Educated Guesswork

1. bodge — to patch poorly or clumsily

As long as he remained in his chair nobody could see how he had bodged the rip in the seat of his pants, leaving a pleat along the center seam.

2. malefic — producing evil, baleful

Being snubbed at the party had a malefic effect upon his judicial rulings.

3. bint — (British) derogatory term for girl or woman

“No, she won’t be helping with the food—I gave one hard look at the bint and she ran away!”

4. ecchymosis — discoloration from extravasated blood beneath the skin

The purplish ecchymosis of a deep bruise will fade to a yellowish green as the hemoglobin is broken down by the body into biliverdin and bilirubin.

5. gralloch — to remove the viscera from game, usu. a deer

By the time I returned with our camp buckets filled from the stream, Jerry had already gralloched the whitetail and was beginning to assemble the fire.

6. canting arms — (also allusive or punning arms) (heraldry) coat of arms in which charges make visual play on the bearer’s name or title

The arms of President Eisenhower stretched the idea of canting arms still further, with a blue anvil somehow supposed to evoke the German word ‘eisenhauer’, though this means ‘iron worker’ rather than ‘anvil’.

7. canting — affecting piety, often hypocritically

For all his strident, whining, canting devotion to Marx, the professor remains a true capitalist at heart.

8. canting — using thieves’ slang

I understood most of the carny’s canting words, but had to ask just what a ‘moll dip’ was.

9. sternutatory — causing sneezing

I have never found snuff to have as strong a sternutatory effect as ground black pepper, but his blend always made me sneeze violently, crying all the while.

10. fulvous — dull yellowish-brown, tawny

Viewing the cougar at this distance through the binoculars, I could appreciate her beauty, the strong feline muscles beneath her fulvous coat, her massive paws treading lightly across the rock-strewn hillside.

1. tagger (HT to Steve Skaar) — one who tags; device for tagging (sheep, merchandise, etc.); graffitist

Most variants of the game have a ‘no tag-backs’ rule of some sort, so that the tagger can not immediately become the taggee.

2. dorter — dormitory, esp. in a monastery

I had been so nervous the previous night, creeping as quietly as possible past the dorter, only to realize this morning that at least half of the monks had been up and about at the same time.

3. maidan — open space near or in a town; parade ground

Rogers was found with the other horsemen playing polo on the maidan, cutting a fine figure on his chestnut stallion.

4. astonied — (archaic) stunned; dazed

The Green Knight was astonied to behold the two of them riding peaceably together upon Sir Spender’s gray charger, she riding sidesaddle behind the tall warrior.

5. enkindle — to make to blaze up; to set on fire

There was no single moment that enkindled her ardor, rather a succession of moments, a series of sweet kindnesses and fiery actions that built her passion into an unquenchable flame.

6. distaff — stave used to hold unspun fiber during spinning; women; female side of a family; female heir

The pretensions of the Soviet would have you believe that all were equal in the party, but I noted that the distaff side of the delegation were relegated to menial and clerical work while the men performed the hard labor of negotiation and attendance at working dinners.

7. eulogium — speech or writing praising some person or thing

Once more we were forced to endure a eulogium on the intelligence and correctness of our supervisor, which, as always, would have carried more weight had it been delivered by someone other than the supervisor himself.

8. nestle-cock — last or weakest hatchling in a brood; spoilt child

Dorian barely survived the whooping cough and had been doted upon by his mother since, becoming such a nestle-cock in consequence that he proved unable to endure any difficulty whatsoever.

9. sough — to sigh, to murmur, to make a rushing or murmuring sound

The wind soughed through the willows while I lay beneath its branches with my eyes closed listening to each shifting breeze playing through the leaves.

10. optative — of verb mood expressing wish or desire

I boldly asserted I would become a world-famous stenographer, showing my youthful grasp of optative expression, but little realizing that my lack of subjunctive mastery was already all too obvious.

1. pouter — domestic pigeon, noted for puffing out its crop

In contrast to Jack, whose beer belly could be seen before the man himself, Bert had an almost inverse shape, with a narrow waist and overlarge barrel chest, puffed up like a pouter in full distention.

2. fons et origo — source and origin

And that small accident, the tiniest dent made by the whisper of her bumper upon his new Honda, this trifle was the fons et origo of all the consequent nastiness that led to the dreadful disaster.

3. list — to be pleasing to

I shall do as me list, and no law nor force will stay me.

4. blent — past tense and past participle of blend

If you like your drinks blent—not to say turnt—you could do worse than the versatile daiquiri.

5. sodality — companionship, fellowship; an association; society for Catholic laypeople

Before joining the convent she had been quite active in her sodality, taking meals to poor homebound seniors and leading charitable drives during the Christmas season.

6. debauch — to seduce, to corrupt

His friends and their Bohemian lifestyle had debauched the high ideals he had held when first he came to the big city.

7. logomachy — contention or dispute about words

To insist upon the term ‘illegal alien’ versus ‘dreamer’ is not some logomachy but rather a beachhead upon the battlefield of political power.

8. refectory — dining hall in a college or religious house

The plates had all been cleared away yet Tom and Guy still argued in the refectory, each determined to win the day which—truth be told—was long since over.

9. stipe — (botany) stalk, esp. of a mushroom

Connoisseurs of psychedelia know that the potency of the stipe is the same as that of the cap, so don’t waste anything.

10. ramify — to spread out in branches; to separate into subdivisions

Petersen really felt that he had finally created the ultimate ontology, for his new software displayed all of human knowledge in three dimensions as each category ramified into further more particular subcategories, interconnecting them in a glorious structure he hoped would enable his perfect database.

1. procrustean — producing conformity or uniformity through severe means without regard to natural variation

The sentencing guidelines have created a procrustean nightmare which prevents state judges from exercising discretion in even the most egregious cases.

2. winklepickers — shoes with long pointed toe

The Leningrad Cowboys are known for their winklepickers and overlong quiff haircuts.

3. manqué — “That might have been but is not.” [Oxford]

Like some sort of scholar manqué he had substituted Internet bookmarks for books, Post-its® for research notes, opinions for articles, and food-stained t-shirts for tweed jackets with elbow patches.

4. vellus hair — short, almost invisible hairs covering most of the human body save for the head

Do not be fooled by the claims of this hair growth formula, as vellus hairs are often seen on the scalps of those suffering from male pattern baldness.

5. peg out — (British slang) to die; to be wiped out

He’s passed out in the back bedroom now, and he’ll be better in the morning, assuming he doesn’t just peg out before then.

6. cook-general — (British) servant performing both general housekeeping and cooking

In their straitened circumstances they were forced to let go all their servants save for Nancy, the old retainer who took on the duties of a cook-general in spite of her inaptitude in the kitchen.

7. benison — blessing, benediction

Secure in nature’s benison beneath the vault of distant stars in the clear sky, I slept soundly amidst the pines.

8. supercilious — contemptuously superior or disdainful

Her unfitness for parenting was shown by her supercilious comment when her visiting nephews disturbed her usually placid home: “Now I understand why animals eat their young.”

9. fungo — (baseball) soft fly ball hit for fielding practice

His hand-eye coordination is so bad he can’t even hit fungoes with a wiffle ball and bat.

10. charivari — mock serenade with kitchen implements for newly marrieds; clamor of noise

We are told that the Punk Jazz movement has quite serious antecedents, but the performance last night seemed merely a charivari of discord played by people we resist calling ‘musicians’.

1. flapdoodle — nonsense

Certainly the collapse of that Colorado savings and loan during the ’80s had plenty of suspicious circumstances, but Bill was always peddling some flapdoodle about satanism and child abuse being involved so we just learned to tune him out.

2. lusus naturae — freak, sport of nature, deformed creature

Palmer’s aptitude for whist made him a lusus naturae among the junior officers, and ensured that he spent many hours in the captain’s company.

3. midden — dunghill

All the families of the village are entitled to take from the midden howsoever much they need for fertilizer, providing that they replenish the heap from their own supply of manure.

4. pyrolytic — decomposed (organic material) by subjection to high heat

Medical implants are often made from pyrolytic carbon to reduce the risk of chemical changes during long-term use.

5. redd — to clean or tidy, to put in order, to clear

Well, you’ll never get the house redd up in time if you insist on examining each piece of paper instead of just tossing them into the box to look at later.

6. meiosis — rhetorical figure intentionally portraying something as smaller in size or importance than it actually is

He had a very self-deprecating manner that was at odds with the strange times he lived in, where everyone seemed to promote themselves on so-called social media at every instant of the day, bragging about what they had for breakfast or which shoes they were wearing, while he reported his appointment to the Board of Regents with the meiosis “Got a new job offer today, very excited.”

7. gallimaufry — ragout or hash of odd bits of food; hodgepodge, ridiculous jumble

Her desk was covered with a gallimaufry of items accreted during her tenure: several books on filthy netsuke, sewing patterns from the 1970s, samples of artificial turf, stones which looked like noses, pens almost out of ink, coins, receipts, a half-finished copy of Rabelais, a dried out highlighter, another dried out highlighter, locking pin backs, and a broken abacus.

8. dekko — (British slang) glance, look

She only got a slight dekko at me when the door opened up, and the light was dim; I’m sure she won’t be able to describe me to five-o.

9. larrikin — (Australian) hooligan, (usu. young) street tough

I find it hard to believe he owns the club, since he seems merely a jovial larrikin out on the town.

10. syncope — fainting; sudden stopping, cutting short

Never before had we lived through such a period of governmental syncope, as the flow of money, legislation, and regulation was suddenly cut off, leaving us wondering about its eventual restoration.

1. titivate (also tittivate) — to spruce or smarten up

We stopped shaving once it became clear that no rescue was forthcoming, save for Harker, who maintained an almost manic hygiene, titivating and preening each morning as if expected a bevy of bachelorettes to stumble into our rude camp of lean-tos and hovels.

2. technolatry — worship of technology

Though it easy to agree with Morozov’s description of Silicon Valley as the Vatican of technolatry, a credulous belief in the power of apps and computers should not be mistaken for worship.

3. termitary (var. of termitarium) — termite’s nest, often mound-shaped

Within the deepest bowels of the termitary the gorged queen lies immobile, eating and birthing to the exclusion of any other activity.

4. teasmade — automatic tea maker, usually with clock so that tea is ready upon awakening, once common in the UK

Awakened by the radio built into the teasmade, Harriet happily pulled herself into a sitting position at the head of the bed and poured out a cup of hot tea, reveling in this pinnacle of civilized life.

5. thence — from that place; from that time; from that cause or source

My brother remains quite comfortable in his club, and sees no reason to sally thence to essay unremarkable perambulations around the so-called social scene with the so-called smart set.

6. tefillin — phylacteries, small black leather boxes worn on the head and arm by Orthodox Jewish men during morning prayer

My grandfather wrapped himself in a prayer shawl and put on the tallis and tefillin every morning without fail, a great mitzvah, he told me.

7. tantalus — small stand or rack containing decanters with a locking bar atop to prevent unauthorized tippling

Lord Hedgeworth took the brandy from the tantalus and poured us both a very large drink.

8. tarn — small mountain lake

Only the tiny tarns were left in these thickly wooded crags to testify to the retreat of the glaciers.

9. tucker — linen, lace, or similar piece worn around top of bodice

The Harvey Girls were renowned for their uniform neat appearance in their best bib and tucker.

10. thrasonical — bragging, boastful

While we believed his story that everybody had been Kung Fu fighting, we thought his claim to have bested the others through his mastery of Dung Beetle style to be merely a thrasonical addition to his tale.

Bonus Vocabulary

(current slang)

caping — defending or supporting an undeserving person

I thought that that scene in church would finally make her wake up, but Ellie is still caping hard for Robbie, no matter what that boy does or says.