Friday Vocabulary

1. davit — [nautical] small crane used on a boat, esp. in pairs for lowering and raising a lifeboat or launch

Sudden panic overcame me as I came out of the gangway and saw the lines blowing free in the gale and the davits emptied of the only seaworthy lifeboat on the ship.

 

2. grimdark — bleak, dark, violent, dystopian genre fiction, esp. fantasy

Even in her latest grimdark novel, Jolene cannot resist throwing in a taste of her life-affirming crystal-waving ‘We Are All One’ quasi-Buddhist quasi-Taoist beliefs she apparently acquired from her hippie mother.

 

3. diener (also deaner) — orderly in morgue charged with cleaning and moving corpses

I noticed we were working without a diener tonight, and when I asked him where Sparks (our usual assistant) was, Hadley grunted that the fewer eyes the better on this particular case.

 

4. pessary — vaginal suppository; prothesis inserted in vagina for therapeutic purposes

The procedure is even enjoined by the original version of the Hippocratic Oath, where doctors swear never to insert a pessary to induce abortion.

 

5. mackerel (often plural) — suggestive of fish scales

It was a beautiful mackerel sky, though the rich pink color of the sunset made me think more of salmon.

 

6. blowzy (also blowsy) — ruddy, rude, and dirty

She was a blowzy old wench who had no place in this refined coffee house, but she insisted upon a doctor, at once, so—to avoid further derangement to the convivial company—I agreed to accompany her to see what promised to be a nonpaying patient.

 

7. sassenach (often capitalized) — [Scots] English person

Duncan dismissed Hardy as just another sassenach fool come to see the credulous men in kilts who still believed in monsters and fairies.

 

8. hippopotamoid — animal similar to a hippopotamus; animal in the family of Hippopotamidae

Buried in the mud we thought we had rousted a hippopotamoid, but it turned out to be a buried clothes chest.

 

9. wrappers — outer cover of paper-covered book

Some foxing may be seen on the inside of the wrappers, but the exterior is unmarked and the cover illustration is still bright in the original colors.

 

10. fanlight — [architecture] small semicircular window over a door or larger window, often decorated so as to resemble a fan

The metal framework of what had once been a gorgeous Victorian fanlight could be seen in the debris, all that remained to suggest what a wonderful house this pile of rubble had once been.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(UK informal)

panda car — police car, from original black-and-white coloring

At half past nine the first panda car arrived on the scene and less than three minutes later the patrolman called for an ambulance and a team from CID.

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. apanthropy — disdain for human companionship, predilection for solitude

Among the many powerful feelings which the holidays always inspires in me, an overwhelming sense of apanthropy is perhaps the strongest and most sustained.

 

2. flannelette — napped cotton made to resemble flannel

Marcie wore a fleecy flannelette nightgown striped in blue and yellow, and her hair was already perfect, even at this ungodly hour.

 

3. duumvirate — two persons having joint power over something; rule by two people

Babbage succumbed to either the poison or the poor doctoring and thus the ruling committee became a de facto duumvirate.

 

4. rhumb — line of navigation crossing successive meridians at a constant angle

Obviously, therefore, the distance travelled following the rhumbs will always be greater (though often not much greater) than a Great Circle route, unless the rhumb is identical with a line of latitude.

 

5. reach-me-down (often plural) — [British slang] readymade clothes

They think themselves so smart in their ill-fitting reach-me-downs, so new the pleats can cause an injury.

 

6. mereology — study or philosophy of relationships between parts and wholes

But no mereology could explain the violently discordant family dynamic in which I’d become ensconced this weekend, no logician could detail just which relative A had engendered the murderous actions of relative B, and no sage could tell me just what in the hell I should do now.

 

7. flagroot (also flag root) — root of acorus calamus (of the lily family), with supposed healing and hallucinogenic effects, banned in the U.S. for use in food due to its toxicity

Well into the 1950s the Shakers sold candied flagroot as part of their ultimately futile effort to raise income for the ever-decreasing community.

 

8. blucher — leather half-boot, strong high shoe

One more step and I was up to my bluchers in the rank freezing water of one of the treacherous bogs in the moors.

 

9. hare — to move with great quickness

In the distance we could see young Carter inexplicably haring about between the haystacks which dotted the field, as if he were searching for the proverbial needle under an extreme time limit.

 

10. salmi — stew or ragout, usu. with game meat

Mrs. Churchward took our brace of partridges and made a wonderful salmi for that night’s supper, garnished with some orange slices that she found heaven knows where.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(derogatory UK slang)

left-footed — Catholic, esp. an Irish Catholic, from supposed use of poor Irishmen of single-sided spades for digging

“What’s the matter, doctor? You expected some superstitious nonsense from a silly old left-footed Irish farmer? Maybe thought I’d be waving magic charms over the cows?”

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. isarithm — contour lines

The experienced map reader will imagine the elevation denoted by the isarithms, and will visualize the steep escarpments or gradually descending plains depicted by the chart.

 

2. selsyn — synchro, coordination of physical device to a monitor or control device by use of electric current

Transfer of position data through the use of selsyns dates back to early last century, when these nascent electrical systems were used to deliver analog information on gate positions for the Panama Canal.

 

3. duologue (also duolog) — dialogue between two persons

“Baby, It’s Cold Outside” purports to be a duologue between two prospective romantic partners who first appear as if in opposition but change gradually to a perspective of warm fulfillment of mutual desires.

 

4. rumbustious — [British] roisterous, exuberantly unruly, troublesome

Though now in their sixth decades, the brothers became once more rumbustious children when watching football together, cheering the ‘Archies’ again in louder and louder voices while jumping about with increasingly extravagant gestures.

 

5. lazarine — back from the dead; of or related to a specific type of ulcerating leprosy

Through the power of intransigent lawyers and lobbyists, backed by a hidden coterie of strangely obsessed billionaires, the thrice defeated yet lazarine state proposition will once again be on the ballot in November.

 

6. genericide — [law] loss of trademark rights due to common usage of protected terms etc.

The Dryrobe company fought off genericide claims by the competition, despite convincing evidence of common household use of the name.

 

7. protopathic — of or related to sensation without determining location

Suddenly he was gripped by a vague yet overweening fear, a distrait protopathic sense warning him against … ‘something’ for which he could find no name no reason, but which feeling urgently told him he must quit the seemingly abandoned house immediately.

 

8. craquelure — tiny network of cracks on surface of old varnish or paint

The comfortable settee showed a weary craquelure along its leather arms where Benson had been used to prop up his head and feet.

 

9. escritoire — desk with drop-down surface for writing upon

Hampton sat at the escritoire and pulled out from a drawer some light blue paper upon which to compose his missive of love.

 

10. oofy — [British] loaded with money, rich, wealthy

Salvatore had a pretty oofy father-in-law, but he feared putting a touch upon the old man because of … well, I’m not sure exactly why, but he just did.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(myth & witchery)

fairy doctor — ‘cunning’ man or woman supposed to have healing power over mystical ailments affecting people and beasts

Finally someone (I think it was Tomas) thought of calling that weird hermit Harold, the fairy doctor, who, once they found him in the Sinking Wood, came and spread a waxy gel all over the body of the afflicted calf, which almost immediately started breathing easier, and was able to stand and walk and take nourishment within the hour.

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. flytime (also fly-time and fly time) — season when flies are prevalent and pestering

During flytime, some ranchers even go so far as to put their cows out to pasture only after sunset, finding that cattle during the day merely tramp the grass and swat flies instead of feeding.

 

2. snook — protandric hermaphrodite fish of the Caribbean

We left Roger drowning his sorrows at the bar and took out the boat to fish for snook.

 

3. Jackson ball (also jackson-ball) — [obsolete] hard penny candy, bull’s eye

After working all day we had 14¢ between us, so we decided to spend it all on Jackson balls Monday as soon as the candy store opened.

 

4. rejectamenta — thrown-away things, trash, refuse

Among the other rejectamenta left behind to be hauled to the dump in that musty, collapsing garage were five boxes of various issues of First Comics, but all of the Grimjacks were ruined.

 

5. tizzwozz (also tizz-wozz, tiswas, tizwas) — [slang] nervous state of excitement

Janet had not been clubbing since Trainspotting came out, and she was all of a tizzwozz.

 

6. lobar — of or related to a lobe

From a very young age Derrick had been interested in the lobar development of women’s mammary glands.

 

7. douceur — bribe, financial sweetener

Though he claimed he was not influenced by this douceur in the eventual sale of the estate, the courts found him guilty of malfeasance and ordered the repayment of all of the ‘discounted’ funds.

 

8. holmgang — [Norse, Icelandic] duel, sometimes to the death

The fight between Gunlaug and Rafn was the last holmgang fought on the island of Öxárá.

 

9. niddering — cowardly, nefast

But it would have been a niddering deed to continue battle once his opponent’s sword shattered.

 

10. haplography — inadvertent omission of repeated letter or letter group in writing; omission of word or phrase when copying document consisting of similar phrases or words

Analysis of the Recognition Duet between Helena and Menelaus centers around the issue of haplography shown by comparing the extant manuscripts and papyrus fragments, but scholars are divided as to just which words were lost where.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(fashion)

stadium boot — over-the-ankle fleece-lined boot for wear whilst sitting out in cold weather for a long time

I did managed to pull him out of the freezing pond water with a luckily handy branch, but my new stadium boots were ruined.

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. devilfish — octopus; piranha; devil ray; giant squid; other marine animals with (supposedly) malevolent mien

And though that devilfish had his suckers wound around the old man’s arm, the aged diver did not panic, but calmly extracted the octopus from his hiding spot.

 

2. firedog — andiron

Smoke continued to leak into the room until Renee finally shoved back the firedogs with the pointed end of her golf umbrella.

 

3. wallop — [slang] beer

“After that fracas,” Pete said, wiping his forehead, “I need a pint of wallop before I tell you two gents the whole tale.”

 

4. pseudocide (also pseuicide) — faked death

But when they seemed ready to indict Eleanor for murder, Lance arose from the grave—or rather returned from Belize where he’d been hiding—to reveal that the whole stunt with the hang glider and the exploding banana boat had been merely an elaborate psuedocide he’d concocted to escape the mounting pressure due to his malefactions at the bank, and though the authorities were never convinced by his protestations that his wife was not involved, she was never charged.

 

5. bedizenment — gaudy manner of dress; vulgar decoration

The purple, gold, and green bedizenments of plastic top hats and kittens and playing cards and buxom silhouettes strewn around the walls of the dark chamber did not increase our confidence in this psychic’s ability.

 

6. polled — without horns

The Polled Angus was one of only two of the many hornless cattle breeds which had any real success on American ranches.

 

7. iniquitous — nefarious; flagrantly unfair

As much as these political leaders may inveigh against these iniquitous decisions, so far we have seen no attempts to stop, correct, or even investigate these patently immoral acts.

 

8. bed-sitter (also bedsit, bedsitter)— small single room apartment with cooking facilities in the same room

Agnes rented bed-sitters by the month, week, and day, on a sliding scale as she said, though some of her tenants opined that the scale slid based on the desperation of the renter.

 

9. kaddish (often capitalized) — prayer sequence in the Jewish faith; prayers for the dead

Eli tried to explain the rules about who should say kaddish and when, but, seeing my perplexity, he said, “The important thing, you see, is that our parents, our ancestors, they must be remembered and honored.”

 

10. anyhow — carelessly; in no particular manner, in any fashion whatsoever

“Just put those boxes anyhow over against that wall, and I’ll sort through them later.”

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(abbreviation)

GFC — Global Financial Crisis, worldwide economic suffering which started at the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008

We were going gangbusters and had just expanded to five more stores when the GFC wiped out not only our expansion but also our capital and credit and … well, everything.

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. revers — lapel or other garment part turned back to reveal the lining

The colonel wore a half-length silk robe in black with revers in a startling crimson.

 

2. cornice — [architecture] horizontal element surrounding the top of a building; crown molding of walls within a room; overhanging snow in alpine mountains

Jeremy thought he could just make out a small tube or shaft—a rifle barrel? an antenna?—peeking out above the cornice of the shabby hotel across the street from the senator’s election party.

 

3. goloptious — excellent, wonderful; delicious

Steve decided that he’d waited long enough after dinner to enjoy yet another piece of that goloptious pumpkin pie.

 

4. velarium — ancient awning over Roman amphitheaters

Here in the cheap seats of course there was no velarium to dampen the sun’s harsh rays, so the early events were often difficult to see in the blinding light of Apollo.

 

5. carrack — large three- or four-masted merchant ship of European nations from 14th Century and later

The captain had gambled and lost, and the topsail still set now took the mast with it as the wind tore and raged, and now the carrack was lost, no hope of reaching the open water opposite the treacherous rocks to port which seemed evilly to glister in the lightnings’ fire.

 

6. cuspidorian — person tasked with cleaning and maintaining cuspidors

Never an easy job, the cuspidorian despaired of his Sisyphean task whenever the Shriners came to town.

 

7. rangdoodle — round in a card game in which limits or antes are increased after a specified winning hand

The house rules called for rangdoodles after any hand better than a full house, so I ended up losing most of what I’d just won.

 

8. daedal (also dædal) — clever, adroit

Quickly he sketched, and from Bollard’s daedal hand came a striking—not to say devastating—portrait of the headmaster in spitting rage.

 

9. deltiology — the collection and study of postcards

His was a rather specialized subset of deltiology, so I knew when I found the Chinese postcard featuring a fat baby wearing a Mao hat and jacket that I finally had something to bargain with.

 

10. manubrium — upper part of the sternum connecting to the clavicles

The point of the umbrella had pierced completely his manubrium, though somehow the EMTs had kept him alive despite his almost useless trachea.

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. terret — ring on harness saddle through which the reins are passed

When driving a unicorn team you need to ensure that the reins of the lead horse are fed loosely through the pair’s terrets, which usually requires an extra D-ring.

 

2. shebeen — [Ireland, Scotland, South Africa] unlicensed place where alcoholic drinks are served

Sammy had found religion in a Notting Hill shebeen after he nearly lost an eye in a fight with a Jamaican lorry driver.

 

3. shantung — thin plain woven silk fabric

Sitting at the tiny table in his shantung suit the same color as the tobacco stains on his lips, he looked like a louche spy instead of a petty broker of crockery.

 

4. chancroid — [biology] STD causing ulcerated lymph nodes in the groin

Though of course chancroid is obviously a venereal ulcer, infection can also arise from contact with the chancroidal pus.

 

5. haecceity — thisness, unique essence, that which makes a particular thing that very particular thing and no other

Professor Sprunt made very clear that we should never confuse haecceity with mere quiddity, for though of course both terms spoke to the ‘whatness’ of a thing, the latter was a general whatness while haecceity was almost the opposite.

 

6. ramiform — shaped like a branch or branches

As I stared at the ramiform chart Bruce had constructed to explain the ‘intuitive’ and ‘easy’ combat system of his new RPG, my eyes began to glaze over and I found myself daydreaming once more of Runequest.

 

7. gerontophobe — person afraid of old people; one who fears becoming old

Nellie loved parties and dancing, and my sister thought her a flighty gerontophobe, though it seemed to me that she detested only old men, not little old ladies.

 

8. satispassion — expiation through suffering

He considered this part of his satispassion, this burning pain in both his heart and his groin, but he told himself he would rather suffer this torment than to lapse back into uncaring and ignorant sin.

 

9. caramelize — to covert into caramel; to brown through heat

The Mediterranean sun had caramelized her skin to a lustrous red gold.

 

10. emissile — capable of being protruded

The Martian lander opened a hatch and extended its emissile probe into the powdery dust.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(Latin)

non placet — negative vote

The famous vote for Lord Hardwicke was marred by the discrepancy in the proctors’ counts, but in both cases the non placet was insufficient to give Lord Sandwich the victory at Cambridge.

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. grom — [slang] young surfer; youth on a board of the various types (wake-, snow-, skate-; i.e., not corporate)

That pesky grom really got worked when he took off on the wrong wave at the reef break.

 

2. reata — lariat, lasso

Scotch Bill dallied the rawhide reata around his saddlehorn as he prepared to go after the spooked steer.

 

3. ingle — [obsolete] fireplace

We found the old man asleep—passed out drunk, more likely—in front of the ingle, his tattered boots almost touching the flames.

 

4. functor — [mathematics] mapping of one category to another in category theory; thingies serving a similar purpose in language (function words) or programming (function objects)

In this overheated political environment it becomes obvious that each accusation is a functor pointing to actual activities on the part of the accuser, similar (though orthogonal to) to Evans-Wentz’s analysis of witchcraft accusations.

 

5. megaderm — blood-sucking bat of Asia and Africa

The Lyre Bat has the largest ears and nose leaf of all the megaderms, and this so-called ‘vampire bat’ may be found throughout the subcontinent.

 

6. lagan — goods or cargo sunk at sea which may yet be claimed by original owner

Before the ship foundered the crates of whisky were jettisoned with a buoy attached so that legally the cargo became lagan and could not be considered part of the impending wreck upon the treacherous shore.

 

7. gantlet (also gauntlet) — punishment in which two rows of attackers beat the victim running between them; trying ordeal, esp. as penance or discipline

After her testimony Ellie was forced to run the gantlet of her co-workers’ glares and sneers each day as she made her way to her desk at the back of the boiler room.

 

8. factoid — falsehood repeated in media so often it becomes accepted as true; minor or trivial item of information

The widely accepted factoid that humans only use 10% of their brain power may originate in the bizarre studies of William James and Boris Sidis of the latter’s son, who became an obsessive expert in the field of urban train and bus transfers, or peridromophily.

 

9. misprize — to undervalue, to be contemptuous of, to fail to appreciate

Betty realized then that she had been cruelly misprized, not only by her supposed beau Georges, but by all the men of her acquaintance, ever since she had left The Lodgings.

 

10. hurple — [obsolete] to crouch, to hunch over; to limp

Drymoat Pete slunk out of the shadowed doorway, hurpling against the cold and pulling his tattered cloak closer to his shivering shoulders.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(heterodox Islamic belief)

Alevism — subsect of Twelver Shi’a mysticism

Though the followers of Turkish Alevism are certainly put upon by orthodox Muslims, it is the Kurdish sect which has suffered most in the recent century, as in the Maraş massacre of 1978.

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. iconoclast — destroyer of religious images; one who criticizes or attacks orthodoxy; independent thinker

Jocelyn was such a staunch iconoclast she refused the invitation of Mr. Kipling, lest she be thought to support his imperialist views.

 

2. limonite — hydrous iron oxide

Among the important iron ores found in the region are deposits of siderite, limonite, and taconite.

 

3. tamarisk — one of many varieties of shrub found in Eurasia or Africa

And in honor of this covenant Abraham planted a grove of tamarisk by the well of Beer-sheba.

 

4. crowbait — [idiom] worn-out old horse

Charlie was so desperate he gave twenty dollars for the crowbait the farmer had dying out in his field.

 

5. agenbite — [archaic] remorse

The pangs of agenbite gnawed at him as he pondered this last, perhaps final, mistake.

 

6. kalpak (also calpack) — high-crowned hat of Turkic peoples

The gold threads of his black kalpak glimmered faintly in the firelight.

 

7. whicker — to neigh gently

As long as Beau was whickering outside the tent I wasn’t worried.

 

8. chapati — unleavened flatbread of India and Pakistan

Wrapping the lamb in a piece of chapati I dipped it in the wonderful mango chutney.

 

9. meller — [informal] melodrama

Like many mellers today, the plot was contrived to give our hero a chance to shine, meaning every other person in the film is a complete dope.

 

10. homeothermic — of or related to the ability of an animal to maintain a fairly constant body temperature independent of surroundings

Fish in near-freezing water are as homeothermic as a lynx; the term is not a synonym for ‘warm-blooded’.

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. corm — [botany] swollen stem of plant serving as storage organ, bulbotuber

Transforming your corm into a burgeoning banana plant is a labor of love and … well, labor, which is the reason for the much lower price.

 

2. graupel — mushy hail, granular snow

To distinguish hail from graupel is most easily done by watching or feeling its impact; if it splashes, it is not hail.

 

3. cornify — to transmogrify into horn

In the epidermis as the cell is cornified the organelles including mitochondria are removed, though this process is not yet fully understood.

 

4. flame cell — specialized excretory cell in very simple invertebrates

Using an electron microscope the excretory material can be seen in the cytoplasm of the flame cell.

 

5. cotehardie — long-sleeved outer garment buttoned or laced up the front

He thought himself a fine figure in his blue velvet cotehardie, until an errant swine ran squealing through his legs and knocked him into the cesspool.

 

6. culverin — handheld weapon of the 14th & early 15th Centuries; small cannon

The bow chasers were two brass culverins mounted above the captain’s cabin.

 

7. burleycue — burlesque, esp. burlesque theater

She shamelessly admitted she’d worked in burleycue, yet Haldane persisted in believing he might one day introduce her to his mother.

 

8. monovision — presbyopia treatment in which differently adjusted contact lenses are used, one for far vision and the other to correct for near vision

Monovision lenses are generally used for patients who either will not or cannot simply wear reading glasses.

 

9. exoteric — of or related to information suitable for public consumption

Though the exoteric meaning of the play clearly supported the new regime, party leaders were disturbed by elements they did not understand, fearing some hidden criticism of their rule.

 

10. immie — [informal] marble

Petey was looking for an immie that had rolled into the drain when he saw the silver watch.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(archaic minced expletive)

ods bodikins — interjection palliating stronger phrase “God’s bodkins” (meaning the nails used to affix Jesus to the cross)

“Ods bodikins, man! They can only hang us once, so buck up and set to these bastards!”