{"id":4426,"date":"2023-12-29T09:47:51","date_gmt":"2023-12-29T17:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/?p=4426"},"modified":"2023-12-29T09:51:50","modified_gmt":"2023-12-29T17:51:50","slug":"friday-vocabulary-281","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/?p=4426","title":{"rendered":"Friday Vocabulary"},"content":{"rendered":"

1. transpontine<\/strong> \u2014 of or related to (something on) the farther side of a bridge; of or related to the area south of the Thames river in London; of or related to sensational plays of the 19th Century presented in the area south of the River Thames<\/p>\n

“I will not have your so-called ‘friends’ bringing their penchant for melodrama and their <\/em>transpontine attitudes into my house,” said the stout publican and quondam theater critic.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. cispontine<\/strong> \u2014 of or related to this side of a bridge<\/p>\n

We could make out chevaux de frise and barbed wire before the barricades and guardhouse at the <\/em>cispontine abutment, but the difficulties of the farther side were hidden by the impenetrable fog.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. ratiocinate<\/strong> \u2014 to reason logically<\/p>\n

Quimby seemed rather a dullard at most times, placid and affable and seemingly without a thought in his head, so when he was forced to <\/em>ratiocinate upon any particularly challenging problem, sweat broke out upon his brow and one could almost imagine that the very veins at his temples began to throb with the effort to supply blood to the brain, that henceforth unused organ.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

4. diehard<\/strong> \u2014 a person obstinately resistant to change; someone holding to a tenet with no single inclination to question that belief; person devoted entirely to a lost cause<\/p>\n

There were, of course, a large number of <\/em>diehards in favor of the Latin Mass, even after Vatican II.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

5. vershok<\/strong> \u2014 old Russian unit of measurement equal to 1-3\/4 inches, or 4.445 cm<\/p>\n

He was very tall, even after he removed his papakha, standing at least 2 arshins and 11 <\/em>vershoks high.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

6. arshin<\/strong> \u2014 measurement of about 28 inches used in Imperial Russia and up to 1925 <\/p>\n

Arkady stood less than 2 <\/em>arshins tall, and he had the pugnacious attitude of many very short men.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

7. volute<\/strong> \u2014 having a spiral shape<\/p>\n

The dog worried at the blanket and finally pulled it into the proper <\/em>volute form upon which to rest her head.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

8. demotic<\/strong> \u2014 of or related to common people; of or related to common language, vernacular; of or related to the simplified form of Egyptian cursive writing originating about the 7th Century BCE<\/p>\n

But the wide spread of radio and finally television purged regional speech of its <\/em>demotic vigor, replacing heretofore strong idioms with the pallid speech of news anchors and product demonstrators.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

9. cleat<\/strong> \u2014 knob or device (often metal) used to secure lines on a nautical vessel; protrusion on shoes etc. to provide extra traction; strip secured across something to provide stability or strength<\/p>\n

“Just cut the line! The <\/em>cleat‘s about to go!”<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

10. constituent<\/strong> \u2014 part or piece of a whole; person represented by an elected official<\/p>\n

Once we analyzed the stew we found one <\/em>constituent entirely out of place: conium, or poison hemlock.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bonus Vocabulary<\/h4>\n

(old slang)<\/p>\n

pi-jaw<\/strong> \u2014 sermonizing or patronizing talk, esp. of an adult to a child<\/p>\n

Not since I was an undergrad have I had to sit still for such a load of <\/em>pi-jaw as I was forced to suffer through that afternoon, as we all sat stupidly around the table and listened to J.B. rattle off his theories of what was wrong with the world and why.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1. transpontine \u2014 of or related to (something on) the farther side of a bridge; of or related to the area south of the Thames river in London; of or related to sensational plays of the 19th Century presented in the area south of the River Thames “I will not have your so-called ‘friends’ bringing … <\/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-4426","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\/4426","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=4426"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4428,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4426\/revisions\/4428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}