1. cog — to load dice so as to cheat; to cheat; to plagiarize
Someone had obviously cogged the dice—too obviously, for I couldn’t imagine anyone being gulled by dice that always threw sevens.
2. haggard — [Scots] enclosure on farm for storage of grain or hay
We piled high the hay-bogy and Alf the donkey just managed to haul it to the haggard as the sun began to sink below the distant hills.
3. buy a brush — [dated UK slang] to run away
After the failure of his investment scheme (which his employer called brazen embezzlement), he ‘bought a brush’ and returned to England.
4. epechist — of or related to Pyrrhonism, entirely skeptical of all claimed truth
Though he was a slavish devotee of the Roman church, his personal beliefs as revealed in his letters seem to be an epechist nescience, at times verging on complete nihilism.
5. inquisiturient — inquisitorial, prone to inquisition
Faced with this inquisiturient priest Jonesy imagined himself returned to Sundays at the orphanage where he felt compelled to confess the direst sins to Father Flaherty under that probing pastor’s imperious gaze.
6. Spahi — French light cavalry formed primarily from natives from the Maghreb
The wild colors and robes of the Spahis charging at their (fictional) enemy had inspired me as a boy, though the miles of barbed wire I found at my first command rendered our cavalry useless.
7. capitation — assessment or counting by head; fee per person
Institution of capitation funding for local schools has led to a focus on anti-truancy efforts (since the assessment is made in terms of actual days attended), perhaps to the detriment of actual education.
8. capelin — type of smelt found in the northern oceans
The collapse of the capelin populations has been blamed on the decline of zooplankton, cooler water temperatures, and overfishing, but the dire reality is that their numbers have dropped precipitously whatever the cause.
9. understrapper — [informal] underling, junior official
“Well I’m not going to be dictated to by some understrapper when I spent all last week clearing this entire project with your boss!”
10. stolperstein — small stone commemorating a specific Nazi victim, placed in the last locale in which they freely chose to live
We found my great-grandfather’s home in a small alley not far from the town center, with four stolpersteine just outside the door, displaying his name and the names of three other relatives that I’d never heard mention of before.
Bonus Vocabulary
(UK, from British boy scouts offering to do small tasks around the house for a shilling during a specific fundraising week)
bob-a-job — children performing light household work for a nominal fee
By the ’70s the price for bob-a-job work had risen to a half or even full pound, and the entire idea had to be tossed by the early ’90s when—for reasons still debated—it became impossible for younger boys to go out into communities without continual adult supervision.