1. ragout — highly seasoned meat dish
I despise mutton in all its forms, and no amount of spices will make this ragout palatable to me.
2. connubial — of or related to wedlock or the state of marriage
If it was not in the eyes of law and society exactly connubial it was at least bliss itself, bliss indeed, and I shall never regret those weeks of joy and rapture before the inevitable fall and ruin of all our plans.
3. hull down — [nautical] of a ship seen so near the horizon that its hull is invisible and only its masts and superstructure may be discerned
The Pride of Jericho had the wind and soon she stretched her lead and by nightfall was hull down and seemed likely to escape our longed-for vengeance.
4. hebdomally — weekly, occurring every seven days
Her nephew visited hebdomally our strange little ‘Place For Mom’ with its tiny common room and our monk-like cells, but he came always on Wednesdays instead of the usual Saturday or Sunday, so I had named him (to myself, of course) Hump Day Herbert.
5. oroide — gold-colored alloy of tin or zinc with copper
Like a naive prospector fooled by pyrite, Skinny had taken her oroide jewelry for the real McCoy, and when the pawn broker told him the whole haul had not a bit of gold in it, Skinny realized he done the foul deed for nothing.
6. yashmak — veil worn by Muslim women when in public
Behind her yashmak I pretended to myself I could make out a pair of dark and sultry eyes, but in truth I could only guess where her mouth was by a fold in the cloth I took to be created by her chin.
7. whyfor — [informal] for what reason
“If he really wanted to know about those night visitors, whyfor didn’t he just come to me and ask, like a real neighbor?”
8. turps — [Australian slang] alcoholic drink; turpentine
The boys were having a big night out on the turps and none of them was a reliable witness when the police arrived in the morning.
9. mantuamaker — dressmaker
Females who found it difficult to become apprentice tailors were more readily apprenticed to mantuamakers, whose positions were seen as subservient to full tailors.
10. hygeian — sanitary; healthy
The aqueducts brought to the city clean mountain water to the hygeian fountains and basins which were free for all the citizens to use.
Bonus Vocabulary
(Latin)
in statu nascendi — not yet fully formed, nascent
But the feudal system at this time was in statu nascendi and could not wholly usurp the old tribal ties, and so Charlemagne was forced to send a Breton to rule over Armorica.