Friday Vocabulary

1. oolite — spherical sedimentary rock formed in concentric layers

The walls of the keep have fallen almost in ruins, and are made from oolite from the Northland deposits some twenty miles away.

 

2. stumer — [British slang] fraud; bad check; failure

After Wally’s remarks before, I expected that Russell’s check would turn out to be a stumer, but to my surprise the bank cashed it no questions asked.

 

3. militate — to substantially weigh (usu. against)

If the other witnesses support Birdie’s claims, this well may militate against him being sent back to the jug.

 

4. hamesucken — [Scots law] criminal assault of a person within his own dwelling

The courts have always held that though the victim does not need to actually own a residence for the charge of hamesucken to be brought, an attack against a temporary guest within a lodge, hotel, or even a private home does not meet the requirements of the crime.

 

5. halidom — holy place, sanctuary; sacred thing or relic

And there and then the three men swore a mighty oath upon the halidom of the sainted beggarboy Richard, in whose chapel they were, not to pause until they had avenged their lord and recovered his children.

 

6. pericranium — [anatomy] membrane surrounding the skull, the periosteum of the cranial bones

In the case of severe head wounds, Galen urges that first the physician must determine whether the pericranium has been injured, though the doctor should only separate it from the contused flesh at first.

 

7. quodlibet — [archaic] topic for philosophical debate; thus, any subtle or abstruse argument or debate

Though Chester could propound either side of any linguistic or theological quodlibet, he had great difficulty deciding the best course of action if caught out in the rain.

 

8. brumation — period of torpor and sluggish activity

The young sea turtles are believed by some to enter brumation during the winter months, embedding themselves in the sea bottom, but recent surveys of drag catches in the channel have shown no increase in turtles caught, leading many to question the assertion.

 

9. gazingstock — someone stared at

Will you always insist on wearing such outlandish garb, making yourself a gazingstock of everyone in the street?

 

10. abscission — [botany] natural separation of parts from a plant; cutting off

During the process of abscission this membrane becomes thinner and thinner, until the weight of the leaf finally pulls it away from the branch.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(slang)

style it out — to act in a confident manner in an embarrassing or uncomfortable situation so as to cause others to ignore one’s difficulty

And you think we can just style it out with your breeches torn off, and those red claw marks upon your arse exposed for all the world to see?

1000 Books (not really)

In the beginning was the word ….

Well, in fact those words come well over halfway through this, The Book. I started reading a little bit each day just over a year ago, as sort of a 2022 project, and have just finished the last chapter of The Revelation of Saint John the Divine this morning. And since I’ve been tracking my ‘books read’ since oh, about 2015, I get to tell you that this is the thousandth book I’ve completed since the start of that silly tracking enterprise … though as is so often the case, there’s a caveat. As I have told you before, I do not count in my ‘official’ ‘count’ any comic books or graphic novels or suchlike items. And if we leave those to one side, this version of The Bible (KJV, and in very helpful large print) is Book #884 in my all-time (well, since 2015, anyway) reading list. However, it seems worthwhile both to note that I finished reading The Bible cover to cover, and to give it a pride of place as the 1000th book read, even with an asterisk. (Don’t think I’m humble-bragging; I am quite aware that I’m just out and out bragging.) (Oh, and yes, I did manipulate to some extent my reading so that this would be #1000, dragging out Malachi (see below) and reading a few quick mysteries to get up to the requisite number.) (And oh, again, at least this asterisk is in no way as shameful as that that should be applied to every place the name of Barry Bonds. May Hank Aaron’s name be hallowed forevermore.)

But anyway, I really did read the entire Bible in the last year and past few weeks. I attacked the tome along three fronts, beginning at … well, the Beginning (Genesis), as well as the start of The New Testament, and also the Psalms. Thus I was able to balance a few of the lengthier ‘begats’ with some nice poetry and another telling of the passion of Christ. I had tried once or twice a recommended sequence from some Bible site or other, bouncing from here to there, but it never took hold of me and I found it not as easy to follow as just plodding along from book to book as I did. Anyway, I found The Holy Book quite worth reading, and filled a quote book full of … well, you can find better commentaries than mine, so I’ll just shut up now, and get back to reading The Action Bible, a comic book version my son-in-law gave me for Christmas. Until next time, then.

Friday Vocabulary

1. forsooth — [archaic] indeed, in fact

I am sore weary, forsooth, but what failing strength I yet have I pledge to thee and thy cause.

 

2. peduncle — [botany] flower stalk

A straight peduncle which goes along the entire inflorescence from base to tip is called the axis of inflorescence.

 

3. taffrail — [nautical] rail around top deck of a ship’s stern

We stood at the taffrail watching the seagulls following in our wake, knowing that they would soon fall away, just as the enchanting islands where so much had happened were falling away, shrinking soon to nothingness in the inexorable wake of time.

 

4. jabot — decorative ruffle at neckline descending down the front of the blouse or shirt

His teeth, beard, and jabot were stained by the coffee he drank boorishly and always, the cup only leaving his hand so he could write down some bon mot or a clever rhyme.

 

5. sultry — oppressively hot and humid, sweltering; arousing sexual desire

Emma gave me what I’m sure she imagined was a sultry glance over the rim of cocktail glass, but all I could think of was ‘Kilroy was here’ and I had difficulty not laughing.

 

6. jipijapa — Panama hat

But of course the best jipijapas are made in Ecuador, not Panama.

 

7. eterne — [archaic] eternal

But though the Deity is, His copies are not eterne.

 

8. triptyque — temporary customs permit for a motor vehicle which serves as a vehicular passport

Better be sure that your triptyque is up to date because we may need you to check out some of those Iberian wineries.

 

9. havelock — cap cover with flap hanging down to protect the neck

George reminded me of a Roundhead soldier with his close-fitting cap and black havelock draped behind his shaved head.

 

10. crore — [India] ten million (esp. of rupees), one hundred lakh

The top players on the national men’s team receive 5 crore each, which contrasts with the women’s team, who only get the same amount … for the entire squad.

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. purse-seine — fishing net (usu. deployed by two boats) in shape of an enormous bag closed at the bottom by a line (the purse-line)

The first recorded purse-seine was used in 1826 to catch a staggering school of menhaden which was almost too huge for the fishermen to handle.

 

2. dunch — [golf] hit from sticky ground in which the ground is hit before the ball

After his pointed remarks about Rosemarie, I hooked my tee shot, and my second was a dunch that left me in danger of going six.

 

3. well-found — well-equipped, furnished with necessary supplies, etc.

It turned out that his ‘go bag’ was actually a well-found trailer full of camping and other stocks, ready for a weeks-long journey to the mountains or the desert, prepared for a fishing trip or hiding from the cops.

 

4. scotoma — partial loss of vision or blind spot

In those years most physicians were unaware of the temporary scintillating scotoma which often accompanies an attack of migraine.

 

5. peavy (also peavey) — stout tool with hook and pointed end used for manipulating logs

Butcher had a good crew on that drive, about a dozen men, and his peavies were fine pieces of equipment, practically new.

 

6. grass widow — wife whose husband is frequently absent or gone for a protracted time

The letters to Bessie reveal the concerns of her husband, an army drover who thought the war would last only a few months, and his worries that she would be unable to maintain the farm in the face of his absence and the privation engendered by the conflict, but she was more apt as a grass widow at husbanding the farm’s resources than her actual husband had been.

 

7. stroppy — [British] argumentative, easily annoyed

Percival could have been head boy were it not for the fact that he could get quite stroppy at times.

 

8. roach — small freshwater fish of the family Cyprinidae

Though some sportsmen have argued that fishing for roach is a true challenge, most fishermen consider them to be a nuisance.

 

9. ensample — [obsolete] example

So too must you be ensamples of our new, better way of life.

 

10. noddypoll — [archaic] simpleton, fool, blockhead

Perhaps I cannot ken your meaning, being but a poor noddypoll myself.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(slang)

out of spoons — exhausted, lacking energy (based on so-called Spoon Theory positing that people (especially those with certain disabilities) have finite quanta of energy to accomplish mental or physical tasks)

No way I can join you for drinks—I’m all out of spoons today.

Friday Vocabulary

1. welting (also simply welt) — ridge, wale; strengthening seam with one edge of leather folded over the other

After hours of searching and the almost total destruction of Mr. Savoyed’s luggage, we found the microfilm on an impossibly narrow strip of rigid plastic concealed in the welting of the supposed banker’s briefcase.

 

2. guanay — cormorant native to Peru and Chile, one of the two guano-producing birds

The guanay swallowed the sardine with a glutinous gulp.

 

3. antalgic — easing pain

The old hobo walked with an antalgic gait due to the terrible blister beneath his left heel.

 

4. scrofula — lymphatic tuberculosis

Eventually, the so-called “king’s touch” came to be used almost exclusively for cases of scrofula, which, as it often went into spontaneous remission, tended to reinforce the belief in the monarch’s magic healing powers.

 

5. brychan — rough wool blanket

The Welshman had only a few sheep, just enough to make a brychan or two every season.

 

6. incumbent — being the current officeholder; obligatory, required

If I felt it incumbent upon me to work at my real job eight hours a day, I’d hardly have any presence at all on social media.

 

7. macron — straight horizontal mark over a letter

When first learning Latin, a macron will often be displayed over long vowels, though these are not seen in most versions of ancient texts.

 

8. florin — former British coin worth two shillings; gold coin of the city-state of Florence

The Colonel felt in his pockets for a florin to give the poor beggar.

 

9. musquash — [archaic] muskrat

Supposedly the trapper could lure the musquash to his canoe with such a whistling call, whereupon he would strike the rodent with his paddle.

 

10. feather — to turn the oar after a stroke so that it stays horizontal over the water’s surface during the return stroke whilst rowing

If you don’t learn to feather you’re going to catch a crab.

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. haggard — appearing worn, exhausted, gaunt, esp. as result of privation or anxiety; wild-looking

Even in the better light of the foyer, I could hardly believe that the haggard and desperate wretch before me was my former lab partner from school, the ruddy-cheeked fair-haired boy who scoffed at peril and laughed at adversity.

 

2. armamentarium — materials and methods for performing given duties

Just as Bartlett’s was an essential element in the armamentarium of George Will’s quote-boy, so too is a subscription or at least access to every known streaming service a requirement for the modern culture critic.

 

3. procreant — pertaining to procreation; generating, begetting

Though we had hoped that this wave of capitalists were impelled by the procreant urge to foster more and better companies producing more and better products, once more we found that their stated high motives were driven instead by the baser compulsion to engender more and more money to join the overlarge brood of currency they already had.

 

4. toponymic — of or related to the study of place names

But the tension between the slower pace of traditional naming conventions and more modern toponymic commodification is shown in the persistent usage of disused or disowned appellations such as Pac Bell Park, San Francisco General, or (in perhaps a more ironic manner) Enron Field.

 

5. sapid — having a pleasurable taste; having flavor or a distinct taste; agreeable

Most unspoiled oils are devoid of sapid elements though of course small amounts of flavorful or odoriferous ingredients are sometimes added to specialty oils used in cooking.

 

6. hordeolum — [biology] stye

Running James was in later life a frequent sufferer of hordeola, perhaps due to his penchant for heavy black eye makeup in his youth, though as he would always point out during these outbreaks, none of the other members of the band ever endured the same complaint.

 

7. furore (also furor, in U.S.) — clamorous outbreak or uprising, commotion, to-do, outburst of public excitement or rage

The furore over the painting of the bold prostitute can hardly be imagined now, when art has become so inessential to daily life that current ‘artists’ are reduced to displaying the rotting corpses of aquatic creatures to earn even a few lines of virtual newsprint.

 

8. farthing — quarter-penny in the old £sd system of British money

“I wouldn’t give a bent farthing for the whole lot! And you should be ashamed to sell such things in your store!”

 

9. chamfer — to cut away material (usually at 45º) to make a join with another forming an edge or angle

The outermost walls of the castle have a chamfered arris which batter out some eight feet beyond the ground level.

 

10. advent — arrival, coming into being; (usu. Advent) ecclesiastical season during the four Sundays before the Nativity; (also usu. Advent) the coming of Christ into the world, thus sometimes the Second Coming

He was an old-fashioned person—though one could hardly call him a gentleman—indulging in reading, listening to phonographs, hiking, cooking, a whole host of activities which seemed to ignore the advent of cellular telephony.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(British idiom)

belt-and-braces — being doubly cautious (as in use of both belt and braces (Briticism for suspenders) to hold up the trousers)

As it’s my life that’s to be suspended fifteen hundred feet in the air from a single cable, I don’t think it unwise to be a bit belt-and-braces about the technical and mechanical details.

Friday Vocabulary

1. fjeld — elevated plateau barren of all except rocks

To cross the fjeld is only a matter of traversing the hundred miles of wasteland to attain the sources of the Bergen Fjord, but the mere distance rather understates the difficulty of the journey, with only mute rocks for company, and the dreadful sameness of terrain has made more than one traveller almost quite mad.

 

2. cess — tax, assessment

After the resurvey, the cess on quitrents was reduced in most cases, by a substantial figure, as the actual area under cultivation was in most cases much smaller than the original figures reported by local administrators.

 

3. bad cess to — [idiom] a curse upon, may evil befall

“Well and if he canna’ be concerned wi’ us simple folk and our sma’ affairs, then bad cess to him, and to his son too.”

 

4. bedight — [archaic] to adorn, to bedeck

So shiny was the knight’s armor, and so daintily bedight his handsome head and hair with silver filagree and a gentle garland of honeysuckle rose, that the assembled ladies agreed that never was a finer figure seen in all Christendom.

 

5. taphophile — lover of cemeteries, funerals, or gravestones

But of course the cemeteries of New Orleans are of interest to more than just the common taphophile.

 

6. redingote — double-breasted topcoat for men; woman’s coat with cutaway skirts

In 1757 the King forbade the wearing of redingotes by university students, having learned that some students forebode to wear full dress beneath the outer garment.

 

7. chapiter — [architecture] decorated capital atop a pillar

Of course these two brass chapiters were melted down and taken along with all the rest of the wealth of the temple by the conquering armies of Babylon.

 

8. tilbury — open light two-wheeled carriage

The advantage of the tilbury, of course, is its exceptional maneuverability, making it the perfect vehicle for traversing the twisting paths surrounding the manor.

 

9. enteric — of, related to, or occurring in the intestines

The body is equipped by nature with processes to handle enteric gas production, so reports of bloating require particular care to assess accurately.

 

10. enteric fever — typhoid fever

The onset of enteric fever can be quite subtle, and cases which occur after a bout of influenza may be difficult of diagnosis.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(Latin)

modus ponens — logical principle governing ‘if-then’ statements, whereby given a true conditional statement and a true antecedent (e.g., “if A then B”, where A is presumed to be true), the consequent must be true (B in the example); literally “affirming mode”

It was Lewis Carroll who showed in his dialogue “What the Tortoise Said to Achilles” that the plausibility of the modus ponens ultimately (and circularly) depends upon a belief in modus ponens.

Friday Vocabulary

1. adither — flustered, in a state of confusion

But I was all adither and deleted both the old and the new files, leaving my site a shambles.

 

2. cloistral — of or related to a cloister

Lurking beneath the cloistral arch was the truant gamekeeper, his downcast eyes refusing to meet our own.

 

3. ludibrund — playful

Though Ott speaks of ludibrund drug use to distinguish it from the ritual use of psychopharmacological chemicals, our research among the grimy Deadheads of eastern Canada found little which resembled play.

 

4. petiole — [botany] footstalk joining leaf to a plant’s stem

By this point in abscission the petiole is attached by vascular elements only, as every leaf on a deciduous tree is doomed to fall.

 

5. nullah — ravine, riverbed, gully

As Toby clambered up the dried mud banks of the nullah, he heard a metallic sound which gave him pause.

 

6. neesing — [obsolete] sneezing; snorting

Kurt could understand not at all how the neesings of Leviathan might cause light to be emitted.

 

7. aristarchian — very or overly critical

Perhaps it is the power of his arguments which has persuaded our aristarchian friend to be so forgiving, though I am tempted to credit the young student’s curly blond locks.

 

8. ineffable — unutterable, unspeakable; of that which must not be spoken

Brigid remembered the ineffable climax of the Mysteries, when the panting almost delirious mob suddenly stopped their mad dance and perceived—but best not to dwell on it!

 

9. vulnerary — useful for healing wounds

You needn’t carry the leaves, as only the seed pods, properly made into a poultice, have any vulnerary effect.

 

10. hamadryad — nymph bound to a specific tree

Though the oak was old now, older than even Eben could conceive, having been ancient when he was merely a mewling babe, its hamadryad must still be young and lithe, as was proven by the verdant bright leaves which canopied his favorite thinking place, the branches stirring in the slightest breeze like his own flighty thoughts.

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. bucranium — [architecture] sculpted ox skull used as decoration

Though we can trace the bucrania found at Monticello and the University of Virginia to a frieze depicted in Les Édifices Antiques de Rome by Desgodetz, the decorative use of such skulls and horns has been dated back at least as far as the neolithic site of Çatalhöyük.

 

2. witter — [British] to talk on and on about pointless things

I left Mrs. Funderson wittering on about the latest malfeasance of the milkman and rushed out the door.

 

3. pixilated — mentally bewildered, eccentric

We had a lengthy discussion about the relative merits of Vatican II and the proper method of inserting a padded inner sole into a deep boot, and all the while I had no idea that this somewhat pixilated though kindly gentleman was one of the most important lecturers on the new ‘new’ “New Mathematics”, the discoverer of Bathy-Zienman Space Functions, with all that that implies.

 

4. tare — [obsolete] past tense of the verb “to tear”

And as he tare the meat from the roast, a fell wind arose and extinguished his torch.

 

5. anodyne — pain-relieving; soothing; inoffensive, bland

I found something about his anodyne reassurances about the development project somehow quite disturbing.

 

6. theodicy — vindication of divinity in the face of worldly evils

But Mather’s “Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God” is no theodicy, is no apology for the ineffable nature of God, but instead places all the blame for evil squarely upon the shoulders and the soul of man and his wicked, wicked ways.

 

7. beetlehead — dolt

It suffices for most beetleheads to hear the same story repeated once or twice for them to assume that it must be true.

 

8. caitiff — base wretch, despicable or pitiful person

“No!” cried Sir Henry, “no, allow the caitiff to speak, if he can stand on his own two weak legs before this haughty company.”

 

9. reify — to make an abstract or mental thing more concrete or real

The near-infinite promise of the interconnected World Wide Web as promulgated by the breathless ‘reportage’ of Wired and Mondo 2000 has been reified as a society of persons who spend almost fifty percent of their time staring at flat screens of pixels, ‘living their best lives’.

 

10. crawfish — [idiom] to back out from a commitment or position

If you’re going to do it, just do it, without all this crawfishing and second-guessing yourself.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(British informal)

faff — to waste or spend time in useless activity; to dither

He got all his tools sorted, explaining the purpose of each one, and how it might—or might not—help in our particular circumstances, with several digressions upon the inner workings of the internal combustion engine and its history, with particular attention to recent and startling advances made in the past two decades, and by this time he stopped faffing and was prepared to actually work upon the car, the engine had cooled sufficiently so that it started right up and I drove off, leaving him standing there to put all his tools away in the boot of his Land Rover.

Friday Vocabulary

1. econophysics — unorthodox use of mathematical models from physics to analyze economics

In spite of a strong debate about the fertility and benefits of econophysics, it mostly seems another example of economists at the highest levels using overly complicated mathematics to explain either the inexplicable or why they got the last explanation wrong.

 

2. yeet — [slang] to throw something with great force; general affirmative exclamation

If you yeet that cat I’ll break your nose.

 

3. skip — large bag or basket, often on wheels, frequently used for collecting laundry

For an exorbitant fee we bought a skip from the local dry cleaners and used it to transport the alien to our room in the hotel, hiding him beneath some of Sammy’s clothes and just marching in through the back entrance bold as brass.

 

4. lame — tool holding razor blade, used for marking or scoring bread dough

Since she’s become quite the bread baker, we thought this fancy wooden lame would make a nice gift, but apparently she had her heart set on one that included the ability to fashion the razor blade into a curve as well as the usual straight scores.

 

5. gallimaufry — dish made from odds and ends of available food; hodgepodge

Instead of calling it ‘leftover hash’ I advised labelling it ‘Gourmet Gallimaufry‘ on the menu, and thus justified my exorbitant consultant fees.

 

6. granolithic — composed of crushed granite pieces

Though granolithic concrete flooring can be difficult to apply correctly, it provides a highly durable surface for many uses, such as workroom floors.

 

7. pelage — mammalian fur, hair, or wool

There is little change in the male’s pelage during winter, his cold weather coat consisting of, if anything, very slightly darker fur.

 

8. serous — of or related to serum; watery like animal bodily fluid

A large pocket of serous fluid gathered around the site of the bite.

 

9. prelate — high-ranking ecclesiastic

An attentive observer at the hotel might have noted that the supposed prelate‘s collar bore a faint but noticeable carmine stain, which a suspicious mind might have recognized as lipstick.

 

10. internecine — of or related to fighting within a group; destructive, with great slaughter; mutually destructive

Perhaps the worst aspect of the internecine politics of the interregnum was the despair of the masses, who became inured to the terribly violent excesses even as they lost hope for any change save a slow, lingering spiral into worse and worse horrors to come.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(Latin)

fides Punica (sometimes Punica fides)— treachery, lit. “the faith of the Carthaginians” or “Carthaginian honesty”

The long dreary history of U.S. treaties with Native American tribes is an almost uninterrupted string of fides Punica.