{"id":4474,"date":"2024-03-22T11:25:57","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T18:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/?p=4474"},"modified":"2024-03-29T09:47:53","modified_gmt":"2024-03-29T16:47:53","slug":"friday-vocabulary-291","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/?p=4474","title":{"rendered":"Friday Vocabulary"},"content":{"rendered":"

1. trotter<\/strong> \u2014 animal that trots; foot of an animal (esp. sheep or pig) used as food<\/p>\n

Harqma, a spicy stew of lamb <\/em>trotters, is a delicious Ramadan dish.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. taphonomy<\/strong> \u2014 study of processes affecting living tissues after death, esp. with regards to fossilization<\/p>\n

Shriver was an expert in forensic <\/em>taphonomy, and had studied six months at ARISTA, the Amsterdam ‘body farm’ which was the first of its kind in Europe.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. ophiophilist<\/strong> \u2014 snake lover, ophiophile<\/p>\n

The presence of the python at the crime scene made the police suspect Cecile, as she was a known <\/em>ophiophilist.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

4. squassation<\/strong> \u2014 variant of strappado in which heavy weights are bound to the victim’s ankles and instead of merely being lifted by the arms bound behind the back the victim is jerked up repeatedly <\/p>\n

If the prisoner did not confess his heresy after two or three sessions of <\/em>squassation, water torture was used and was almost always effective in eliciting the desired confession.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

5. plausive<\/strong> \u2014 praiseworthy <\/p>\n

Though he struts like a cockerel in plumed cap, he has most <\/em>plausive manner, giving due consideration to all men as befits their worth, as did his grandfather, the old Lord.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

6. cemeterian<\/strong> \u2014 caretaker of a cemetery<\/p>\n

In 1967 the national trade group for <\/em>cemeterians lodged a formal complaint against the funeral directors’ association for restraint of trade, or, as some wags had it, for not sharing a big enough piece of their pie.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

7. bewray<\/strong> \u2014 to reveal, to disclose<\/p>\n

But Ficklegrew held the baby before him, between his precious self and the assassin’s gun, <\/em>bewraying his true character to everyone present, including his would-be killer, who dropped his pistol to the ground and dropped to his knees, shaking his head at the man who wanted to be a world leader.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

8. catechumen<\/strong> \u2014 person receiving instruction before Christian confirmation or baptism<\/p>\n

As is often the case, our new <\/em>catechumen had a much better idea of our group’s history than the rest of us old-timers, and Jorge was able to recite from memory a dozen or more important dates in the life of Horst Wessel.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

9. dissensus<\/strong> \u2014 widespread disagreement or dissension<\/p>\n

Thus the nation entered a period of what may be called holographic <\/em>dissensus, in which what had previously been only schism between the two major parties devolved into controversy between an endless series of smaller and more divisive factions, as if the political will had been shattered into disparate shards of fractal kaleidoscopic opinions from which no consensus could ever be constructed.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

10. nether<\/strong> \u2014 lower, under; lying beneath the earth’s surface, infernal, underworldly<\/p>\n

And that’s how I caught a shotgun blast with my <\/em>nether regions and saved the preppy princess from having her plaid skirt ruined.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bonus Vocabulary<\/h4>\n

(UK slang)<\/p>\n

lose one’s rag<\/strong> \u2014 to lose one’s temper, to go apeshit, to blow one’s top<\/p>\n

“They kept pushing me and pushing me, until I finally <\/em>lost my rag, and then I sort of just blurted it out.”<\/em><\/p>\n

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

1. trotter \u2014 animal that trots; foot of an animal (esp. sheep or pig) used as food Harqma, a spicy stew of lamb trotters, is a delicious Ramadan dish.   2. taphonomy \u2014 study of processes affecting living tissues after death, esp. with regards to fossilization Shriver was an expert in forensic taphonomy, and had … <\/p>\n

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