Educated Guesswork

1. modiste — fashionable milliner or dressmaker

Lady Sieveport’s headwear, a très au courant doll hat with feathers reminiscent of a crashing wave, gave proof of the modiste‘s expertise as a saleswoman, even if the hat itself seemed a feeble example of the milliner’s art.

 

2. enthymeme — logical argument with one premise or conclusion not explicitly stated, imperfect syllogism

His contention seemed to be—since it was an enthymeme we can only guess—that since religious education had proven so successful for the Catholic Church and especially for the Jesuit program, a similar indoctrination at an early age could effectively reduce criminality by teaching or rather preaching a message of niceness and brotherly love.

 

3. fatuous — silly, foolish; inane

Either you stop right now and explain the reasons behind your fatuous campaign to warn the neighborhood of the dangers of branded bottle openers or I shall leave these offices, taking my funding with me.

 

4. tilth — tillage; cultivated land

Looking upon these fine acres of crops today, you could not dream of the labor and pains taken to wrest this tilth from the rock- and weed-strewn badlands that my grandfather found when first he came to this valley.

 

5. convolute — to make difficult to follow, to complexify; to wind upon itself

Sickerts so convoluted his report that when he finished we weren’t certain whether he had purchased the milk or not.

 

6. mill lade (also mill-lade) — [Scots] mill race, mill leat

A stained cambric shirt was found three days later in the reeds across the stream from the mill lade down by Pinock’s farm.

 

7. tipstaff — sheriff’s officer, bailiff, court usher; ceremonial staff with metal tip

Though the tipstaff gave us some very hard looks, the judge seemed to find our involuntary interruption of the proceedings somewhat amusing.

 

8. kempt — neat, well maintained; combed

Like the rest of his attire, his hair and beard are almost compulsively kempt.

 

9. tigurine — Zwinglian, of or related to Zurich

The passage was not found in the tigurine translation of Luke, where the Calvinist scholars leaned towards a more material interpretation.

 

10. stirabout — [British] porridge

The food of their humble home was very luxurious, with both currants and cream for the stirabout.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(Italian, lit. ‘noble floor’)

piano nobile — main (usu. first) floor of large house

We waited in the reception room of the piano nobile, surrounded by dark tapestries and even darker paintings of indecipherable Biblical scenes, sitting upon uncomfortable chairs of some ancient and darkly stained wood.

1. telson — terminal segment or appendage in abdomen of many arthropods and some embryonic insects

Melisande gasped as the foul black telson of the monstrous scorpion hovered over her body, a drop of noxious ichor hanging from its sharp point.

 

2. Whitsunday — Sunday seven weeks after Easter, Holy Day celebrating descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost; Pentecost

Hartland finds in his examinations of fairy tales a connection to the otherwise singular story of Lady Godiva in an account of a similar price paid for a yearly gift to the poor, supposedly given every Whitsunday in the parish of St. Briavels.

 

3. quiddity — thingness, thatness, quality of a thing making it what it is

But if I were to go on about all the oddnesses and quiddities of our family life in that strange and inward-looking home, your patience would fail long before my tales were done.

 

4. mumble — to chew near uselessly, as with toothless gums

Slowly the old codger mumbled the red berries, the bright juice dripping from the side of his turtle-like mouth.

 

5. bilharzia — schistosomiasis, disease endemic to Africa and South Africa

Unfortunately, too many of these villagers will cease taking the medicine when the overt symptoms of bilharzia disappear, though this only ensures that the parasitic worm will remain in the host, perhaps causing further problems down the road.

 

6. reefer — short-waisted close-fitting thick jacket; midshipman charged with reefing the sails

Cedric habitually carried several kola nuts in the pockets of his reefer, a holdover from his days trading in the South Seas.

 

7. moulinet — circular cut in fencing; circling an opponent’s blade with your own

The lieutenant began to execute a moulinet but drew up short when I kicked him in the balls.

 

8. sutler — merchant selling wares to soldiers in the field

Both the sutler and his wife protested that they had not violated the general’s order forbidding the sale of spiritous liquor, but their wagons and horses were seized nonetheless.

 

9. unsavory — without taste, insipid; distasteful; morally or socially disagreeable

Not that his unsavory reputation was undeserved—if anything, the gossips underestimated his terrible manners and actions—but the man himself was so charming in person, so uninhibitedly full of life, so engaging and interested in each and every member of his company, that I could not help but fall under his trashy spell.

 

10. cruse — pot or jar of earthenware

Within the deer hide satchel we found a cruse of some foul oil, destined for who knows what evil ritual of the mad witch doctor.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(British slang)

blag — to obtain through wheedling or cajolery

We found him just where Noel had promised us he’d be, blagging drinks from a slightly pop-eyed barmaid at The Broken Badger, as dreary a pub as I’ve ever seen.

1. mort — hunting horn note signifying death of the prey; [obsolete] death

Let the trumpet sound a mort that all may know he lies here dead, and with him all our hopes.

 

2. mort — three year old salmon

For this dish Chef Jackson prefers a mort to any younger fish, to better highlight the heartiness of the soup.

 

3. mort — [cant] girl, woman; harlot

Go down to Butcher’s Row, then, if your lust is upon you, and find a walking mort to slake your lecherous thirst, the better to have your mind upon our business on the morrow.

 

4. roneo — to copy or produce a document by means of a mimeograph

“I’ve had my girl roneo these sheets for you to use when performing the inventory.”

 

5. synclinal — sloping downward

Unaware of these regular though infrequent floods, the settlers built their outpost at the very base of this synclinal trough, placing themselves directly in the path of disaster.

 

6. rundlet — small barrel or cask; old British measurement equivalent to about 18 US gallons

Besides several bundles of foolscap and bottles of ink, he also carried a rundlet of oil with which to light his lamp so that he could write deep into the dark night.

 

7. clew — skein or ball of yarn, etc.

After the dye has set, from the spindles are drawn the thread to make clews of each color.

 

8. galloon — close-woven braid often used in military uniforms

The robin’s egg damask seemed to be covered at almost every inch with a gold galloon of dazzling brightness, as if the sun itself were shining upon the brave hussar.

 

9. mongery — trade, the business of buying and selling

This petty mongery is all very well and good, but I’m talking about an chance to set yourself up for life, to live in a manor with a title and servants, to never have to work again.

 

10. writing-block — small board or firm tablet upon which to set paper for writing, used in travel

I managed to save both my journals and my writing-block, which MacAdam had cunningly outfitted with a compartment for a pen and a small store of ink, with which I am writing you this missive.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(fashion, mid-19th c.)

Dundreary whiskers — overly long bushy sideburns worn without a beard (called in England ‘Piccadilly weepers’)

Before Booth’s cowardly assassination of the president at Ford’s Theatre, the play Our American Cousin was perhaps most famous for the introduction of the brief fad for Dundreary whiskers, ridiculous facial hair worn by a fatuous character of the same name in the play.

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.