Educated Guesswork

1. monopsonistic — of or related to a situation or market where only one buyer exists for given goods or services

Before 1976, baseball players found their salaries kept down by the monopsonistic logic of the MLB.

 

2. endogamy — marriage within only a given tribe or social group

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

5. scolopendrid — large centipede

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

8. perruquier — wigmaker

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(drugs)

chandu — strongest preparation of opium for smoking

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

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

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

 

2. competency — sufficient income for daily expenses of living

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

6. intermit — to temporarily suspend or discontinue

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

 

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

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

 

8. unchancy — [Scots] unlucky; dangerous

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(British informal)

in good nick — in good condition

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

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

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

 

2. wether — castrated sheep or goat

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

 

3. dree — to endure

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

 

4. phantomesque — like a phantom, ghostly

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

 

5. amerce — to punish

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

 

6. rantipole — rude disorderly youngster; rake, fop

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

 

7. chunter — to grumble, to complain

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

10. mossbonker — menhaden, small pelagic fish

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

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(British informal)

splash out — to lavishly spend cash

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

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

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

 

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

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

 

3. sickerly — surely, certainly; assuredly

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

 

4. knacker’s yard — abattoir, slaughterhouse

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

9. stope — step-like cut in mining excavation

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

 

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

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

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(19th c. British slang)

ramp — to swindle

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

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

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

 

2. pocket Venus — beautiful small woman

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

8. flatus — intestinal gas

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

 

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

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

 

10. lapwing — large plover

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

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(19th c. Turkish military)

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

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

1. malacologist — one who studies mollusks

The French malacologist Pierre Denys de Montfort is most famous for his fanciful descriptions of the kraken, a enormous octopus that supposedly pulled large ships down beneath the waves.

 

2. cochineal — scarlet or crimson dye primarily used in cookery, made of a dried powder derived from the insect of the same name

The chef had added cochineal to the baked apples in honor of the family colors, matching the banners and flags which festooned the dining hall.

 

3. cyclamen — perennial of the primrose family with white, red, or pink flowers

The corm of the cyclamen plant is quite poisonous, though swine are unaffected by the toxin and will happily eat it, from whence the name sowbread.

 

4. sleeper — [British] railroad tie; horizontal load-distributing wooden beam

Constable Gill found the rucksack behind a pile of sleepers at the end of the work camp, along with another surprise—a baby boy.

 

5. tannoy — loudspeaker system for public announcements

The crowd, which had been hushed after Parson fell, became almost completely silent as the voice over the tannoy announced the substitution.

 

6. doggo — [British slang] in hiding

After the near disaster with the parson, I decided to lie doggo for a while in the hunting shed I’d found in the southern side of the woods.

 

7. American cloth — enameled oilcloth

The large basket was divided by a board covered with American cloth, dividing it into two equal compartments.

 

8. sudoriparous — secreting sweat

The sudoriparous glands may be found around the hair follicles, arranged in a circular pattern.

 

9. lakh — [Indian] a hundred thousand

The Kauravas still had fourteen lakhs of cavalry held in reserve.

 

10. froward — contrary, refractory, untoward

Not only must he be punished, but, like a froward child, he must be made to see the error of his evilly disposed ways.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(internet slang)

ratio’d (also ratioed) — (said of tweet) having more comments than likes; having a comment with many more likes than original tweet

When @steak_umm was ordered to post that ‘hot’ SteakUmm® video he knew he was gonna get ratio’d.

1. skew-whiff — askew, obliquely

And just as we had gotten Mrs. Heriot back up on her feet, here came Jon the cooper charging down the hillside riding skew-whiff on his dappled gray mare.

 

2. antimasque — grotesque dance preceding or appearing between acts of a masque

And finally the rude players of the second antimasque scurried away off stage, leaving a calm scene of bucolic peace into which the two court ladies appearing as Prudence and Remembrance made their stately way.

 

3. chiffonier — short sideboard enclosed by doors, sometimes with shelves at top; tall and narrow chest of drawers, often topped by a mirror; rag-picker

I had angrily removed my collar and set it atop the chiffonier, when I suddenly caught sight of my own face, positively purple with fury.

 

4. foot up — to total a bill at its bottom

If you cannot find yourself at your desk at six o’clock every morning, it matters not how quickly you can foot up the accounts in pounds, shillings, and pence.

 

5. smaragdine — of or relating to emeralds; emerald green

I found myself staring deep into her gorgeous dark eyes, hypnotized by the smaragdine sparks hidden therein.

 

6. anagogic — spiritual; of mystical interpretation

Whitmer began to expound upon his anagogic interpretation of toast, detailing how the sacrifice of the amino acids in the bread to the radiant heat is transubstantiated through the mystical process into a revelatory new substance, the extrinsic goal of the Eleusinian Mysteries.

 

7. damson — small dark purple or black plum; dark to medium violet

Surely hers is not the only damson bonnet to be found in the village?

 

8. anfractuous — sinuous, circuitous

But it seemed that the more closely I tried to follow his anfractuous exposition the more hopelessly confused I became.

 

9. dimity — stout thin cotton fabric, with raised stripes

Herr Ploetzl greeted me in a pale yellow dimity dressing gown, grasping and shaking my hand as if he was trying to wring a towel dry.

 

10. scrip — small bag, satchel, wallet (esp. one carried by a beggar or pilgrim)

He rooted around in the worn leather scrip and finally extracted two plastic twenty-sided dice, one white and one black.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(idiom, from sentry’s challenge)

qui vive — alert, state of watchfulness

Best keep on the qui vive until the sun is well and fully risen.

1. bariatric — of or related to treatment of obesity and associated conditions

He was too tall to use the ordinary walker whilst recovering from surgery, so they gave him a bariatric rollator instead, as that device could be adjusted to suit his great height.

 

2. carceralism — philosophy of or belief in prisons and imprisonment as a public safety institution

While some point to carceralism as the major culprit behind a perceived failure of modern policing, others find this a fictive target, a straw man argument for so-called ‘progressives’ to attack as a means of further eroding the stability of the social order.

 

3. nekyia (also nekya) — necromantic rite in Ancient Greece

Questions about a supposed afterlife, and the possibility of some existence after death are found in the earliest human literature, as demonstrated by the nekyia of Odysseus in the great Homeric epic.

 

4. Heptasophs — defunct fraternal organization active in latter half of 19th Century, primarily in southern United States

The Order of Heptasophs was believed to have been inspired by the so-called Mystical Seven, one of the first American college fraternal societies.

 

5. emerods — [archaic] hemorrhoids

Though its loss was grievous to the tribes of Israel, the capture of the Ark of the Covenant was not an unqualified victory for the Philistines, who suffered from a “plague of emerods” that afflicted the “secret parts” of the captors.

 

6. cataplasm — [obsolete] poultice; plaster

When her agonies continued I placed a cataplasm of bark and laudanum on her belly and prayed for the best.

 

7. pediculous — infested with lice, lousy

We stopped at an unfriendly inn, finding only cold gruel for sustenance and pediculous pallets upon the even colder floor.

 

8. holland — opaque linen cloth

The small garret was suffused in murky light, the bright sunlight beyond the gable window blocked by an unfinished holland drapery.

 

9. vavasor — feudal vassal ranking just below baron

Like many another vavasor, Prentys was prickly and proud, easily offended if he felt in the least his rights were being slighted.

 

10. fasciculate — arranged in bunches or bundles

The tree is notable for the fasciculate leaves which tend to grow only at the extremities of its branches.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(Australian idiom)

stone the crows — expression of annoyance or surprise

“Well, stone the crows!” fumed Bertie. “We won’t be on their trail after all. The bandits drained all our petrol.”