Friday Vocabulary

1. dyspathy — antipathy, opposite of sympathy By the strange alchemy of sympathy and dyspathy, these two rivals who by common judgment should have been uncompromising enemies were instead courteous and understanding adversaries.   2. cincture — girdle, belt; enclosure He had gathered the rough buffalo hide he wore over his shoulders in a hempen …

Friday Vocabulary

1. scrimer — fencer, swordsman; fencing master Unlike the young braggarts who fancied themselves scrimers and focused on feathers and pose, the bladesman before me stood flatfooted, his rapier steadily pointed at my head and main gauche held loosely at his side, and I knew from his calm confidence that I had a true challenge …

Friday Vocabulary

1. modiste — fashionable milliner or dressmaker Lady Sieveport’s headwear, a très au courant doll hat with feathers reminiscent of a crashing wave, gave proof of the modiste‘s expertise as a saleswoman, even if the hat itself seemed a feeble example of the milliner’s art.   2. enthymeme — logical argument with one premise or …

Friday Vocabulary

1. telson — terminal segment or appendage in abdomen of many arthropods and some embryonic insects Melisande gasped as the foul black telson of the monstrous scorpion hovered over her body, a drop of noxious ichor hanging from its sharp point.   2. Whitsunday — Sunday seven weeks after Easter, Holy Day celebrating descent of …

Friday Vocabulary

1. leman — [archaic] lover; mistress ‘Twas an open secret that the fisher’s daughter was the leman of the ruddy-cheeked monk, though perhaps Brother Peter misguessed how widespread was this common knowledge.   2. defalcation — misappropriation (as of funds), embezzlement; shortfall, loss The gambler’s fallacy gave way to a frenzied need to make up …

Friday Vocabulary

1. plutonomy — study of the creation and distribution of wealth, political economy; society in which wealth and consumption is controlled by very few members But in the world within the strange grasp of the modern dark plutonomy, Micawber’s dictum that happiness results when expenditures are less than income seems no longer to apply.   …

Friday Vocabulary

1. monopsonistic — of or related to a situation or market where only one buyer exists for given goods or services Before 1976, baseball players found their salaries kept down by the monopsonistic logic of the MLB.   2. endogamy — marriage within only a given tribe or social group Eventually this denaturing endogamy among …