1. motorik — driving 4/4 beat—often with pop! on 3rd beat—typical of krautrock
Though of course most are familiar with the motorik used in Kraftwerk’s “Autobahn”, aficionados still argue whether Jaki Liebezeit of Can or Klaus Dinger of Neu! deserves more credit for the spread of perhaps the most popular beat of the late 20th Century.
2. hadron — subatomic particle comprised of multiple quarks held together by the strong force
In the Standard Model of particle physics, hadrons are formed of either a quark-antiquark pair—that is, a meson—or three quarks—a boson.
3. flam — capricious idea or fancy; falsehood, deceit
But Southern finally persuaded himself that the assertations of his old college chum had been, not to put too fine a point on it, barest flam.
4. porte-crayon — tube with split ends and metal ring for holding chalk or bits of chalk for use in drawing; any container used for carrying art supplies
The design of the porte-crayon remained remarkably consistent from the 17th Century onwards, with most artists favoring an instrument with clasps at either end, so that differently colored chalks could be used alternately with ease.
5. hyperemesis — unstoppable vomiting
Though familiar to the concept from his time kneeling before the porcelain deity back in college, this was the first time that Charlie had suffered from hyperemesis induced solely by listening to the news.
6. phenotype — observable trait (of form, behavior, development, or biological properties) characteristic of an organism
Though the phenotype concept is very useful in mapping biology to what we see, students must be wary of pushing the idea too far from the nuts and bolts of genetics, as Hawkins did in his The Extended Phenotype.
7. aguishly — in the manner of a sufferer from ague; shiveringly, quiveringly
Making his stumbling way to the front door, Carson aguishly stretched out his hand towards the heavy metal knocker affixed to the center of the portal.
8. scatter cushion (also scatter-cushion) — [British] throw pillow
The vintage couch was exceedingly comfortable I was told, filled with down and feathers, but I found it filled instead with so many scatter cushions as to make it almost unusable.
9. befleck — to cover with tiny dots
Spots of oil from the cranky motor beflecked the white overalls he’d unwisely chosen that morning.
10. muffetee — small wrist muff
The delightful fur muffetees of the 19th Century had been transformed by the late 20th into stretched terry cloth wrist sweatbands.
Bonus Vocabulary
(music)
Aeolian harp — stringed musical instrument constructed so that its sounds are produced by the wind passing over and through the strings
By its nature an Aeolian harp can only play harmonic frequencies, giving it an eerie sound which is not entirely pleasing to all listeners.