1. hustle-cap — old penny pitching game where coins are shaken in a cap In the colonial days of Pennsylvania there is even one report of a deadlocked jury determining their verdict by playing a quick game of hustle-cap. 2. tomelet — small tome The new (1929) tomelet from the World’s Classics Library containing …
Tag Archives: bonus word
Friday Vocabulary
1. bonhomous — cheerful, full of bonhomie But don’t let his bonhomous front fool you, for inside that genial clumban lurks a cunning and devious mind, always set upon gaining profit and power by any means fair or foul. 2. slewfoot (also sluefoot) — [slang] detective, policeman; clumsy person “Ain’t gonna let no tinhorn …
Friday Vocabulary
1. beg the question — to assume the conclusion in a premise of a logical argument* But to claim that the Holy Bible—and specifically the King James translation in English of the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek originals—is the direct word of God, is merely to beg the question when this assertion is used to …
Friday Vocabulary
1. campanology — study of bells and their making, ringing, etc. After enlisting the minister’s support in refocusing your church on the wonders of campanology, you shouldn’t immediately seek to introduce grandsire doubles to your bellringers. 2. veneer — thin layer of decorative wood, usu. placed over other cheaper wood; layer of wood used …
Friday Vocabulary
1. marcescent — [botany] withered yet still attached He still felt the pain when he thought of the door slamming his fingers during that drunken escapade, but also felt pride that his marcescent fingernails were still clinging stupidly to his fingertips, just as stubborn as he always was in the face of brute necessity. …
Friday Vocabulary
1. brannigan — drinking bout; brawl We’ve had no trouble to speak of since you left for back east, a brannigan or two but nothing me and Deputy Fievel couldn’t handle, so don’t worry about hurrying home. 2. frighten the horses — [idiom] to upset public standards, to cause moral alarm “Now I don’t …
Friday Vocabulary
1. non sequitur — [Latin, sorta] disturbingly inapt transition or sequence; statement not logically following its precedent I had already given up trying to follow the plot with its plethora of holes and non sequuntur, but the literal resurrection of the bishop killed so drastically in the very first scene of the movie solely so …
Friday Vocabulary
1. cambion — child with one human and one demonic parent As no one suspected Marta of being anything but a gullible human girl, and since the fishermen all knew her boy Toby to be a cambion, the village was convinced she’d been seduced by an incubus, likely taking the form of her own Long …
Friday Vocabulary
1. langlauf — to ski cross-country He thought of langlaufing to the forester’s hut, but decided it was impracticable with these wide skis he’d been forced to use. 2. antetype — prototype, early form Thus these radio clubs were the antetype of the grand scheme of fan clubs which became so important to the …
Friday Vocabulary
1. calipee — food delicacy made from fatty substance immediately above lower shell of a tortoise Besides a fine stew, I was invited to enjoy the calipee, my first experience with this delectable treat. 2. pastophore (also pastophorous) — lower priest of ancient Egypt charged with keeping the door of the temple If this …