1. dingle — wooded valley
Below the prominence lay a dark dingle which formed a precipitous barrier to any invading force, a steep ditch formed by the stream that even when fordable during the dry days of summer, still had treacherous rocks aplenty to turn the hooves of cavalry and men.
2. dingle — [Antarctic slang] clement, having nice weather
It was a real dingle day and hopes were high, though Thomas at the weather desk told us sternly that another storm was in the offing.
3. assertoric — of a proposition which states fact neither self-evident nor merely possible
When AI makes assertoric descriptions of movies or books or legal cases which later we learn do not actually exist, we call these ‘hallucinations’; when human beings make the same claims, we call those ‘lies’.
4. frivol — to act in a silly manner
After the Lord Deacon and his daughter have departed, then you may frivol to your heart’s content, but until then I’ll thank you to behave like a gentleman of serious mien.
5. scalawag — scoundrel; Southerner who collaborated with Reconstruction forces after the Civil War
The locals think a scalawag to be a much worse person than a carpetbagger, because the former should know better, having had the fortune to be raised in God’s own country … though I should point out that many of His countrymen seem to be ignorant, irascible, impious idiots.
6. Klaberjass — two-handed trick-taking card game using a piquet deck with the Jack and nine of trumps as highest cards
Artie and the silent Dutchman settled down for a game of Klaberjass while I pretended to read while my mind kept racing and thinking of the thousand things that could go wrong with Bill’s plan.
7. winsome — charming, innocently inspiring and engaging
But now we come to the part where the old bosses adopted the tools of social media and ‘influencers’ to once more charm the masses, this time with a more winsome and winning fascism.
8. buttle — to act as a butler
Everyone knew he came from borstal rather than manor homes even though Jericho butled with the best of them for his master Lord Lairdly.
9. tussar (also tussah) — deep gold silk
The best saris are traditionally made from tussar, and are available in many rich colorful dyes.
10. trammel — to constrain, to hinder; to entangle, to snare
As Churchill points out, when sloth and fear trammel virtue, high-minded men are only prey for active and uncaring evildoers.
Bonus Vocabulary
(supposed economic thing)
Kondratiev wave — long cycles in technological advancement that greatly affect the world economy
Even taking the period of the latest Kondratiev wave at the longest proposed span, the most strident advocates of the theory have to admit that the information technology cycle is likely to have passed its peak.