Friday Vocabulary

1. artemon — square sail on a sharply steeved spar at the bow of ancient Roman or Greek merchant vessels and ships Runners were sent forward to furl the artemon so that the master would have clear sight lines as the enemy ships rushed towards our prow.   2. vaward — [archaic] forefront; vanguard The …

Friday Vocabulary

1. longanimity — patient suffering, forbearance Still, his mother showed such great longanimity during his endless travails that all the neighbors wondered that such a saint had borne such a son.   2. recondite — abstruse, uncommonly profound; little known, obscure Though I spent several years waiting upon the professor, hearkening to his every word, …

Friday Vocabulary

1. marplot — one who defeats or spoils a plot or design by meddling or officious intrusion Strangely enough, Pierre Boulle’s The Bridge Over The River Kwai, in which Colonel Nicholson plays the marplot to the commandos’ efforts to strike against Japanese supply lines, is based to some extent on the experiences of the author …

Friday Vocabulary

1. paraphyletic — of or related to taxonomic group containing most but not all of the descendants of a common ancestor The Italic branch of Indo-European is paraphyletic as usually delineated, as it leaves out the modern Romance languages.   2. aorist — simple past tense in Ancient Greek, with no further limitations or restrictions; …

Friday Vocabulary

1. farrago — confused mixture, hotchpotch, medley Even taking the few moments needed to look up the actual facts to rebut this farrago of nonsense is a waste of my time.   2. crassities — [obsolete] materiality, density The soul must be devoid of crassities, taught the philosopher, else it could be broken into separate …

Friday Vocabulary

1. scorbutic — of, related to, or symptomatic of scurvy The words of denial escaped painfully from his swollen, scorbutic gums.   2. undercroft — underground chamber or vault, crypt The keys to the undercroft had gone missing in my grandfather’s time, so the police were forced to wrench open the rusted gates during their …