Educated Guesswork

1. mayhap — [archaic] perhaps, possibly

Mayhap you’ll find your keys immediately after I hang up the phone, but mayhap you’ll not, so I might as well come over to give you a ride should you need one.

 

2. smarm — to smooth down with ointment or grease; to fawn over

Babbidge’s hair was smarmed down to his collar, which of course was grease-stained by the rancid stuff.

 

3. soigné — well-groomed, fashionably made up

She was a grand old dame, and though her dresses were thirty years out of date she was perfectly soignée at any hour of the day and I daresay that even had a fire necessitated her running into the street at three in the morning, she would have appeared as perfectly made up as if she’d just finished two hours at her vanity.

 

4. twit — to censure, to tease

Margery twitted him for having missed her birthday—again—and he took her reproach in the spirit it was intended, asking if there were an ancient emerald in some distant land that he could bring back to her as amends … preferably one with a curse.

 

5. yett — [Scots] gate

Arthur rode through the grand yett for the first time, his chest swelling as he thought what a pretty sight he must make upon his chestnut charger.

 

6. decussate — to cross at right angles, to intersect

So they decided to decussate their crops so each could claim the bounty to father, Petey plowing north to south and Jackson planting his on an east-west axis.

 

7. clement — temperate, mild; merciful

When sober Papa was the most clement of men, and would forgive even a dire injury, but in his cups, he transformed into a veritable monster, and would find faults where none were intended.

 

8. cenobite — monk

But the desert fathers took this quietistic Christianity much farther than had the cenobites who sought solace in the forbidding wastes of this parched land.

 

9. casemate — bombproof shelter for troops or for artillery

Best practice is to build concrete casemates at the same time the parapets are constructed, though of course sandbags or earthworks may be used in the field.

 

10. ning-nong (also ning nong) — [Australian slang] idiot, dunderhead

“Oh, I’ll admit he’s fancy enough with that row of medals on his chest, and his title’ll impress the folk that go for that sort of thing, but don’t let him say more than two words together or they’ll see right away that he’s a total ning-nong!”

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(from obscure meaning of ‘cast‘ as a persistent turn, ultimately from the Middle English casten meaning ‘to overturn’)

a cast in one’s eye — the condition of having one eye twisted permanently to one side, the state of being cockeyed

Kathleen has a slight cast in her left eye which is not, however, unattractive in the least.

 

1. shandrydan — hooded chaise; old ramshackle two-wheeled horse carriage or cart

Now I heard the creaking axel of the pastor’s shandrydan and knew we’d been betrayed, for there was no other reason Mr. Goodfellow would be riding down this lonely stretch of path at this ungodly hour of night.

 

2. polysomnogram — multi-valued recording of an individual’s sleep pattern, including brain, heart, lungs, and limb activity

Of course it is vital while recording a polysomnogram (or PSG) that the technician remain awake and alert.

 

3. juggins — [British] fool, simpleton

He was such a silly juggins that I didn’t dare leave Rebecca in his care while I attended to the car.

 

4. trebuchet — medieval siege engine using a sling at the end of a counter-weighted arm to hurl projectiles at an enemy’s position

Vital in the action of a trebuchet, of course, is the release mechanism of the top lines forming the sling’s bucket.

 

5. flemish — [nautical] to coil a rope in a pleasing flat spiral pattern

After the blood had been holystoned off the deck and the lines flemished down, I took a turn upon the larboard deck, feeling how my prize handled and striving not to smile at this, my first command.

 

6. albescent — becoming white; whitish

The wood beneath the painted duck still had a rich red hew, but the window sill around the mallard had been sun-stained to a sickly, albescent gray.

 

7. myology — [biology] study of muscles and their structures

Harper has just returned from West Texas, where he’s much in demand as one of the world’s leading experts in the myology of cattle.

 

8. querulent — abnormally suspicious or complaining

Was this my once hale and hearty childhood friend? now transformed by the loss of a petty lawsuit into the querulent paranoiac I saw leering up at me from his crouch at the rude table in the far corner of the darkened room?

 

9. metic — foreign resident required to pay tax to live in Ancient Greek city states

Worry about Xerxes’ invasion led many metics to flee Athens, with a concomitant loss of revenue to the Athenians.

 

10. stengah — [Malaysian] whiskey and soda

“Well, ‘stengah‘ means ‘half’ in Malay, and that’s how Conrad uses it, but in this house it means a decent drink, chop-chop, because nobody should be drinking straight whiskey in this beastly weather.”

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(from ‘scrag’ meaning the lean part of the neck of mutton)

scrag end — cheap cut of mutton from the neck chiefly used in stew; leftovers; least desirable parts

That’s me all over—biggest jewelry heist in a century and I end up with the scrag end of the haul: diamond dust and a handful of stones so flawed that they didn’t even dare mount them.

 

1. dysphoria — state of feeling bad or unhappy, malaise

The marketing team finished their presentation on moving the Overton Window of dysphoria so that people at least didn’t feel so bad about feeling bad, but nobody in the room felt any better about the plan.

 

2. punnet — small basket for selling strawberries or other fruit

The strawberries looked luscious, and at $2 a punnet (or 5 for $8) the price was great.

 

3. runkle — to crease or wrinkle

He runkled his forehead as he strained to decipher the crabbed handwriting of his nephew.

 

4. petcock — small hand valve used for drainage or testing

After Decker’s pleas, the nurse opened the petcock slightly to allow more morphine into the IV.

 

5. ort (usu. plural) — leftover

As he was feeding the orts to the pigs, he thought of how the swine ate better than he, and he decided to humble himself and go back home and swallow his pride as well as his father’s food.

 

6. risible — laughable

The risible nature of their sexual congress dampened the anger that drove him into Milady’s chamber, and his hoarse demands to “Get out!” were accompanied by tearful guffaws instead of ire.

 

7. selachian — of or related to the subclass Elasmobranchii consisting of sharks, rays, etc.; sharklike

Madag favored me with a selachian smile and began to put on a pair of tight black leather gloves.

 

8. horse-coper — buyer and seller of horses, usu. of ill repute

Your typical horse-coper is well aware of all the intricacies of contract law as it relates to the sale of horseflesh, so any complicated clauses in the bill of sale should alert you to the possibility that you may find yourself with neither your horse nor your money.

 

9. spital — place for care of sick charity cases

The 15th Century spitals at Highgate were solely for the care of lepers, and of course were privately funded.

 

10. petrissage — deep massage using kneading motions

Henry submitted himself to the trainer’s petrissage and felt his shoulders relax for the first time since he and Ollie had stolen that car outside the banker’s garage.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(historical policy of Louis XIV to reconvert Huguenots by billeting troops in their households and turning a blind eye to consequent abuse and thefts)

dragonnade — abandoning civilians to the pillaging of soldiers

After three days of this dragonnade the city elders returned to General DuCloit and asked under what conditions he could be persuaded to withdraw the troops.

 

1. foment — to incite, to encourage; to apply heat or ointment to (body part)

After the splint has been removed, foment the limb at least twice daily.

 

2. mugfaker — [obsolete slang] street photographer

We contacted all the mugfakers within three blocks of the boardwalk to see if they might have taken a portrait of the girl.

 

3. hiemal (also hyemal) — of or related to winter

His head was crowned with a hiemal garland of holly leaves and pine boughs.

 

4. egality — [archaic] equality

The egality and fraternity of The Revolution quickly gave way to less and less liberty.

 

5. illeism — referring to oneself in the third person

Bob Dole is the obvious contemporary practitioner of illeism, though the term derives from Julius Caesar’s various self-promoting histories.

 

6. instancy — immediateness; urgency, insistent nature

The instancy of sensory experience, argued the Belgian philosopher, discounts the sort of ‘best guess’ approach offered as a counterexample by his rival at Leiden.

 

7. subvention — grant of money for aid, support, or relief; honorarium paid to supposedly amateur athlete

The Riksdag has for years paid subventions directly to the parties, the amounts apportioned according to the number of seats held.

 

8. clunch — pale limestone rock mixture (sometimes with chalk or clay) used as building material

The normal range of clunch houses is eastern England and Normandy, so it is quite unusual to find a building—even a small outbuilding such as this one—deep in the mountains of Wales.

 

9. palliasse — mattress filled with straw

The rude palliasses laid near the feasthall hearth seemed the softest featherbeds after the last three nights in the rain upon the sharp sides of that flint mountain.

 

10. sucket — sweet made from candied fruit

“No one can beat your sucket for delicious flavor, Mary Ann!” he said.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(slang originating with carnies)

donniker (also donnicker) — outhouse, privy

When last seen, Reinhard had been headed to the donniker with an old issue of Vanity Fair.

 

1. nous — mind, reason; common sense

“Use your nous, Shelly!” the captain said, “Place the pickets up on the ridge, not the tents!”

 

2. mesclun — salad of mixed young greens

The agency claimed that a pre-packaged mesclun mix was implicated in the outbreak, but this was denied by the distributor.

 

3. stridulous — harsh, annoyingly shrill; of or related to stridor

The stridulous wheels on the bus go round and round, but not very well.

 

4. tope — Buddhist memorial mound, stupa

Of the many topes around Bhilsa, none still retain the very top of the dome, though many have preserved almost every other part of their ancient architecture.

 

5. insufflate — to blow or breathe into; to introduce air or gas into a body cavity

When the carbon dioxide is initially insufflated into the peritoneal cavity, a pressure greater than 10 mm Hg may indicate that an omentum or the preperitoneal space has been entered instead.

 

6. exequy (always now in plural) — funeral rite, obsequy

He left £4 for his exequies, as well as a small stipend for annual masses in memory of his wife.

 

7. fanfaronade — braggadocio, boastful talk

I am no supporter of such fanfaronade, though it now seems the rank and file expect these loathsome displays of chauvinism and bluster.

 

8. eyetooth — upper canine tooth of men and women

Pils would have given his eyeteeth for a championship bout, if he’d still had them.

 

9. pseudologue — habitual or pathological liar

Being a pseudologue, Timmy cared little if his tales were implausible, or even physically impossible.

 

10. craton — area of the earth’s crust and mantle which has remained unchanged by tectonic activity

Diamonds originate in the cratons of the earth and are from 2 to 3 billion years old.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(UK journalism)

red top — tabloid newspaper, from the usual use of red banners atop the front page to highlight the name of the paper

She’d had success writing for the red tops, but found it difficult to transfer those skills to her new position as publicist for Lambent Records.

 

1. balestra (also ballestra) — [fencing] leap towards opponent with an immediate lunge

Dimitrios closed the distance with a balestra feint to the sword arm shoulder, followed by an imbroccata to the chest, and Gregorio was hard-pressed to keep the Greek from ending the fight then and there.

 

2. pediophobia — fear of dolls

In this Hans Bellmer nightmare workshop, Florence was glad she was only menaced by a madman, and not also hampered by pediophobia.

 

3. stale — to urinate, esp. of horses or cattle

“I drank so much I could stale like a horse!”

 

4. bord — coalface leading into the seam; roadway in mine through which coal is extracted

In traditional bord and pillar mining, after most of the coal has been removed, the remaining pillars of the seam are removed in reverse order, working back to the mine entrance, so depillaring safely is vital.

 

5. scaphism — ancient Persian method of execution, possibly specious, in which the victim is bound between two small boats with his head and limbs remaining outside and then he is force-fed milk and honey until bloated and the remaining mixture slathered upon his exposed body parts, then left facing the sun whilst insects or other animals devour him alive

It is not only the wasps and bees and flies which torment the victim of scaphism, however, as the days-long torture creates sundry worms and other vile creatures amid the sufferer’s own egesta, and as he lies in his own filth with his horribly distended stomach, he has all too much time to contemplate his sad fate as he is devoured from without and within, dying a death of thousands of tiny gnawing bites.

 

6. hyperacusis — hypersensitivity to sound, esp. loud noises

Hyperacusis in veterans with PTSD is not uncommon, requiring delicate treatment, and this condition can be aggravated greatly if tinnitus is also present.

 

7. corrody (also corody) — lifetime pension of care given by religious house to maintain grantee

Of course there were many and varied types of corrodies throughout the Middle Ages, from benevolent bequests upon stalwart laymen who had worked all their lives at an abbey to grants forced upon a monastery by the king, but in all cases this lifetime allowance functioned as an early version of a pension, a nascent form of social insurance for the weak and elderly in a society dominated by the strong and the young.

 

8. little-go (also little go) — [British] preliminary examination during university courses to determine fitness to continue studies

By the end of Victoria’s reign, however, there were already concerns that requiring knowledge of two dead languages for the little-go did not prepare the future graduates of Cambridge for the changing world.

 

9. logothete (often capitalized) — administrative executive in Byzantine empire or its successor states

All negotiations between the Porte and the Patriarch had to pass through the logothete, who held his office through hereditary custom and knew quite well the value of his role as an intermediary.

 

10. merchet — feudal fine paid to lord upon a daughter’s marriage

Analysis of the Liber Gersumarum discounts the idea that most women who paid their own merchets were widows seeking to remarry.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(religious symbol)

Faravahar — preeminent symbol of Zoroastrianism, consisting of the upper body of a Persian man in a circle from which project wings and tail feathers and streamers; same symbol used generally for Persia or Iran

Of course, the appearance of the Faravahar on the Behistun Inscription may simply indicate the personal religious preference of Darius, but may also speak to the great king’s desire to impose a single religion upon his widespread peoples.

 

1. celt — unhafted bladed tool, usu. of stone or bronze, used as chisel or handleless axe

The similarity of celts found in Europe and the New World, however, has been claimed by some as evidence for earlier connections between the peoples found in the Americas and those of the Old World, or—as some would have it—the missing Lost Tribes of Israel.

 

2. anterior — occurring earlier in time, preceding; [biology] nearer the front, the head, or further from the mainstem

But this whole argument depends upon Lord Chillithane’s contention that the excursion to the mountains described by Antylus was anterior to the development of the structures discovered in the distant Novya Spletya colony, a doubtful logical leap at best.

 

3. chide — to rebuke, to find fault

“I won’t be chid for my dress by a man whose socks do not even match!”

 

4. sluff (also slough) — to shed; to ignore, to discard; to goldbrick

But Triers had sluffed off all the talk about Emma’s frivolities, and refused to hear any comments about her all evening.

 

5. troy weight — system of measurement with a pound of 12 ounces, an ounce of 20 pennyweights, with a pennyweight of 24 grains

Though one can be easily confused, remember always that the ‘grain’ is the same measure whether one uses avoirdupois or troy weight.

 

6. candid — frank, straightforward; unposed

The best attribute he brought to his profession was the candid expression in his honest face; from this, all the other ills followed.

 

7. otaku — obsessive fanboy, esp. of computers, anime, or manga

Otaku can be quite intelligent, experience pleasure and absorbing interest more easily, and are usually more focused and centered than the median in the societies in which they are found.

 

8. aspergillum — holy water sprinkler

We offer silver and gold aspergillums for all your sprinkling needs. (Note: not actual gold or silver.)

 

9. muslin — plain weave cotton fabric

How do I repair a book bound in green muslin-covered boards with tearing at the spine?

 

10. inselberg — monadnock, hill remaining on peneplain created by erosion

Most of the flora (taking the term in its most expansive meaning) found on these isolated inselbergs were acrocarpous mosses.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(historical)

Tityre-tu — member of criminal youth gang first seen in 1620s

More recent scholarship has cast doubt on the supposed anti-Catholic bent of most Tityre-tus.

 

1. recrudescence — reappearance, renewed outbreak, reoccurrence (esp. of something morbid or bad)

This recrudescence of simony, however, left most strata of society unconcerned, couched in this somewhat disingenuous language of sympathy.

  2. chirality — asymmetry of chemical compounds which cannot be superimposed upon its mirror image, ‘handedness’

The discovery of chirality among quarks, one of the smallest subatomic particles, shows how ‘deep’ is the deep structure of the universe.

  3. junket — cream cheese, or food made from sweet curds; pleasure trip, usu. one ostensibly for business purposes

The two senators on this junket were never actually seen by the press corps, it being assumed that they were tied up in important meetings with foreign dignitaries—and not, as rumor had it, fixed to the roulette wheel in the invitation-only back room at the local casino.

  4. lorn — forsaken; desolate

Emerging from the copse of trees we saw before us a lorn landscape of gloom, a meadow or marsh made from what had once been fruitful farmland, now returned to primeval mire.

  5. wuther — to blow, to bluster; to hurry

The frame of the one window had settled poorly, and the wind wuthered through the large gap all night.

  6. oriel — [architecture] bay window; protrusion from wall in which a bay window may be sited

Unusually, the oriel of the castle spans upwards across all four stories, with clever glasswork concealing each joint with the floors.

  7. turgor — swollenness; distention of plant cells

One assumes that his frequent headaches are due to the turgor of his self-confessed enormous brain.

  8. mootah — [slang] marijuana

“Billy,” she pleaded, “you said we’d smoke some mootah when I gave you the key.”

  9. lituus — curved military horn

The standards were held high, the troops assembled, and as soon as the signal was given and the lituii sounded the force would march forth from the besieged redoubt.

  10. agenesis — failed or anomalous development of body or part; sterility

Though a debilitating condition, the agenesis of the corpus callosum has proved a boon to research psychologists and other deep thinkers on the brain.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(British slang)

spark out — entirely unconscious

I slipped on the first step, whacked my head on the bannister, and got knocked spark out.