{"id":5047,"date":"2025-09-05T10:02:30","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T17:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/?p=5047"},"modified":"2025-09-05T10:02:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T17:02:30","slug":"friday-vocabulary-361","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/?p=5047","title":{"rendered":"Friday Vocabulary"},"content":{"rendered":"

1. lithia water<\/strong> \u2014 mineral water containing lithium salts<\/p>\n

While it is true that 7-Up tried to capitalize on the craze for <\/em>lithia water with its original name, the soft drink never contained any lithium, unlike the Coca-Cola product mentioned above.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. kirmess<\/strong> (also kermesse<\/strong> or kermis<\/strong>) \u2014 street fair in Dutch or German lands; indoor fair, often for charitable purpose<\/p>\n

Every young woman in Toronto will be at the <\/em>kirmess, studying the latest fashions while aspiring to be such a study themselves.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. pistareen<\/strong> \u2014 small Spanish coin in wide circulation in 18th-Century America worth perhaps 25\u00a2<\/p>\n

Taking stock I found I had only a single <\/em>pistareen to my name, so my first task was to drum up some ready cash.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

4. chicane<\/strong> \u2014 S-curve in racing course; obstacle in roadway designed to discourage speeding<\/p>\n

The soapbox derby course was a difficult one, and many entries had lost too much speed to easily navigate the <\/em>chicanes just before the finish line.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

5. ultracrepidarian<\/strong> \u2014 opinionated about things outside one’s expertise<\/p>\n

The cocktail party was the usual mix of monied frat bros, desperate tech failures, and aging alums, but the sole topic of conversation was the usual <\/em>ultracrepidarian PR about so-called AI, everyone repeating the received wisdom as if it were carved on stone tablets; they would have disdained anything that hinted at religious ideas, but AI was sacred simply because they thought they smelled money.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

6. scald<\/strong> \u2014 to heat nearly to boiling; to briefly dunk in boiling water; to suffer a burning sensation<\/p>\n

For the perfect drink first <\/em>scald the milk then pouring in the chocolate powder and honey, frothing briskly with a wire whisk.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

7. thoroughbrace<\/strong> \u2014 leather strap suspending carriage for comfort and dampening<\/p>\n

He especially checked the <\/em>thoroughbraces before riding off, having once had inferior leather give way just as he was crossing the moor.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

8. benthopelagic<\/strong> \u2014 of organisms living both upon the sea floor as well as in the open sea (as opposed to near or upon the shore)<\/p>\n

He had made his mark with his studies of <\/em>benthopelagic plankton, but no longer did fieldwork, content to rest upon his mighty laurels \u2026 so to speak.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

9. headkerchief<\/strong> \u2014 bandana, cloth worn upon the head<\/p>\n

The typical <\/em>headkerchief of a Zanzibar maiden is folded so as to completely cover the hair with the brightly striped cloth.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

10. Hogmanay<\/strong> \u2014 [Scots<\/em>] New Year’s Eve; celebration of same<\/p>\n

But he was unaware of the local <\/em>Hogmanay traditions, and thus was startled awake at two o’clock in the morning when the village boys began dragging tin cans behind them up and down the cobbled streets, making such a racket he couldn’t get back to his much needed sleep.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bonus Vocabulary<\/h4>\n

(US slang, from the restaurants use of uncomfortable chairs with one arm\u2014only!\u2014 with a small ‘table’ surface for patrons’ food, meant to encourage quick turnover and discourage loitering, first seen in large American cities at the end of the 18th Century, and usually frequented by solitary workers with only brief lunch periods)<\/p>\n

one-arm joint<\/strong> (also one-armed joint<\/strong>) \u2014 restaurant in urban centers with only single chairs with small table surface for diners’ use<\/p>\n

“So I’m trying to save pennies so I just got a raft and cup of coffee at the <\/em>one-arm joint around the corner\u2014What? A raft? That’s what they call a plain slice of bread at these places … Keep up, pal\u2014So, anyway, there I was…”<\/em><\/p>\n

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

1. lithia water \u2014 mineral water containing lithium salts While it is true that 7-Up tried to capitalize on the craze for lithia water with its original name, the soft drink never contained any lithium, unlike the Coca-Cola product mentioned above.   2. kirmess (also kermesse or kermis) \u2014 street fair in Dutch or German … <\/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-5047","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\/5047","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=5047"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5049,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5047\/revisions\/5049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}