Friday Vocabulary

1. mononymously — using a single-word name And so he joined other mononymously known natural scientists such as Darwin and Mendel, though in Lysenko’s case it was because he was infamous as a fraud.   2. landrace — plant or animal exemplar purposely bred to thrive in local conditions The bitter potato landraces exhibit greater …

Friday Vocabulary

1. fescue — pointer of straw, wire, etc. Chillingsworth now placed the tip of his birch fescue on the map projected upon the wall by the clever device he’d carried in his vest pocket.   2. oho — exclamation of surprise, elation, recognition “Oho!” exclaimed Percy brightly. “Looks like the hand is afoot now!” as …

Friday Vocabulary

1. mansuete — mild, gentle, meek And so, my brother, I implore you to enter this holy season with a mansuete and humble inclination, turning your thoughts away from the recent unpleasantnesses.   2. emmet — ant Consider the lowly emmet, too small to have large thoughts, yet still he has concern for his community …

Friday Vocabulary

1. brangle — to squabble, to noisily dispute Though I’ve had to contend with many a bothersome neighbor, this Kenneth was the only one I ever had predisposed to brangle over any issue, no matter how small.   2. nonage — legal minority; immaturity Due to this similarity in name he had had judgement passed …

Friday Vocabulary

1. cerement (usu. pl cerements) — cerecloths for wrapping the dead; burial clothes or wrappings But in the morning when finally we opened the innermost coffin, we discovered only a desiccated pile of cerements, as if the corpse itself had somehow dematerialized from its tomb after burial.   2. lour (variant of lower) — to …

Friday Vocabulary

1. luthier — maker of stringed instruments In addition to being a talented songwriter in her own right, Shelsea is also a trained luthier, having learned the craft from her uncle who crafted guitars and mandolins for the greats of the Grand Ol’ Opry.   2. nard — scented balsam derived from the Himalayan spikenard …

Friday Vocabulary

1. soubise — onion sauce For this delicate filet an equally delicate soubise is the perfect accompaniment, the sauce also serving to highlight the flavor of the fresh leeks.   2. prescind — to cut off; to separate in thought, to consider apart But as Peirce points out, one cannot prescind color from space or …

Friday Vocabulary

1. madding — frenzied, acting like a madman; tending to drive (one) insane You seem to still have the illusion that this madding bureaucracy is a mistake, a misapplication of higher ideals and the tenets of a purer political science—when of course the very arbitrariness and nonsensical practice you bemoan is the very core, the …

Friday Vocabulary

1. enfeoff — to give a fiefdom Due to the political realities, King Jane had enfeoffed the duke with his old holdings under the previous dynasty, but the new king did not—of course—entirely trust his vassal.   2. chuffed — [British informal] delighted “And on top of that, I finally found my reading glasses, so …