Friday Vocabulary

1. doab — [South Asia] tongue of low-lying land between two rivers which join, esp. that between the Ganges and the Yamuna

The Gurjars began to extend their control across the Doab until Sher Shah felt constrained to utterly destroy them.

 

2. epopt — initiate of the Eleusinian Mysteries; any initiate of a secret order

Some held that not only did an epopt share his delightful secret knowledge with his compeers in these deepest rites, but that he also was infused with a deep and profound insight into all things, giving him oracular powers unknown to other men.

 

3. faradism — treatment with AC electricity

Though some worry about the so-called ‘dangers’ of faradism in cranial massage, this is nothing but the old debate between it and galvanism in a new guise.

 

4. wangateur (f. wangateuse) — conjurer, witch-doctor

She should have known better than to go up against that wangateur and his hoodoo-sticks.

 

5. hydromel — weak mead

During this illness the patient should avoid all wine, though a cup of hydromel may be allowed from time to time.

 

6. kerf — cut made by a saw

The old lumberjack knew well to make a kerf on the side where the tree was to fall, before sawing on the side opposite.

 

7. Gram-negative — (of bacteria) appearing red when stained using Gram’s method

Gonorrhea is caused by Gram-negative diplococci bacteria first isolated in 1879.

 

8. leach — to lose soluble components through percolation

Boiling the broccoli in this way leaches almost all the nutrients from the vegetable, which may be why it was all to common to prepare it this way during the ’60s; certainly it was not for the taste.

 

9. coulee — deep gulch; small sometimes intermittent stream

But Mr. Thrombaites knew very well what would happen to the causeway once he caused the coulee to be dammed.

 

10. hypothermia — body temperature lower than normal

Wear many layers when hiking in this region, else hypothermia may result.

 

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