1. blench — to flinch, to quail
Do not stare at me so, lest I blench under your steely gaze that I would rather looked lovingly upon my face.
2. conation — mental facility directed towards striving, will, desire, volition
Reichholz claimed that an internal focus upon conation had unintended negative consequences, that the awareness of desire might cause a subsequent reduction in the mind’s power to achieve that very desire.
3. loc (also ‘loc; usu. plural) — dreadlocks
Kenny showed up bald as Annie’s sugar daddy, and we all wondered what had made him shave off his glorious locs.
4. lazzarone (usu. plural) — beggar, wretched person; member of poorer class in Naples
But if we allow these horrid lazzaroni to dictate how public moneys are spent, what shall become of these beautiful works of triumphant art? Those wretches prefer rough food to spiritual sustenance.
5. lornly — forlornly, in a pitifully sad or lonely manner
“But you must go,” she said lornly as she wiped the tears with her maunch, “before the break of dawn and Sir Reggie’s return.”
6. amphisbaena — mythic serpent with head at either end; genus of American lizards
And when the sixth trumpet sounded, horses set upon men who had the same peculiarity as the amphisbaena, and the horses’ tails had heads which also injured with their teeth and sulfurous breath.
7. aerodyne — heavier-than-air aircraft which fly through use of aerodynamic forces
The ministry added to the very pressing question of right of aerial way the strange allowance that henceforth women shall be granted license to fly aerodynes under the same restrictions and qualifications as men.
8. chingle — [Scots] gravel
The homestead was not even good for sheep, for not enough grass could grow on the thin soil laying upon the chingle that ran all the way down to the very shore.
9. runcible — nonsense word meaning nothing invented by Edward Lear
Always a leader of fashion in his runcible trousers and spliffy shirts, the new MP removed his puce gloves to take a pinch of snuff.
10. runcible spoon — spoon with fork tines and a cutting edge, proto-spork
His ‘tactical spork’ turned out to be merely a runcible spoon made from ‘ballistic’ plastic—whatever that might be.
Bonus Vocabulary
(UK slang)
hand s.o. his cards (also give s.o. his cards) — to fire, to lay off, to give someone their walking papers, to make redundant
She was handed her cards the moment she complained about that strange stain in the ladies’ bathroom, so you know how concerned that firm are with worker safety.