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.

Friday Vocabulary

1. peroration — [rhetoric] concluding section of speech, in which orator sums up main points and attempts to inspire enthusiasm

By the resumption of the strident tones with which he’d begun his overlong speech, I judged that he was building up to his peroration and trying to arouse his audience from their irritable slumber.

 

2. venery — [archaic] hunting, the chase

Of the enormous cultural apparatus associated with venery from early in the middle ages into almost the modern era, only the somewhat silly association of particular terms for groups of animals remains, save for a small rump remnant of present-day devotees of falconry.

 

3. venery — [archaic] devotion to sexual pleasure, sexual congress

The symptoms of overindulgence in venery are similar to those found in habitual masturbators: weak chins, poor vision, listlessness, slumped shoulders, and a complete lack of moral fibre.

 

4. unlax — [slang] to relax

“Come on, Paul, sit yourself down on the couch and unlax awhile.”

 

5. skean dhu — [Scots] small knife worn in the top of the hose of Highland Scots

“Of course the blade of my skean dhu is sharp, razor sharp, for what would be the use of a dull knife?”

 

6. subpoena duces tecum — [Latin] writ commanding person to produce documents to the court

He tried to evade answering questions about his original contract with the trust, so we served him with a subpoena duces tecum forcing him to bring before the court that document and any additional papers detailing his arrangement with Mr. Roma.

 

7. selcouth — [archaic] strange, marvelous, unusual

And now the selcouth monster rose from the dark water, his many slimy arms smashing down the brave warriors as if they were ninepins.

 

8. soup and fish — [slang] tuxedo, evening clothes

So get yourself all togged up in a soup and fish so you can at least try to blend in when we spend the evening dancing with the swells.

 

9. palooka — [slang] ineffectual athlete, esp. a boxer; stupid person, lout

“You got no reason to be afeared of that old palooka, Joe! You can take him out with just one punch.”

 

10. omentum — [biology] fold of peritoneum connecting stomach with spleen, liver, colon; caul

No fat was found in the peritoneum, meaning that the victim had remained abstinent from food, either voluntarily or otherwise, for quite some time before death occurred.

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. excogitate — to think over, to plan, to scheme

As the garbage truck pulled into the alley, blocking his exit, Benny reflected how the brilliant plan the boss had excogitated kept running aground when trying to navigate the turbulent river of reality.

 

2. shelve — to slope gradually

We made anchor in a bend in the river by a sharply shelving bank, where the bottom turned out to be three fathoms below us.

 

3. titubate — to stagger, to reel, to stumble

The tarp over the dump truck’s load suddenly tore away, and—caught in the tempest—titubated back and forth across the road right at eye level like a drunkard trying to stay on the sidewalk.

 

4. awhile — for a short period of time

We stayed our speech awhile, expecting response, but our fey hostess remained mute.

 

5. marchioness — [British] wife or widow of a marquis; woman holding rank equal to that of a marquis

One would hardly accuse the marchioness of having the ‘common touch’, as it is commonly called, but, when alone or with her closest family or friends, she could curse to make a sailor blanch.

 

6. ibogaine — hallucinogenic alkaloid derived from West African members of the dogbane family

Edmund Muskie’s 1972 presidential bid hit the skids after Hunter S. Thompson reported the rumor (started by Thompson himself) that the senator from Maine was hopelessly addicted to ibogaine.

 

7. morion — open-faced helmet associated with the Spanish Conquistadors

So saying, he went to the figure in the diorama, hoping to use the soldier’s morion to protect his head somewhat from the villains marauding the museum, only to discover to his disgust that it was made from molded foam, painted to look like bronze.

 

8. sploot — to lie flat upon the stomach with outstretched legs

I’m told that it is a mechanism for cooling down an animal’s body, but the first time we came upon a splooting squirrel while hiking around Bandolier we called him ‘Crazy Squirrel’.

 

9. consanguinity — blood-relationship

I had noticed a definite cooling of his affections once he learned of the tenuous nature of my consanguinity to Mr. Helder, more evidence that Cousin Dell’s assertions were correct after all.

 

10. expatiate — to write or to speak copiously; to wander, to walk about at length

I tried to at least seem attentive as once more he began to expatiate about the need for sound currency based upon silver, though I felt my heart freeze as soon as he uttered the words ‘sound monetary policy’.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(Latin)

tertium non datur — Law of the Excluded Middle, lit. “no third (option/choice) is given”

Kolmogorov claimed that Brouwer’s proof that the tertium non datur principle may be incorrect in certain applications of transfinite deduction is obviated in all finitistic cases by a strict analysis which escapes the need to appeal to that precept.

Friday Vocabulary

1. vicissitudes — ups and downs, recurring changes

And as he stood there in the sunshine contemplating the various and impenetrable vicissitudes of life, he was stung behind the ear by a gnat.

 

2. scabrous — having a rough surface, scaly; difficult, harsh; obscene, indecent

He blamed his rubicund and scabrous complexion upon the sulfides in the red wine he frequently drank.

 

3. pinchbeck — alloy of copper and zinc supposed to resemble gold; counterfeit, spurious; tawdry

They won’t bind him over, even though they caught him selling pinchbeck watches to the swells, ’cause he’s too wise to claim it was anything like real gold.

 

4. coprolite — petrified animal excrement

Anti-evolutionists contemporary with Darwin preached that the coprolite was actually a previously undiscovered animal, rather than fossilized dung.

 

5. monkey nut — [British] peanut, ground-nut

The floor was covered with monkey nut shells but the bowls on the bar were empty.

 

6. Gytrash (also Guytrash, Guytresh) — [Britsh] legendary animal apparition of lonely country roads and paths, variously appearing as a large black dog or horse or even a cow

I saw him, I tell you, the Gytrash with huge coal-black eyes and flames beneath his cloven feet, right up on Snooks’ Hill as I came out of the coppice past the ruined mill.

 

7. polemic — controversial, disputatious

Though he reveled in polemic discourse I always had the strange suspicion that at heart he held close some deeply held beliefs, fervent ideas that might have seemed quite conservative, even pedestrian were he to reveal them to the world at large.

 

8. tumbrel — two-wheeled wooden cart, esp. that used to convey persons to the guillotine during the French Revolution

And so once again the spectre of the guillotine and the tumbrels is seen all across Europe, history once again repeating an old play for lack of better ideas.

 

9. hellgrammite — neuropterous insect larva, used often as fishing bait

Be careful with that can of hellgrammites, as they’re likely to bite you when you grab them distracted by the beauty of the river.

 

10. tent — [Scots] heed, attention; to attend, to take heed

Be sure to take tent as you go through the cave’s entrance to stay far on the right side, as there’s a treacherous bit on the left where many a man’s been left with a bleeding head wound.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(idiom)

nineteen to the dozen — going on rapidly without cease, usu. of speech

Priscilla was rabbiting nineteen to the dozen about the latest excesses of the revisions to last year’s trade agreements, so we knew she’d been possessed by some bureaucratic demon.

Friday Vocabulary

1. poll — human head; the part of the head where grows the hair

His encounter with the irate barber left him with a poll looking like a golf fairway covered with diseased fescue and dangerous divots.

 

2. puckfist — [archaic] braggart

I’d not give a farthing for the whole puckfist band of pusillanimous purveyors of supposed prose.

 

3. cock-a-hoop — vaingloriously elated

Only five months after the minister’s cock-a-hoop pronouncement that the new policies would jumpstart the economy, he resigned in the face of the ever worsening news and numbers.

 

4. snaffle — [British] to purloin, to swipe

“Don’t go snaffling all of our host’s good Scotch—leave some for the rest of us!”

 

5. dyadic — of or consisting of a group of two

So strong was their dyadic bond that it seemed that you never saw the one without the other somewhere nearby, and indeed, after Les was sentenced to twenty years hard labor, Sam seemed to retreat into a parallel psychic confinement.

 

6. sneck — [Scots] door or window latch

His fingers were so cold he could barely lift the sneck to open the door.

 

7. nave — [architecture] the principal area of a church, loosely parallel to the longest arm of the Christian cross in cross-shaped churches

I’d been sweating in the heat before entering the church, but as I walked down the nave to join Clarissa I almost shivered from a deep chill which seemed to emanate from the ancient stone floor beneath my feet.

 

8. algolagnia — sadomasochism, sexual gratification from either inflicting or enduring pain

Perhaps this is some sort of strange algolagnia, for I can imagine no other explanation for the bizarre and quite off-putting performance we suffered through at Friday night’s concert.

 

9. aubergine — eggplant; dark purple

As he sat in the easy chair I could see beneath his purple bell bottoms that a pair of silk aubergine socks complemented his lavender loafers.

 

10. shieling — [Scots] pasture; herder’s rude hut

As we came through the heather we saw by the shepherd’s shieling a dark leathern cloak, abandoned by our prey for reasons unknown.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(furniture first marketed by the firm of William Morris)

Morris chair — reclining chair with hinged back and high armrests

When Veronica sat on the armrest of my Morris chair and batted her eyes at me, I found it almost impossible to deny her any request, no matter how ludicrous it later seemed.

Friday Vocabulary

1. plinth — square slab supporting a column; pedestal for statue

The fancifully decorated sarcophagus lay upon a rough-hewn stone plinth, upon which was a tiny inscription bearing the name of some long dead mason.

 

2. kedgeree — Indian dish of rice, onion, lentils, and spices; European dish of rice, fish, eggs

My mother’s recipe for kedgeree included mushrooms and lemons, but we had to make due with limp leeks from Mr. Slattery’s garden.

 

3. grunsel (alternate spelling of groundsill) — [obsolete] threshold, lowest timber beam of doorframe

He hesitated before the grunsel and I entertained Carpathian fears and fantasies for a moment before he finally ducked his head and entered my humble abode.

 

4. hind — mature female deer

The horn had sounded far off, so we were startled when a red hind burst through the thicket to our left and bounded across our path and away into the deep forest towards the old fairy pool.

 

5. hind — farmhand, serf, rustic; simpleton, boor

Though we affect not to be surprised at the supposed idiocy of these hinds calling for him to hang without even a token of a trial, we can hardly believe that the lord of the manor would join his rustic folk in declaiming for the poor fellow’s death.

 

6. salutiferous — salutary, conducive to well-being or health

After all these trials I slept in a darksome, dreamless slumber, awakening finally to the salutiferous aroma of fresh-brewed coffee, bacon, and some sort of breakfast pastry.

 

7. eristic — of or related to disputation, argumentative for argument’s sake

Born with an eristic nature, he should have been a lawyer, but had neither the intellect nor the moral sense for that high calling and so became a conspiracy theorist instead.

 

8. manchet — [archaic] wheat bread of the finest flour; loaf of such bread

“Innkeeper! Cider, a manchet, and cheese—at once!” the stranger shouted imperiously.

 

9. thatness — quality of existence, of being a specific thing

I had felt myself trapped among escapees from a nightmare of Alice’s adventures, and it was only with difficulty that I felt myself returning to … well, to ‘myself’, as it were, to that thatness that I had been content to be for all my years previous, found myself reasserting my very identity after those strange three days among the strangest people I hope never to encounter again.

 

10. illude — to trick, to deceive; to mock

Once more he was illuded by the attractive offer made by the even more attractive young lady, and found himself the recipient of several hundred cases of inferior products which he soon learned were, despite the claims of his quondam acquaintance, impossible to sell.

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. tempestivity — timeliness, quality of occurring at the proper season or time

You return from the wars with rare tempestivity, for your younger brother even this week has filed a writ with the sheriff laying claim to your mother’s property.

 

2. purler — spectacular fall; [obsolete] resounding blow sending one to the ground

The repaired tarmac had not set well, and I came a purler as I tripped over a divot in the asphalt patch.

 

3. epistemology — theory of knowledge, study of how we know things we think we know

Dr. Johnson famously refuted Berkeley’s idealistic epistemology by kicking a stone, though it is Hume’s toe that is alleged to have almost magical properties.

 

4. cutler — seller or repairer of knives

After this desperate affair it was imperative that I have my sword ground anew, and so the next morning I took myself to the cutler on Tendreary Lane, and on the way I saw once more Lord Beltmore.

 

5. bezoar — concretion found in the stomach of some animals, believed to have power to protect against poison

He added a few grains of bezoar stone to counteract some of the mandragora’s toxic effect, noting how low his supply had become of that rare curative.

 

6. catoblepas — ancient name for African animal of unsure genus

Though today the catoblepas is usually thought to refer to a gnu, being described by Pliny as bull-like, other writers thought it more like a serpent, or even identified it with the fabled cockatrice.

 

7. apteryx — kiwi

In spite of its name, the flightless apteryx does have a wing, a vestigial appendage with a tiny claw at the end.

 

8. dug — pap or udder

We finally found her beneath the water heater, a hitherto unknown family of newborn kittens pulling away diligently at her dugs.

 

9. peon — day laborer; drudge, person of low social status

No, you are right, Señor Williams, you are right that you are not like these peons, but not for the reasons you claim: you are right because I do not think you could work for even a single hour without retreating like a coward back to this barstool from which you look down upon the world about you.

 

10. paeon (or pæon) — metrical foot with one long and three short syllables, in any order

Really, Mr. Carstairs! If you cannot distinguish between a paeon and a trochee followed by a spondee I have little hope for you!

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(British slang of the 19th Century)

toco — punishment, penalty

I admit I felt a tad discomfited when they gave Reggie toco for something I had done, but not nearly as much as if they’d beaten me instead of him.