Friday Vocabulary

1. foment — to incite, to encourage; to apply heat or ointment to (body part)

After the splint has been removed, foment the limb at least twice daily.

 

2. mugfaker — [obsolete slang]

We contacted all the mugfakers within three blocks of the boardwalk to see if they might have taken a portrait of the girl.

 

3. hiemal (also hyemal) — of or related to winter

His head was crowned with a hiemal garland of holly leaves and pine boughs.

 

4. egality — [archaic] equality

The egality and fraternity of The Revolution quickly gave way to less and less liberty.

 

5. illeism — referring to oneself in the third person

Bob Dole is the obvious contemporary practitioner of illeism, though the term derives from Julius Caesar’s various self-promoting histories.

 

6. instancy — immediateness; urgency, insistent nature

The instancy of sensory experience, argued the Belgian philosopher, discounts the sort of ‘best guess’ approach offered as a counterexample by his rival at Leiden.

 

7. subvention — grant of money for aid, support, or relief; honorarium paid to supposedly amateur athlete

The Riksdag has for years paid subventions directly to the parties, the amounts apportioned according to the number of seats held.

 

8. clunch — pale limestone rock mixture (sometimes with chalk or clay) used as building material

The normal range of clunch houses is eastern England and Normandy, so it is quite unusual to find a building—even a small outbuilding such as this one—deep in the mountains of Wales.

 

9. palliasse — mattress filled with straw

The rude palliasses laid near the feasthall hearth seemed the softest featherbeds after the last three nights in the rain upon the sharp sides of that flint mountain.

 

10. sucket — sweet made from candied fruit

“No one can beat your sucket for delicious flavor, Mary Ann!” he said.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(slang originating with carnies)

donniker (also donnicker) — outhouse, privy

When last seen, Reinhard had been headed to the donniker with an old issue of Vanity Fair.

 

Leave a comment