{"id":3312,"date":"2021-02-26T11:33:22","date_gmt":"2021-02-26T19:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/?p=3312"},"modified":"2021-02-26T11:43:54","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T19:43:54","slug":"friday-vocabulary-145","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/?p=3312","title":{"rendered":"Friday Vocabulary"},"content":{"rendered":"

1. spathe<\/strong> \u2014 large bract enclosing the flower bundle or spadix of some plants<\/p>\n

The beautiful white flower of the peace lily is actually the <\/em>spathe of the plant, which encloses the yellow spadix of the true flowers.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. purdah<\/strong> \u2014 curtain screening women from sight of men or strangers; system of secluding women from same; state of seclusion<\/p>\n

Every time I visited the aging lawyer I found his daughter\u2014or was she his ward?\u2014was closeted in her room during the entire time I was at that wonderful mansion, until I began to wonder whether her seeming <\/em>purdah was self-imposed or was the diktat of the master of the house, who, after all, had spent many years in his youth among the Hindoos.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. factitious<\/strong> \u2014 artificially made; not spontaneous<\/p>\n

One might be easily impressed by splendor of his domicile, but upon closer inspection one sees the <\/em>factitious beauty of his garden with its artfully splayed Astroturf and potted plants, and one notes that the oaken desk of this would-be monarch is a resplendent veneer, and that his office chairs are gilded pressboard seats from Ikea.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

4. monoceros<\/strong> \u2014 [obsolete] unicorn; one-horned fish<\/p>\n

Some Europeans supposed the rhinoceros to be the fabled <\/em>monoceros of legend, though its huge plates of hide and its overall dissimilarity to the fabled horselike creature dissuaded them quickly.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

5. pug<\/strong> \u2014 animal footprint<\/p>\n

Boldly laid out across the dusty clearing were the <\/em>pugs of the tiger, so great his insolent pride that he disdained even to walk upon the nearby grass and so conceal his sign.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

6. fustian<\/strong> \u2014 coarse fabric of cotton and flax<\/p>\n

The long skirts of my russet <\/em>fustian coat caught the grass as in a fisherman’s sieve as we strode across the glade.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

7. wangle<\/strong> \u2014 to manipulate, to bring about in an indirect or underhanded way; to induce another (to do something)<\/p>\n

Healey <\/em>wangled an invitation to the Founders’ Ball in hopes of accosting the former Senator.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

8. lugubriously<\/strong> \u2014 mournfully<\/p>\n

Tomas <\/em>lugubriously sighed at our recommendation and nodded his head as he admitted that perhaps this would be the best plan from among the poor options available to us.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

9. scarper<\/strong> \u2014 [British] to run off<\/p>\n

“Well, now, it seems that Mr. Merton has <\/em>scarpered with Josie, leaving all those boxes behind, and I suspect me that she never was his daughter.”<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

10. cresset<\/strong> \u2014 metal vessel containing oil, grease, rope in pitch, or other flammable material, used for lighting and usually mounted upon a pole<\/p>\n

The large vaulted cellar was poorly lit by a smoking <\/em>cresset mounted to the wall by the stairs, and we could hardly make out the far wall.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bonus Vocabulary<\/h4>\n

(Latin)<\/p>\n

locum tenens<\/strong> \u2014 temporary replacement for permanent employee, esp. for doctor or clergymen <\/p>\n

Gerry had become so adept at managing every role in the department, and worked so well with the chief, that he had become a sort of unofficial <\/em>locum tenens whenever one of the superintendents or upper administrators went on vacation or had to take extended leave.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1. spathe \u2014 large bract enclosing the flower bundle or spadix of some plants The beautiful white flower of the peace lily is actually the spathe of the plant, which encloses the yellow spadix of the true flowers.   2. purdah \u2014 curtain screening women from sight of men or strangers; system of secluding women … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Friday Vocabulary”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[112,69],"class_list":["post-3312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vocabulary","tag-bonus-word","tag-vocabulary","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}