1. mim — [Scots & British] demure, primly reticent, pretentiously shy
Alice sat there hands folded in her lap, mim as can be, though now I know that even then she was scheming to foil all our plans and triumph by our ruin.
2. compossible — not inconsistent with some other assertion
As we feel our way towards the truth of things, I will only notice now that Danica’s claim was compossible with the officer’s testimony, if we allow for their different situations, the lighting and the fact that she saw the incident through the leaves of the beech trees.
3. mangel-wurzel (also mangelwurzel) — fodder beet
“I’d make a terrible yeoman farmer; I don’t know a mangel-wurzel from a mangonel.”
4. cellarage — area or space of a cellar; rent for use of cellar space
Prices were astronomical at that time, and he could afford not an apartment, but the merest cellarage, paying hundreds of dollars a month for space not twenty-five square feet, with a sloping dirt floor which was damp in the winter and bug-ridden in the summer.
5. argand — argand lamp, improved oil lamp developed in 18th Century by Aimé Argand
The introduction of the argand to U.S. lighthouses had the unfortunate consequence of delaying the adoption of the Fresnel lens.
6. stravaig — [Scots] to stroll, to walk about with no particular purpose
Willie was stravaiging along the path leading to the fen when he spied the parson up on the rise.
7. gilver — [Manx] gillyflower
The path was bordered by gilvers and fuchsias.
8. laloplegia — paralysis of speech organs
Without the botox treatment, the throat becomes more and more constricted and talking becomes increasingly difficult until finally complete laloplegia ensues.
9. steatorrhea — abnormal presence of fat in stool
Any steatorrhea will obviously raise questions of pancreatic function, though of course many other causes are possible.
10. carious — having cavities; rotten
The very bones of democracy are carious and just as foul a stench arises from the courts as from the legislature.
Bonus Vocabulary
(UK slang)
wooden-top (also woodentop) — police officer in uniform
“Well that’s done it, then,” he said, getting up from the floor. “Let’s have a couple of wooden-tops in to keep out the crowd and I’ll call the SOCO.”