1. brangle — to squabble, to noisily dispute Though I’ve had to contend with many a bothersome neighbor, this Kenneth was the only one I ever had predisposed to brangle over any issue, no matter how small. 2. nonage — legal minority; immaturity Due to this similarity in name he had had judgement passed …
Tag Archives: vocabulary
Friday Vocabulary
1. pooka (also pookah) — malevolent spirit in Irish folklore, often taking the shape of a rabbit or horse or other animal Sure and now he’s a Rationalist and a deep thinker, he is, but I remember him storming through that door there, wailing that he’d been chased all the way to the pub by …
Friday Vocabulary
1. cerement (usu. pl cerements) — cerecloths for wrapping the dead; burial clothes or wrappings But in the morning when finally we opened the innermost coffin, we discovered only a desiccated pile of cerements, as if the corpse itself had somehow dematerialized from its tomb after burial. 2. lour (variant of lower) — to …
Friday Vocabulary
1. confusticate — [slang] to perplex, to bother, to confuse With fourteen voices clamoring at him all at once demanding this and that and the other, Kip was so confusticated that he put the towels in the microwave and the sausages in the sink. 2. umbel — [botany] inflorescence of short flower stalks radiating …
Friday Vocabulary
1. luthier — maker of stringed instruments In addition to being a talented songwriter in her own right, Shelsea is also a trained luthier, having learned the craft from her uncle who crafted guitars and mandolins for the greats of the Grand Ol’ Opry. 2. nard — scented balsam derived from the Himalayan spikenard …
Friday Vocabulary
1. soubise — onion sauce For this delicate filet an equally delicate soubise is the perfect accompaniment, the sauce also serving to highlight the flavor of the fresh leeks. 2. prescind — to cut off; to separate in thought, to consider apart But as Peirce points out, one cannot prescind color from space or …
Friday Vocabulary
1. madding — frenzied, acting like a madman; tending to drive (one) insane You seem to still have the illusion that this madding bureaucracy is a mistake, a misapplication of higher ideals and the tenets of a purer political science—when of course the very arbitrariness and nonsensical practice you bemoan is the very core, the …
Friday Vocabulary
1. orthopnea (also orthopnoea) — difficulty breathing except in standing or sitting upright position Among the consequences of massive heart failure are dyspnea or orthopnea as the weakened ventricular muscles can no longer sustain the effort required. 2. splificate — [British slang] to annihilate, to obliterate, to destroy That last week of less than …
Friday Vocabulary
1. enfeoff — to give a fiefdom Due to the political realities, King Jane had enfeoffed the duke with his old holdings under the previous dynasty, but the new king did not—of course—entirely trust his vassal. 2. chuffed — [British informal] delighted “And on top of that, I finally found my reading glasses, so …
Friday Vocabulary
1. assiduous — persistently diligent, constant I should have been more specific in my request, for Hervey’s assiduous nature interpreted my vague instructions as an order to read the entirety of the New York Herald-Tribune‘s sports pages from 1923 through 1950. 2. aroint — [archaic] begone, get hence Aroint thee, ye vile knave, or …