1. shandrydan — hooded chaise; old ramshackle two-wheeled horse carriage or cart
Now I heard the creaking axel of the pastor’s shandrydan and knew we’d been betrayed, for there was no other reason Mr. Goodfellow would be riding down this lonely stretch of path at this ungodly hour of night.
2. polysomnogram — multi-valued recording of an individual’s sleep pattern, including brain, heart, lungs, and limb activity
Of course it is vital while recording a polysomnogram (or PSG) that the technician remain awake and alert.
3. juggins — [British] fool, simpleton
He was such a silly juggins that I didn’t dare leave Rebecca in his care while I attended to the car.
4. trebuchet — medieval siege engine using a sling at the end of a counter-weighted arm to hurl projectiles at an enemy’s position
Vital in the action of a trebuchet, of course, is the release mechanism of the top lines forming the sling’s bucket.
5. flemish — [nautical] to coil a rope in a pleasing flat spiral pattern
After the blood had been holystoned off the deck and the lines flemished down, I took a turn upon the larboard deck, feeling how my prize handled and striving not to smile at this, my first command.
6. albescent — becoming white; whitish
The wood beneath the painted duck still had a rich red hew, but the window sill around the mallard had been sun-stained to a sickly, albescent gray.
7. myology — [biology] study of muscles and their structures
Harper has just returned from West Texas, where he’s much in demand as one of the world’s leading experts in the myology of cattle.
8. querulent — abnormally suspicious or complaining
Was this my once hale and hearty childhood friend? now transformed by the loss of a petty lawsuit into the querulent paranoiac I saw leering up at me from his crouch at the rude table in the far corner of the darkened room?
9. metic — foreign resident required to pay tax to live in Ancient Greek city states
Worry about Xerxes’ invasion led many metics to flee Athens, with a concomitant loss of revenue to the Athenians.
10. stengah — [Malaysian] whiskey and soda
“Well, ‘stengah‘ means ‘half’ in Malay, and that’s how Conrad uses it, but in this house it means a decent drink, chop-chop, because nobody should be drinking straight whiskey in this beastly weather.”
Bonus Vocabulary
(from ‘scrag’ meaning the lean part of the neck of mutton)
scrag end — cheap cut of mutton from the neck chiefly used in stew; leftovers; least desirable parts
That’s me all over—biggest jewelry heist in a century and I end up with the scrag end of the haul: diamond dust and a handful of stones so flawed that they didn’t even dare mount them.