other religious texts.
2. ostinato — musical phrase or rhythm which is repeated over and over again
So strong was the ostinato of “The Ecstasy of Gold” that it became a staple of raves and (of course) television advertisements, sometimes even without the accompanying melodic line—though almost always with the trumpets.
3. prevenient — coming before in time, antecedent
His years in customer service proved prevenient preparation for his new role as the father of twins.
4. pi — to jumble or spill printing type
Be sure to allow adequate space around your type stand and imposing table, else you will be piing type quite frequently.
5. orison — prayer
At this time his only orisons consisted of muttered expletives uttered daily as he awoke, once again late for work.
6. stamping ground (also stomping ground) — hangout, haunt, frequented place
When Joey stopped at the Waffle House at the Redola Mill exit, once the favorite stamping ground of all his high school friends, he was surprised at how small, how dingy it appeared.
7. griffin — legendary beast with a lion’s body and an eagle’s head and wings
In honor of his heritage Bertram got a Pomeranian griffin tattooed on the back of his left calf, though I’m not sure if it’s the German or Polish ancestors he is honoring.
8. foible — minor quirk or idiosyncrasy; weakness of character; weaker half of sword blade (between middle and the point)
He’s a man of many foibles and for God’s sake whatever you do don’t mention gluten.
9. unctuous — excessively polite or flattering, smarmy; oily, greasy
Cooked in this way, the rabbit has a deliciously unctuous flavor, and the resulting gravy can be saved for use on chops and vegetables later.
10. unweeting — [obsolete] unwitting
But this lover’s beloved unweeting was of his undying love.
11. muleteer — mule driver
Though he had provided all the beasts himself, our muleteer could not make any of the pack animals move at all, and offered to return his hire money.
Bonus Vocabulary
(tech business term, coined by Cory Doctorow)
enshittification — process by which tech products go from initially good offerings to successively worse iterations until they become nearly unusable, in response to business customer needs and then shareholder demands for greater and greater profitability
Brandon had recently switched to DuckDuckGo, he said, in response to the ongoing enshittification of Google Search which made it impossible for him to do his historical research without trudging through acres of advertisements and paid links, all claiming to tell him the truth about the connection of aliens to the Byzantine Empire.
*other supposed ‘definitions’ based on common usage are not recognized by Educated Guesswork, and no cognizance will be taken of them in Friday Vocabulary