{"id":5016,"date":"2025-08-08T10:39:52","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T17:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/?p=5016"},"modified":"2025-08-08T10:39:52","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T17:39:52","slug":"friday-vocabulary-357","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/?p=5016","title":{"rendered":"Friday Vocabulary"},"content":{"rendered":"

1. verisimilar<\/strong> \u2014 appearing true or real<\/p>\n

At first I thought myself deceived by a demonic phantasm, some tool of the dark forces assuming a <\/em>verisimilar likeness to my favorite actor playing his most famous role, but then I realized it was just a cosplayer.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. thrang<\/strong> \u2014 [Scots<\/em>, N. England<\/em>] busy, occupied with work<\/p>\n

On the shore the maids were <\/em>thrang sewing at the nets.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. pinna<\/strong> \u2014 [biology<\/em>] visible outer parts of ear in most mammals; wing, fin, or similar structure in animals<\/p>\n

While he wore his big slouch hat he seemed almost unscathed by the fire, but once Jerome removed it the scars on his skull spoke of his misadventure and his <\/em>pinnae were almost entirely missing, burned away during the rescue mission his ex-wife once told me.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

4. anoxic<\/strong> \u2014 lacking oxygen<\/p>\n

She had that effect, could transform a lively party into an <\/em>anoxic wasteland of discomfort and antipathy, her very presence making everyone else decide that they would be better off anywhere but here.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

5. aplanatic<\/strong> \u2014 (of a lens) free of spherical and comatic aberration<\/p>\n

These fancy binoculars were supposed to be high-tech <\/em>aplanatic masterpieces of German engineering, but of course just turned out to be some Siamese knock-offs with spherical lenses.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

6. schlub<\/strong> \u2014 oaf, boor, clumsy or unattractive person<\/p>\n

Don’t let that poor <\/em>schlub ruin your party; he’s just jealous of your success.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

7. deadworks<\/strong> \u2014 [nautical<\/em>] those parts of a laden ship above the waterline<\/p>\n

The Dutch frigate employed the guns in her towering poop deck to rain deadly fire on the pirate ship, almost completely destroying her <\/em>deadworks and all the crew who had not immediately abandoned ship.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

8. brontide<\/strong> \u2014 sound of distant thunder<\/p>\n

Debate still continues as to the possible seismic origin of <\/em>brontides in some earthquake-prone regions such as Haiti.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

9. demarche<\/strong> \u2014 diplomatic or political maneuver; official notice of a country’s position vis-\u00e0-vis some situation <\/p>\n

Jennison was quite proud of the ambiguous language in the latest <\/em>demarche he had written for the ambassador, and was sure that it would feature prominently in that eminent person’s eventual memoirs.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

10. keystone<\/strong> \u2014 to project an image improperly so that the projecting plane is not aligned with the receiving surface and thus causing distortion<\/p>\n

Once Billie pointed out that the decrepit theater’s cameras were off-kilter and were <\/em>keystoning the movie, I could see nothing but strange trapezoids instead of the noir buildings of the city, as if Dr. Caligari had cast a spell upon 1940s Los Angeles.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bonus Vocabulary<\/h4>\n

(Latin)<\/p>\n

pro tanto<\/strong> \u2014 only to a given extent<\/p>\n

The court ruled the claims were limited <\/em>pro tanto by the damages asserted in the original filing.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

1. verisimilar \u2014 appearing true or real At first I thought myself deceived by a demonic phantasm, some tool of the dark forces assuming a verisimilar likeness to my favorite actor playing his most famous role, but then I realized it was just a cosplayer.   2. thrang \u2014 [Scots, N. England] busy, occupied with … <\/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-5016","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\/5016","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=5016"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5018,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5016\/revisions\/5018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}