Educated Guesswork

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 the defalcation by any means possible.

 

3. responsions — first of three examinations a bachelor of arts candidate must pass at Oxford University

For the Greek portion of the responsions he had focused upon two plays of Aeschylus, The Persians and Prometheus Bound, and was disturbed when Rudolf Westphal publicly cast doubts upon the famous playwright’s authorship of the latter.

 

4. actantial — of a mode of semiotic analysis whereby the action is broken down into various structural roles performed

One may doubt (as this reviewer doubts) whether any gain is made by the actantial method of breaking down the story into the roles played by the hero, the villain, the princess, etc., when even the fourfold biblical interpretation of medieval scholars seems to produce more insight.

 

5. lucubrate — to write or to study intensely, esp. at night

His eyes were weak, damaged by hours spent lucubrating upon some ponderous tome by the poor light of inferior tapers.

 

6. linn — [Scots] waterfall; pool beneath waterfall

Neatly folded atop a stern stone standing like a dark gray table by the side of the linn was the pale blue dress he had seen her wearing the evening before at MacGregor’s party.

 

7. filibuster — speech obstructing progress in legislature; unauthorized military adventurer in foreign land; freebooter

Though scant evidence exists now, it is rumored that he turned filibuster during the troubles in China, and some state as fact (though none can present proof of the claim) that it was there that he lost his left eye and hand.

 

8. oneiric — of or related to dreams or dreaming

The broken contours and jarring colors perplexed him, held him fascinated, as if the wide canvas taunted him with some secret just out of range of his pedestrian vision, some revelation within its oneiric imagery that was not vouchsafed to such an uncultured oaf as he knew himself to be.

 

9. obtrusive — projecting or imposing in the way; overly forward

Startled, I turned, and saw once more the obtrusive postman leaning in his habitually insouciant attitude against the doorframe, a toothpick clenched in his smiling teeth.

 

10. kegling — bowling

The chairman was an avowed kegling monomaniac, and even had a single lane built for the use of himself and his friends at his mountain retreat in Jasper—though of course by necessity he had to rely upon a human pinsetter there, usually drafted from one of the hangers-on that surrounded him always.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(abbreviation, Latin)

p.p. — per procurationem, by proxy

Nor do we even have a sample of her handwriting, as every document was signed by her secretary, “Jackson Smythe p.p. Rosalyn Rutherford”.

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.

 

2. slype — [architecture] covered passageway, esp. from chapter house to a cathedral’s transept

Cold drops of water interrupted Brother Marian’s meditations as he walked beneath a hole in the roof of the slype leading from the cloister to the cemetery.

 

3. slipe — to peel, to strip away an outer covering

These early wagon trails were marked by having notches sliped into the trees on either side, the origin of such routes as Three Notch Road.

 

4. asafetida — stinky gum used in cooking, derived from plant of the same name

Though asafetida smells so like sulphur that it is called the ‘devil’s dung’, when used in cooking the odor is smoothly reminiscent of onions.

 

5. devocate — to call down

The sorcerer thinks he can devocate the angels or even the highest power in heaven, but it is rather the very soul of the would-be wizard which is brought down into the power of the foul spirits of hell itself.

 

6. belvedere — [architecture] raised turret, or open-side gallery for viewing the surrounding vista, either atop a house or standing alone on a prominence

But the captain was unapproachable in the tall belvedere perched aft, both ladders guarded by sailors who politely, but firmly, told us both that these realms were off-limits to mere passengers.

 

7. nautch — sensuous dance of South Asia; professional dancing-girl who performs such dance

Seduced by the curves and convulsions of the nautch, Perry forgot all about his promise to the distant Beatrice.

 

8. missal — book detailing service of mass for a year; prayer-book

Tucked within the pages of her childhood missal was a notice of funeral services for the young father Lucien, the only evidence remaining of her elder brother.

 

9. anaphora — [rhetoric] repetition of initial word or phrase in successive clauses; [grammar] substitution of earlier word in sentence with a different word

The powerful anaphora in Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech where he hammers home that “Now is the time…” four times in quick succession is all the more poignant when we reflect on the fact that that ‘now’ was almost sixty years ago.

 

10. henotheism — worship of single god without disbelief in other deities

At this late time and after all the elisions and accretions of prejudiced history it is impossible to judge whether the original religion of ancient Peru was a typical henotheism centered around sun worship or whether, as Christoval de Molina asserts, it was a monotheistic belief which saw all other ‘powers’ as merely creations of the one Creator.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(British military idiom)

stellenbosch — to be set aside, to be shifted sideways (from Boer War, when poor officers were sent to the Western Cape town of the same name to look after horses, without losing rank)

“Well, that’s it,” the chief inspector told me, as he packed his pipe full of the awful rag he preferred, “I’ve been stellenbosched. I suppose arresting Lord Harry was the final straw.”

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 the crowned heads of Europe would lead to the tragedy of Rasputin and Tsarevich Alexei, and indeed hemophilia became known as ‘the royal disease’.

 

3. pandit — learned or wise man in India; term of respectful address

Of course the initial fault was not that of the tardy milkmaid, but that of the impatient pandit, who then magnified his mistake by using his very learning to upbraid the poor servant girl for things beyond her control.

 

4. quincunx — arrangement of five objects with four at corners of a square and the fifth in the center

A thousand years later you can just make out the depressions in the sands where the Carthaginian quincunxes of fruit trees once stood on the North African coast before they and all of Carthage was razed to the ground to stand again nevermore.

 

5. scolopendrid — large centipede

The most frightening scolopendrid (besides the poisonous Australian monster just mentioned) may be the nearly foot-long Peruvian giant-leg centipede, which researchers in Venezuela claim to have seen devouring entire fruit bats.

 

6. butty — co-worker or work friend, esp. in colliery

But no I’ll not say a word against any butty of mine, but we’re speaking about the owner of the whole works.

 

(the below entry was discovered to be a duplicate of a word previously used in 2020)
synoptic — having the nature of a synopsis; of the first three gospels

Before we delve into the specific events of that shocking day, it may be best to take a synoptic view of the decade of tragic missteps, failed compromises, and ultimately useless negotiations which preceded the final disaster.

 

7. barcarolle (also barcarole) — gondolier’s song

The demands of the bride were seconded by the grim Russian count, so Henri improvised a barcarolle on the spot, which pleased the beaming young girl in white chiffon.

 

8. perruquier — wigmaker

Thanks to the tireless efforts of my perruquier, however, none of the partygoers suspected a thing.

 

9. maugre — [archaic] notwithstanding, in spite of, despite

Maugre the frightful weather, the bad omens, and even the broken bridge, Ernest drove himself forward, ever forward, towards his rendezvous with his lady love.

 

10. cerecloth — waterproof cloth impregnated with wax, used to wrap corpses or parcels

One of the more gruesome tasks of the monks of St. Balnan’s was the annual unwrapping and replacement of the cerecloth around the blessed martyr.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(drugs)

chandu — strongest preparation of opium for smoking

With a flick of his wrist he pulled the black tarry pill of chandu from the spatula and placed it within the pipe of my poor benighted cousin.

1. demesne — lands adjoining a manor worked solely for the owner; estate; domain, dominion; possession of land or property in one’s own right

But for the foolish choice of his son Lord Willy would still own both castles and all their demesnes, but it is truly said that genius often skips a generation.

 

2. competency — sufficient income for daily expenses of living

But your father earned his competency from hard work and prudent investment, not from blackmail and sharp practice.

 

3. garret — attic room, usu. small and seedy

Though the musty garret frightened me, filled as it was with the detritus of my lamented late father’s curios—the dreary stuffed deer head with the broken antler, the somewhat stained trunk with indecipherable stickers which was never opened once during my childhood—my brother, on the other hand, found it the perfect retreat to sit at the gable window and read the latest novel by Scott.

 

4. dissimulate — dissemble, conceal (one’s true motives, appearance, etc.)

Though the family dissimulated the child’s origins, the entire village knew—or at least suspected with the firm quality of conviction—the boy to be Jesse’s natural son.

 

5. allelomimetic (also allomimetic) — of or related to actions likely to be copied by nearby members of a social animal group

I’m sure that it was merely allelomimetic behavior, but I became a bit unnerved when the entire herd of cows spontaneously turned about and stared in my direction.

 

6. intermit — to temporarily suspend or discontinue

Before he went back out into the thick fog, Sergeant Corm laid a strict injunction upon us not to intermit our close surveillance of the prisoner for even an instant.

 

7. widow’s peak — [idiom] prominent point in center of the hairline, esp. in receding hairline of older men

He disdained to disguise his widow’s peak and instead slicked it down with the same oily stuff he’d used as a young buck, giving him the appearance of a film vampire from the thirties.

 

8. unchancy — [Scots] unlucky; dangerous

But just afore you reach her cottage, you’ll have to cross the bog; don’t take the path at night, nor if there’s even a trace of fog, for it’s an unchancy trail even in the best of light.

 

9. pantaloon — (capitalized) character in commedia dell’arte; mean old foolish man, often the butt of jokes or intrigues; (pl.) baggy women’s pants or tight-fitting men’s breeches

Strangers thought the crabbed miser a mere pantaloon, doomed to lose his vivacious young wife to the first clown who might try to charm her away from the mean old gent.

 

10. haulm — single stalk or stem; stems or stalks collectively, used for bedding or thatching

If you plan to use your clover haulm for feed, be sure to thresh as soon after harvesting as possible, to ensure best quality.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(British informal)

in good nick — in good condition

Once we cleaned off the stains and replaced a bit where a mouse had nibbled almost entirely through, we were surprised to find that the accordion was in good nick, and both regretted that we didn’t know how to play the damned thing.

1. trucidate — to massacre, to murder, to kill, to slaughter

It is of no use to contend that these ruffians were trucidated in defense of the republic, for they are murdered men natheless.

 

2. wether — castrated sheep or goat

Lincoln Farms participated in a study to ascertain if the known problems with wethers—health issues, poorer quality meat—might be ameliorated by replacing them with short-scrotum “rams”.

 

3. dree — to endure

My task it was to watch over the truculent twins, and though not pleased with my lot, I approached my burdensome duty as I would dree any penance given by the priest.

 

4. phantomesque — like a phantom, ghostly

Across the moor I could make out vaguely a tenebrous phantomesque shape, slowly growing larger and as slowly becoming less dim, until at last I recognized the slow, limping gait of the missing butler.

 

5. amerce — to punish

Are we doomed then to remain forever guilty, amerced for the sin of our ancestors until the end of days?

 

6. rantipole — rude disorderly youngster; rake, fop

We all agreed the Jennings was a clever rantipole, who might eventually succeed in business if he didn’t end up in bridewell.

 

7. chunter — to grumble, to complain

The crabbed woman chuntered away the entire time while preparing our repast, muttering imprecations we couldn’t make out against someone or something that had wounded her in the past.

 

8. pudendum (usu. pudenda (pl.)) — external genitalia, esp. the vulva

Courbet’s L’Origine du Monde brazenly displays the pudenda of the subject, giving the lie to the etymological root of the quasi-euphemistic term, derived as the word is from the Latin meaning “to be ashamed”.

 

9. pomerium — legal and religious boundary of the ancient city of Rome

The catacombs are vast, extending almost exactly along the line of the pomerium, as ancient proscriptions forbade the internment of the dead within that sacred boundary.

 

10. mossbonker — menhaden, small pelagic fish

Fishermen all along the North Atlantic seaboard knew well the worth of the mossbonker, as Whitman noted in Leaves Of Grass.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(British informal)

splash out — to lavishly spend cash

Since it’s a special occasion we should splash out on something a little fancier than just fish and chips.

1. aseity — metaphysical quality of absolute self-sufficient self existence, existence derived solely from self

Though perhaps other aspects of God may be reproduced anagogically by we lesser beings, aseity is starkly centered in and derived solely from the Godhead itself.

 

2. fifth chain — chain used connecting lead horse to pole when five horses are used in a team

Though they had done wonders clearing and leveling the trail up to the rise, it was still too steep for even a four-in-hand to haul up the heaviest wagons, so Captain Landress added a fifth chain to the harness and finally the party and all our baggage crested the ridge.

 

3. sickerly — surely, certainly; assuredly

Aye, I know his name full sickerly, and trow he’ll feel my wrath afore Midsummer’s Eve.

 

4. knacker’s yard — abattoir, slaughterhouse

Whenever I drive by his estate I have the disquieting fear of an old nag passing the knacker’s yard.

 

5. calx — fine powder left after calcining or burning a substance

The calx of egg shells will have more force if vinegar is added while they are before the fire.

 

6. jetton — token or counter of metal, etc.

He dropped his last jetton into the slot and strode through the turnstile.

 

7. spring tide (also spring-tide) — tide soon after a new or full moon; copious rush, swelling flow; springtime

Baxter reveled in the spring tide of youth, wilding on the beaches and dancing until the dawn, as if he knew even then that these pleasures were to come to such an abrupt end.

 

8. chlamys — short cloak worn by ancient Greeks; longer mantle worn during Byzantine epoch

As the enemy closed in each man wound his chlamys about his arm as a rude shield.

 

9. stope — step-like cut in mining excavation

As Jessup examined the dark streak running across the stope he noticed a whitish patch which seemed to move as his lamp played across its surface.

 

10. astart — to befall; to escape, to start off

Let not a single sound astart your lips, else our plans will fail utterly.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(19th c. British slang)

ramp — to swindle

After Pettison ramped him over those Indo-Turkish railway shares, Lord Leith would have nothing to do with the dashing man about town.

1. pale — stake; paling, fence; enclosure; area within a defined boundary

Denys was hauled before the magistrate and fined thirteen pounds for breaking the pale around the park ‘both knowingly and feloniously’.

 

2. pocket Venus — beautiful small woman

Even after a strenuous trek across the desert that pocket Venus had more stamina than the paid mercenaries or porters.

 

3. single-tree — crossbar connecting traces to wagon or plow

The rattling chains made the only sound on the somber farm as Ernest attached them to the single-tree behind the broken down mare.

 

4. skint — [British] broke, out of money

Well, I shouldn’t have worked for him again, only he found us completely skint and said it’d be an easy way to pick up a tenner.

 

5. eglantine — sweetbrier, wild rose native to Europe and Western Asia

The fragrance of honeysuckle vied with the aroma of eglantine as we stood hand in hand at the verge of the verdant meadow.

 

6. volatilizing — becoming volatile, passing out as vapor, emitting vapor

As soon as the sunlight hit the rude totem the shelter became filled with an acrid, metallic smell of volatilizing chemicals long dormant in the vegetable matter which had been formed into the leering figure.

 

7. libration — oscillatory motion, as of a scale at point of balance or the apparent movement of a heavenly body

More than half the surface of the moon is viewable by an earthbound observer, due to the latitudinal and diurnal lunar librations, caused respectively by the relative tilt in the two planets’ axes and by the distance from which morning and evening observations are made.

 

8. flatus — intestinal gas

The pressurized contents of his febrile brain have now burst forth as poetry, and a more rank flatus of blank verse can hardly be imagined.

 

9. diathesis — habitual tendency or predisposition, esp. towards morbidity

In these sunny climes she exhibits little evidence of that asthenic diathesis which seemed always to plague her in those overcast and stormy lands of your family demesne.

 

10. lapwing — large plover

We stood at the edge of the lake and watched the ungainly almost doddering flight of a deceit of lapwings.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(19th c. Turkish military)

bashi-bazouk — irregular mounted soldiers of Ottoman army, lit. ‘crazy head’

Notorious for their insensate brutality, the leaderless bashi-bazouk were accused of butchering wounded Russian soldiers during the siege of Plevna.