New Vocabulary, 4th Edition

The previous thread was due for a reboot after 275 posts in just under eight years!

I've just finished Rose Macaulay's historical novel They were defeated, which turns out to be a positive riot of obscure (and authentic, as far as I could tell) 17th century English. Amongst many other gems, she uses:

admire = be surprised by (it turns out that our sense of "express admiration for" only came into use in the 19th C)
allthing = everything
flockmeal = in large amounts, cf. modern "wholesale"
gust = taste
let = prevent, hinder
suddenly = soon, directly
tedious = irksome (PO'B readers will be used to Stephen Maturin using this in the same way)
yare = ready (a word I'd only ever come across before in its nautical sense — as used rather memorably by Katherine Hepburn standing in a swimming pool with a model sailing boat...)

Turma - a cavalry unit in Roman times, sometimes refers to a squadron. From The Master and Margarita.

Still slogging through the Witcher series with Lady of the Lake.

Voivode - a Slavic term for a military leader or warlord.

Hustings - a meeting where candidates address potential voters from Jack and Jackie: Portrait of an American marriage.

Accoucheuse - a female obstetrician. From The Luminaries.

I should have known this one but somehow it never came up.

Tilth- condition of tilled soil in preparation for sowing seeds. From Nicholas: The Epic Journey from Saint to Santa Claus.

Banditti - the plural of 'bandit' (n., a robber or outlaw belonging to a gang and typically operating in an isolated or lawless area.)

That was a surprise from Sense and Sensibility today!

Clamant - demanding attention. From Historical Whodunits in which Brother Cadfael has a nosy noblewoman poking about his lab asking too many questions.

Eleemosynary - relating to or dependent on charity; charitable from the book The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry

Veronal - a barbiturate. From Under a Glass Bell by Anais Nin.

Queue- braid of hair worn at the back. From Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott

From The Tulip by Anna Pavord The text claims the word tamis is used for the tulip stamen. The only definition I’ve found for tamis is a type of kitchen strainer. Can anyone verify if this usage is from another language?

>13 varielle: Under tamis n., my Shorter OED also gives “....2 Bot. The anthers of a flower. M17-E18”. The word is marked as obsolete in English.

In French tamis is the normal word for a sieve or strainer. The TLFi suggests that there might be a link to Latin stamen, which can mean the warp of a loom, but doesn’t seem very confident about it. And it doesn’t list the botanical use in French.
http://stella.atilf.fr/Dendien/scripts/tlfiv5/advanced.exe?8;s=66863550;
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stamen

>14 thorold: ... If you search tulip tamis on Google Books you come up with two or three botanical uses from the 17th and 18th century. And a lot of noise.

muskeg - a North American swamp or bog consisting of a mixture of water and partly dead vegetation, frequently covered by a layer of sphagnum or other mosses.

These 2 stumped me from The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood-

chthonic- concerning, belonging to, or inhabiting the underworld

cloaca- a common cavity at the end of the digestive tract for the release of both excretory and genital products in vertebrates (except most mammals) and certain invertebrates. Specifically, the cloaca is present in birds, reptiles, amphibians, most fish, and monotremes.

From The Story of San Michele - serir with a ^ over the e which my keyboard won’t allow. It means a pebble strewn desert particularly in Libya. 🐪

Praxis- practice as distinguished from theory. From The Luminaries wherein a gentleman is speculating about a lady of the evening.

Bezique - a French trick taking card game for two players. A game played by Churchill on board the Queen Mary during a secret trip to the US in 1943, as detailed in The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy.

Secateurs - scissorlike hand pruners. From the intro to Enchanted April.

Chaconne- a musical composition popular during the Baroque era or a dance performed to it. Found in From Dawn to Decadence.

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Canicular - of or pertaining to the Dog Star, Sirius. I should have been able to figure that out because it came from Doggerel: Poems about Dogs.

“Not a dickey-bird” - various spellings. Originally a dicky bird was any small chirruping bird. The phrase above means there was not any kind of sound. From The Hedgehog’s Dilemma in which the narrator is out stalking hedgehogs without success in the middle of the night. Apparently hedgehogs can make a good bit of noise when they’re out and about.

>24 varielle: In that phrase, “not a dicky-bird” is traditionally used as rhyming-slang for “not a word” — it’s obviously moved through a second step of abstraction in order to be applied to hedgehogs.

Pipped- British slang meaning shot or wounded. From the Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy wherein the British were getting pipped in Sicily because Monty decided to deviate from the battle plan without telling his Allies.

Paphlagonian - of the ancient city state of Paphlagonia, an ally of Troy. In this case calling someone a Paphlagonian seems to be an insult since it references a degenerate black mailer. From Historical Whodunits.

Secesh or cecesh - an abbreviated nickname for a secessionist during the American Civil War. From Nurse and Spy in the Union Army.

Strimmer-UK term for a string trimmer. On the left side of the pond it’s a weed whacker. Dang, those Brits have a name for everything! From The Hedgehog’s Dilemma in which you are encouraged to have a care with your strimmer lest you whack one of the wee beasties.

Mille-feuille -a rich dessert consisting of many very thin layers of puff pastry and such fillings as whipped cream, custard, fruit, etc. from A Gentleman in Moscow. I never heard of this dessert.

From The Day of Battle

mastaba- an ancient Egyptian tomb made of mudbrick and having a flat roof.

Felo-de-se from Historical Whodunits A concept applied to the estates of someone presumed to have committed suicide, which was once considered a crime.

>31 varielle: Filo-de-se — according to my law dictionary, that's the crime of making your own pastry. You were thinking of Felo-de-se...

Autocorrect strikes again! :-(

It does sound tastier. 😜

I am reading Hamnet now. I came across the word domino in it and it just didn't seem the right word so I looked it up and it has a several meanings -

(1): a long loose hooded cloak usually worn with a half mask as a masquerade costume

(2): a half mask worn over the eyes with a masquerade costume

(3) dominoes or dominos plural in form but usually singular in construction : any of several games played with a set of usually 28 dominoes

(4): a member of a group (as of nations) expected to behave in accordance with the domino theory

No. 1 is the one that applies to my book!

Cynosure - a person or thing that’s the center of attention. From The Collected Stefan Zweig.

Palapa - an open sided dwelling with thatched palm leaves for a roof. From Costalegre by Courtney Maum.

From a recently finished book... (just because nothing so far in my current book has stumped me..)

chatoyancy - an optical reflectance effect seen in certain gemstones, woods, and carbon fibre; coined from the French "œil de chat", meaning "cat's eye" - from Around the World in 80 Trees

I just finished The Liar's Dictionary, and if I started listing the "new vocabulary" from it, this post would be several thousand words long.

Just read it.

Okay, if you insist ... mimolette ... corymb ... zugzwang ... pelike ... and mountweazel (which is sort of the point of the whole thing).

Littoral - related to or situated on the shore of a sea or lake. From The Day of Battle in which the Allies are having a bad time gaining a toehold during the invasion of Italy.

Still slogging through From Dawn to Decadence and found :

Aleatory- based on the throw of the dice, random chance

Not in a book, but book-related (from a London Review of Books podcast about Shakespeare):

alterity -- which is basically "otherness"

Whilst reading a couple of old bookbinding textbooks (Douglas Cockerell and Joseph William Zaehnsdorf) I came across dozens of technical terms that were more or less new to me. At random:

— forwarding : Not, as I imagined, the opposite of backing, but a term for the production process of a book up to the stage where it is in bare boards.

— kettle-stitch : the lock-stitch used for linking sections together during sewing. Nothing to do with kettles, it seems to come from informal German Kettel, a small chain (diminutive of Kette).

— glair : a paste made from egg-white used as an adhesive in gilding. From an old word for egg-white, and ultimately Latin clarus, which is where we also get words like "clear" from. The OED has a fun citation from Skelton's Tunning of Elynour Rummyng — Her lewde lyppes twayne They slauer, men sayne, Lyke a ropy rayne, A gummy glayre.

aphasia - loss of ability to understand or express speech, caused by brain damage.

from The Beetle by Richard Marsh

Scores - as in “calves heads in scores”. I’m not sure this is the correct definition but I believe it means a crosshatch pattern in meat to make it cook evenly rather than scores, i.e. a group of 20. From The Sway of the Grand Saloon. If anyone can provide a more precise definition of how this can be done with a calf’s head I would appreciate it.

>44 varielle: Odd!

That phrase comes up in a passage from American notes where Dickens is describing large amounts of provisions being loaded into a ship — presumably what Brinnin was quoting — so I would guess it's more likely to be talking about quantity than about ways of cooking. As well as being a group of twenty, a score was also a unit of weight (20 or 21 pounds) often used when talking about livestock, but it looks to me more like simply a way of saying "unexpectedly large numbers".

The OED doesn't mention a specifically culinary use of "score" — "in scores" does come up as a way of saying "in debt", but that doesn't make sense here.

There's a 19th century recipe for calf's head here: http://www.foodreference.com/html/calfs-head.html — no scoring or scratching mentioned.

Dickens:

For every gallant ship was riding slowly up and down, and every little boat was splashing noisily in the water; and knots of people stood upon the wharf, gazing with a kind of 'dread delight' on the far-famed fast American steamer; and one party of men were 'taking in the milk,' or, in other words, getting the cow on board; and another were filling the icehouses to the very throat with fresh provisions; with butchers'-meat and garden-stuff, pale sucking-pigs, calves' heads in scores, beef, veal, and pork, and poultry out of all proportion; and others were coiling ropes and busy with oakum yarns; and others were lowering heavy packages into the hold...

Contravallation - a continuous chain of breast works and redoubts by a besieging army used to isolate defenders and prevent sallies. From Julius Caesar’s Conquest of Gaul. The man knew a thing or two about tactics.

Arz - one of the steps of distillation in making milk vodka in Mongolia. In this use it is being thrown on a fire by a lama for purposes of divination. From A Fortune-teller Told Me by Tiziano Terzani.

Uxoricide - murdering one’s wife. I don’t know why this word isn’t in more common use since it happens so often. From The Sway of the Grand Saloon. In this case Mr. Marconi’s wonderful invention was used to track and capture a man who had murdered his wife in England and fled to Quebec. This was the first time wireless telegraphy was used in international criminology.

propeller — in the sense of a complete propulsion system for a ship (engine + propeller) — from Abdulrazak Gurnah's Afterlives, where it appears in an East African setting in the early 1920s. The OED doesn't list this sense, so it's perhaps a specifically East African one.

>48 varielle: That's an odd one: it only seems to have come into English in the mid-19th century, and never really stuck. Words like fratricide, patricide, regicide — even suicide and homicide — are all much older (draw your obvious feminist conclusions here!). To be fair, the examples for uxoricide in the OED in the senses of "wife-murderer" and "wife-murder" both include one that mentions Henry VIII.

I suppose it would be useful in your example because Marconi charged per word for his wireless messages, but otherwise "uxoricide" doesn't really seem to have the impact of "wife murderer" or similar.

The n-gram for "uxoricide" vs. "wife murder"/"wife murderer" suggests that the latin term only ever overtook the Anglo-Saxon one for a short time around 1960 — obviously this doesn't take into account the thousand and one other possible synonyms:

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=uxoricide%2C%28%5Bwife-murder%5D+%...

Arietation(s) - the act of head butting like a ram or the use of a battering ram. From The Essays of Francis Bacon. In this case, it’s the definition of a battering ram as it is discussing the superior abilities of ordnance and musketry.

provaunt- an obsolete spelling of provant meaning to provide with provisions, usually used in military references to mercenaries. It’s also the name of an insecticide created by DuPont.
From Tales of a Thousand Nights and a Night translated by Sir Richard Burton.

Marabout - a Muslim holy man or hermit especially in North Africa, or a shrine marking their burial place. From An African in Greenland.

One from a slightly unlikely source: The Casino Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine (though the series does preen itself on its "high-browness"):

desuetude: a state of disuse

Chine(s) - a backbone as in a cut of meat. From Women’s Letters: From the Revolutionary War to the Present. In which a thanksgiving meal was prepared using chines of pork due to food shortages during the American Revolution.

palimpsest
- a manuscript or piece of writing material on which later writing has been superimposed on effaced earlier writing.
- something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form.
from The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

Rebarbitive - unattractive and objectionable. From Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. In which the heroine is objecting to her companion’s smoking habit.

Gallabea - aka djellaba, a North African garment, a loose fitting, unisex outer garment. From I Should Have Stayed Home: the Worst Trips of the Great Writers in which a naive young traveler gets offered one in Egypt in exchange for a camel ride. *wink* *wink*

Recce - also from I Should Have Stayed Home meaning to visit an area to become familiar with it. In this instance our intrepid travelers blunder into a Sudanese war zone.

Another one - grass widow - a woman whose husband is often away. In this case a young traveler describes herself as a grass widow. She and her beau were traveling the hippie trail in Asia during the 70s when they parted ways. I have a hard time remembering this one despite qualifying as a grass widow.

Defilade - A military unit or position is in defilade if it uses natural or artificial obstacles for protection, in other words they are in position to avoid being enfiladed, ie protected from incoming fire across the ranks. From The Day of Battle wherein the Allies are attempting to take Monte Cassino.

Sapid - having a strong pleasant taste. From Make, Sew and Mend wherein the author references inspiration as being sapid.

Decree nisi- A court order that a legal action can proceed at a future date unless certain conditions are met. In this case it was pertaining to a divorce that would be allowed to proceed from In Extremis: The Life and Death of the War Correspondent Marie Colvin.

Sclerotic - 1. Having sclerosis. 2. Becoming rigid or unresponsive , losing the ability to adapt. In this case the second definition in reference to the inability of the Allies to dislodge the Germans from Italy in WWII from The Day of Battle.

Sangar- A sangar is a temporary fortified position with a breastwork originally constructed of stones, and now built of sandbags, gabions or similar materials. Sangars are normally constructed in terrain where the digging of trenches would not be practicable. in this case the fortifications were being used by the New Zealanders on the March to Rome.

Bangalore torpedo - A Bangalore torpedo is an explosive charge placed within one or several connected tubes. It is used by combat engineers to clear obstacles that would otherwise require them to approach directly, possibly under fire. In this case the French were using them in the March north up Italy.

Mesopotamian tell - a human made archaeological mound found in Mesopotamia and other ancient areas. In this case it was used to reference the appearance of the ruins after the fall of Monte Cassino.

Flinders - something that has been smashed to splinters. This is in reference to the trees on the March to Rome that had been blasted to flinders.

Laagering - Making camp. Typically an encampment protected by a circle of wagons or armored vehicles. In this case it was Sherman tanks.

Boche - a German, especially a soldier.

Opera buffa- a comic opera. In this case a description of Mark Clark’s Fifth Army entering Rome.

As you can see military lingo is not my forte.

Wali - refers to an Islamic Saint or civil authority meaning protector or custodian. From TR: The Last Romantic in which young Teddy is traveling the Ottoman Empire with his family.

Bashaw- a title for a a North African pasha in the 19th century. From The Race for Timbuktu.

Tuareg - from an Arabic phrase meaning the abandoned of god. The Tuareg are an ethnic Bedouin group who were initially reluctant to be converted when Islam swept North Africa.

Bister - a brownish-yellowish pigment made from the ash of burned wood. In this case it was a reference to the color of the Sahara.

Exsiccated - to remove the moisture from something. As in that’s what the Sahara does to the corpses when they fall, i.e. camels and people.

Addax - the white antelope which is native to the Sahara.

stotius--an Irish term for drunk; inebriated. Found in Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These.

a fortiori - from the Latin meaning from the stronger argument. Meaning drawing a conclusion that’s more obvious or convincing than one previously drawn. From TR: The Last Romantic.

Scurrility - the use of obscenities, vulgarities, or slanders. This was in reference to the election of 1884 when Teddy Roosevelt was first making a name for himself in politics.

Albionist - Albion is an archaic poetical term for the British isles. TR considered himself an Albionist.

Adumbration - foreshadowing, providing vague advance indications. From A Child of the Century the autobiography of Ben Hecht.

Bombinated - a buzz or hum. As in Mr. Hecht bombinated through life.

Cheviot - a woolen suit fabric made from the wool of a Cheviot sheep native to the border between Scotland and England. Mr. Hecht was referencing his interviews with people in their cheviot suits.

Uhlan - a European cavalryman armed with a lance. In this case he was referencing a Polish sculptor who looked like a Prussian uhlan.

Canaille- the common people or the masses. Used in regard to the social upheaval in Germany following WWI.

Minnesinger - a German lyric poet and singer of the 12th-14th centuries who sang songs of courtly love. This is in reference to the high life of the roaring 20s in NYC.

Dornick- a small stone suitable for throwing. As in a newspaper writer who kept dornicks and dead cats in his portmanteau presumably for metaphorical throwing.

Maecenas-a patron. From Gaius Macenas an advisor to Octavian and patron of the arts. In this case it references two Hebrew gentlemen who Hecht took out for drinks who were looking for a Maecenas to find the then (1941) nonexistent Jewish Republic of Palestine.

Zouaves - a class of light infranty regiment formerly of the French army. In this case He is referencing a group of volunteer firemen in costume marching in a parade.

Gasalier- A chandelier that burns gas. From Nana by Emile Zola.

Plangent - regarding sound that is loud, reverberating, and often melancholy.

From Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman. In which Rickman references a Rufus Wainwright concert he attended.

Mittimus - a warrant issued to a sheriff commanding the delivery of a person to prison. From The Penguin Book of Witches in which the arrest of a suspected witch was ordered.

Valorize- give or ascribe value or validity to (something). "the culture valorizes the individual" raise or fix the price or value of (a commodity or currency) by artificial means, especially by government action. From The Potlikker Papers in reference to the diminishing numbers of black farmers and the white consumers who valorize their labor.

filibuster - (historical) - a person engaging in unauthorized warfare against a foreign country.

From The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, referencing frivolous romantic novels about "pirates and filibusters".

indurated - adjective - having become firm or hard, as in hands becoming indurated from years of manual labor.

From Billy Budd, Foretopman by Herman Melville

Ailanthus - Ailanthus altissima /eɪˈlænθəs ælˈtɪsɪmə/, commonly known as tree of heaven, ailanthus, varnish tree, or in Chinese as chouchun (Chinese: 臭椿; pinyin: chòuchūn), is a deciduous tree in the family Simaroubaceae. It is native to northeast and central China, and Taiwan. Unlike other members of the genus Ailanthus, it is found in temperate climates rather than the tropics. From Wikipedia. It is considered an invasive species. From Letters from a Traveller by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. The good father encountered the plant during his groundbreaking travels in China.

col - the lowest point of a ridge or saddle between two peaks, typically affording a pass from one side of a mountain range to another. In this case Father Teilhard was traveling by horse and camel through a col.

Obo— a cairn that is also used as a shrine, border marker, and altar found in Mongolia.

Askari - a local soldier in service of a colonial power. In this case they were hired to protect Pere Teihard’s retinue from bandits.

Coralline - calcified red algae remains which can form prehistoric geologic formations. In this case a coralline plateau.

Plenum - an assembly of members of a group. In this case Pere Teilhard was referring to the plenum of Japanese invading China at the beginning of WWII.

Noosphere - a postulated sphere of evolution popularized by Pere Teilhard that is dominated by consciousness and interpersonal relations.

Seagulls, fossicking among its hidden rocks, appear to be walking on water.
— Leroi, Armand Marie. The Lagoon

I fossicked in my bag for a Bounty bar and devoured it whole.
— Lette, K. quoted in the OED

sneck: Scottish/Northern English

noun: a latch on a door or window.
verb: close or fasten (a door or window) with a latch.

"The graveyard wall was in good repair, although, surprisingly, the narrow gate's sneck was smashed and it was held-to by a loop of binder twine."

from A Month in the Country, J. L. Carr (1980), p. 6

...would make a great word for wordle.

The bears, along with the harsh winters and williwaw gusts off the mountainsides, compelled Stormy to apply for state-sponsored assisted living in town.
– The Guardian May 15, 2023

"Chiefly nautical: A sudden violent squall or gust of cold wind, esp. in coastal waters in high latitudes." – OED

I'm reading The Long Game by Ben Rose again. It's written almost entirely in hipster patois. The use of language like "dig the riff" and "solid sender" and "problems your cranium can't tolerate" is one of the finer aspects of the novel.

I enjoy new vocabulary words

Quiddity- the inherent nature or essence of something or someone. From Reporting at Wit’s End: Tales from the New Yorker. In which it references the quirks of distinction or quiddity of the New Yorker’s featured people.

Gelid - extremely cold or icy. In this case it was describing the behavior of an embezzler.

Fuilleton - part of a newspaper or magazine devoted to fiction, criticism, or light literature.

Ouistiti - a marmoset. From Axel Munthe’s The Story of San Michel. In which the author was studying primates in the zoo.

Suedois - French for Swedish. There should be an accent mark over the e. A very rude Vicomte kept referring to Munthe as “the suedois”.

Carex- a type of sedge grass. Munthe commented on it while visiting the Laplanders.

Uldra- a type of fairy that lives under the tundra in the Arctic.

Stalo- A big, scary figure within the Sami religion. They can be a troll or half human that can rob or eat people.

Frate- Italian for monk. In this case Munthe was speaking with an old frate during a cholera epidemic in Naples.

Leichenbeg­leiter - bodyguard. In this case Munthe was transporting a body from Germany to Sweden. A Leichenbegleiter was legally required to transport a corpse.

Cocotte - Two very different meanings. The first is a shallow baking pot with handles. The second (and the meaning in this case) is a prostitute. Munthe dislikes a count who is cheating on his wife with a cocotte.

pincé - pinched. A doctor believed to be a quack was about to be pinched (pincé) by the Parisian police.

Rosinante - multiple meanings 1. A broken down old horse. 2. A character from Don Quixote. 3. A breed of dog similar to a golden retriever. In our case it’s an elderly dog being cared for by an animal loving doctor.

Couloir - a narrow gully on a steep grade in mountainous terrain. Our hero comes across one while mountain climbing in the Alps.

Vertiginous - causing vertigo. Something Munthe experienced after being engulfed by an avalanche.

Coulisses - the area in a theatre wing between flat pieces of scenery. Here the Dr. found a ballerina suffering from TB.

Middinette- a seamstress in a Paris fashion house.

Ptisan- barley water. In this case it was given to someone suffering from insomnia.

Cippolino- a light colored marble being used in Munthe’s house in San Michel.

Arida nutrix- a dry nurse. One employed to look after a baby but not nurse it. In reference to an extraordinarily tall English spinster employed in that position.

Tramontana - a cold north wind blowing in Italy or the adjoining regions of the Adriatic and Mediterranean. In this case it followed a strong earthquake and further made life miserable.

Camorrist - a member of an Italian mafia type organization originating in Campania.

Poete maudit- a poet who is insufficiently appreciated by their contemporaries. From Glitter and Doom which is describing the cultural atmosphere of the Weimar Republic.

Staffage - In painting, staffage are the human and animal figures depicted in a scene, especially a landscape, that are not the primary subject matter of the work.

Feuilleton - a part of a newspaper or magazine devoted to fiction, criticism, or light literature.

Capriole- a movement performed in classical riding, in which the horse leaps from the ground and kicks out with its hind legs. A leap or caper in dancing, especially a cabriole. In this case it’s referencing the performance of cabaret dancer Anita Berber.

Verism - a hyper-realistic artistic style, most famously used in Roman Republic portraiture (c. 147–30 BC), that emphasizes "truth" by meticulously depicting aging, imperfections, and realistic features rather than idealizing the subject. Derived from the Latin verus ("true"), it highlights maturity and experience, often capturing wrinkles and scars.

>76 varielle:
I was curious how to pronounce that word- seems there is a website for pronouncing words. Here is the website!
https://www.howtopronounce.com/ouistiti

Bastinadoed - repeated blows with sticks. From The Virginian by Owen Wister. In this case a runaway wagon was being pounded by sticks and rocks over rough ground.

Caracoling - a half turn executed by a horse and rider. From Spanish for the spiral of a snail’s shell. In this case a man was running to catch a train when he tripped on wire and went caracoling.

Emendation - the process of making a correction to a text. From Robert Graves’ The Greek Myths 1 in which it mentions an emendation to myths.

Parthenogenesis- asexual reproduction where offspring develops from the females egg without fertilization by a male. This is in reference to the birth of Athena.

Lavabo - a washing trough in a monastery. From Murder Wears a Cowl.

Theodolite - a surveying device used to measure horizontal and vertical angles. From Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. In this case a descendant of the witch Agnes Nutter named Anathema Device is using one to take the measure of the quaint village of Tadefield.

Albedo - the proportion of the incident light or radiation that is reflected by a surface, typically that of a planet or moon. In this case someone is being quizzed by an alien about the earth’s albedo.

Sortes Virgilianae: the practice of seeking guidance by randomly selecting pages from Virgil. Read in the endnotes to the Oxford World Classics edition of Robert Louis Stevenson's South Sea Tales.

I also like haruspicate and scry which appear in Eliot's Four Quartets, as well as hierophant, which turned up in Saturday's newspaper.

hierophant: one who interprets sacred or arcane mysteries

To communicate with Mars, converse with spirits,
To report the behaviour of the sea monster,
Describe the horoscope, haruspicate or scry,
Observe disease in signatures, evoke
Biography from the wrinkles of the palm
And tragedy from fingers;

"Dry Salvages" §5

Contumelious: insolently abusive and humiliating. Found in the endnotes to the Oxford World Classics edition of South Sea Tales by Robert Louis Stevenson.

neophyte-new at an endeavor is the definition. I must have seen this word a hundred times. I never looked it up. Single words, vocabulary, have become very important. I have fun learning new definitions. It's the pronunciation that is hard for me. Earlier, I would just think about spelling of a word.

Andrew Krivak, The signal Flame: [on skinning a deer] "He took his belt knife back out ... and began to work the blade along ... stopping only to wipe the hair off of the choil."

choil: The name of the indentation in a pocket-knife where the edge of the blade adjoins the ‘tang’ or thick part by which it is hafted; or the corresponding part of any knife where the cutting edge ends. — OED

Bouchon- it can be a type of French restaurant but in this case it refers to a matching card game. In Rodin: A Biography soldiers during the Franco-Prussian War were sitting around playing the game.

In Gone for a Soldier: The Civil War Memoirs of Private Alfred Bellard a Union soldier died in the arms of a vivandiere.

A Vivandière or cantinière is a French name for women who are attached to military regiments as sutlers or canteen keepers. Their actual historic functions of selling wine to the troops and working in canteens led to the adoption of the name 'cantinière' which came to supplant the original 'vivandière' starting in 1793. The use of both terms was common in French until the mid-19th century, and 'vivandière' remained the term of choice in non-French-speaking countries such as the US, Spain, Italy, and Great Britain.1 Vivandières served in the French army up until the beginning of World War I, but the custom (and the name) spread to many other armies. Vivandières also served on both sides in the American Civil War, and in the armies of Spain, Italy, the German states, Switzerland, and various armies in South America, though little is known about the details in most of those cases as historians have not done extensive research on them.

*Polybdenum — in The Dharma Bums, the Kerouac character buys a “polybdenum bottle, with a screw top” as part of his camping gear. He intends it “for carrying honey up to the mountains” and he later fills it with “fresh bus-station water”.

I wondered if this might be some sort of forgotten 1950s wonder-plastic, but the internet is unhelpful: almost all the Google hits seem to be obvious transcription errors for “molybdenum”, and the rest are science-fiction, or discussions about Kerouac. I checked the USPTO database, and it doesn’t seem to be in there as a live or dead trademark, so I suspect Kerouac’s use might have been a mishearing for “molybdenum steel”, maybe conflated in his mind with the names of polymers. Or simply a made-up name he was using to avoid mentioning the trademarked name of an actual product.

>89 varielle: For some more famous literary vivandières, see Schiller’s Wallenstein’s camp and Brecht’s Mother Courage.

Feldwebel - Feldwebel (Fw or F, lit. 'field usher') is a non-commissioned officer (NCO) rank in several countries. The rank originated in Germany, and is also used in Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, and Estonia.

From A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot in which our heroine is attempting to learn the fate of her fiancé in WWI. The feldwebel are often seen escorting prisoners.

From Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead. Pardon the language but this was a rough memoir.
possum-f*cked - from Urban Dictionary, because I couldn’t find an explanation elsewhere means a super rude, a*sh@le maneuver. In this case Swofford and his comrades were used as bait out in the open during a bombardment during the First Gulf War.

Hammam - in the Islamic world a Turkish bath or steam bath. Here the wives of Aman Akbar are preparing themselves to go rescue their husband who has unfortunately been turned into a donkey by a genie in The Harem of Aman Akbar by Elizabeth Scarborough.

Recit (with an accent mark over the e which my phone won’t allow) - a narrative. From Marguerite Yourcenar’s Coup de Grace in which she explains why she writes in first person.

metage: official duty paid for the measuring of dry or liquid goods (OED)

"Alan thought of the oblivion of the bottle waiting at home for him in the empty apartment. The familiar metage of misery, of stupor, of holding on."
— Anne Michaels, Held, 2023

Metage, in distinction to weighage.

In the span of 13 pages of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, I came across the following:

lacuna - gap, something missing
catachresis - the use of a word in a way that is not correct
ithyphallic - having an erect penis (especially of a statue of a deity or other carved figure)
psychomanteum - a small, enclosed area set up with a comfortable chair, dim lighting, and a mirror angled so as not to reflect anything but darkness intended to communicate with spirits of the dead

I haven't needed to look up words while reading a contemporary book in quite some time!

And then I was continuing The Devastating Boys, a collection of short stories by Elizabeth Taylor, and came across a few words I needed to check out in The Excursion to the Source:

drugget - a floor covering made of a coarse woven fabric
tisane - an herbal tea
coign - a projecting corner or angle of a wall or building

I finished We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves yesterday, and learned the following words:

hypnopompic - relating to the state immediately preceding waking up
hathos - a pleasurable sense of loathing
anosognosia - a neurological condition in which the patient is unaware of their neurological deficit or psychiatric condition
piloerection - the contraction of small muscles at the base of hair follicles resulting in visible erection of hair (goose bumps)
mimesis - mimicry
diegesis - the telling of a story by a narrator
hypodiegesis - a story within a story

oubliette - An oubliette was a specialized type of dungeon, with the only entrance a trap door at the top, agonizingly out of reach of the prisoner.

A couple more from the Devastating Boys:

convolvulus - a twining plant with trumpet-shaped flowers, some kinds of which (such as bindweed) are invasive weeds, while others, especially morning glories, are cultivated for their bright flowers

budgerigar - also known as the common parakeet, shell parakeet or budgie is a small, long-tailed, seed-eating parrot (so this is the budgie!)

. . . tales of "grief-stricken daughters struggling to conceive – alongside philosophical essays on loneliness; Oulipian jokes about language as a numbers game . . ." Globe and Mail February 17, 2024, page R6.

Oulipian from Oulipo: Ouvroir de littérature potentielle (Workshop of potential literature), a French literary movement. See Wikipedia.

>100 LisaMorr:

I believe it's convolvulus.

>102 librorumamans: yes, thanks, you’re correct, typo

rudology: the study of garbage. From Lat. rudus: rubble, broken masonry.

Seen in Le Monde online.

From p. 11 of The Thirteenth Tale:

hoarding: a very large board on which advertisements are shown

Obvious for UK readers, I never knew this was a billboard!

shaw, n. 1. a small thicket or grove; especially 2. a narrow strip of wood forming the border of a field.

Who knew?

>106 librorumamans: For any word like that, where you don’t know what it means but it’s super-familiar in names of people or places, there’s about an 80% chance that it’s either a small piece of woodland or a place where people live.

Came across a new unit of measurement for me from One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich:

pood - a unit of weight, used in Russia, equal to 36.1 pounds or 16.39 kilograms

Also learned the following:

taiga - a moist northern forest that consists mostly of cone-producing trees (as pines, spruces, and firs) and begins where the tundra ends

lag - 'an old lag' - a prisoner, a criminal

And one term that I couldn't find with a proper definition anywhere:

magara gruel, which is basically cooked yellow grass as Solzhenitsyn describes it; it's the second course for breakfast

From Josephine Tey’s The Franchise Affair:
Douce- from the Scottish meaning quiet, gentle, and sedate. In this case it’s referencing a douce country lawyer.

B^etise - with the ^ over the e which my phone is incapable of doing. Meaning a foolish, ill-timed remark or action. In this case it references a remark made by a woman in legal peril who disliked a capable lawyer because he wore striped suits.

Drugget- a coarsely woven floor covering. In this case the fancy carpet was in areas visible to guests and the drugget was used in the family/servant areas to save money.

Epater - (accent over the first e) to shock or startle someone out of complacency. In this case an older lawyer wishes a young lawyer would stop epater-ing, i.e. he was wearing a non-traditional style of suit. 😄

On the tiles - a British expression meaning someone stayed out late at the bars or club. In this case, it references a young lady who claimed she went missing because she had been held captive by a pair of old ladies.

Gravamen - in law, the most serious part of an accusation. In this case, it references a lawyer who left a leaky fish wrapper on a hall table.

Charabanc - a horse drawn version of a motor coach used to carry large numbers of people.

Obbligato - in music, a melodic piece not to be omitted. In this case it means someone coming into their office and running through their daily duties that are obbligato.

Avizandum - a Scot’s law term meaning to consider. In this case, it refers to a telephone company’s delay in making a repair.

Jabot - a frilled, lace detachable collar.

Havering- vascillating or indecisive

Oleograph - a print that is textured to look like an oil painting. It was used to disparage a young woman in a court case who was trying to look like something she wasn’t.

Aeropagite - a member of the aeropagus, a judicial council in ancient Athens that met on a hill by that name. From Rodin: A Biography by Frederic Grunfeld in which Rodin refers to Mallarme as an aeropogite for defending him from cultural and political critics.

Algolagny- S & M. Used in reference to a perverse Scottish sculptress.

Encaenia - A commencement. In this case Rodin visited an Encaenia at Oxford.

Surmoulages - (art) The fraudulent practice of taking a casting directly from a sculpture rather than from the artist's original.

Morceaux- to separate an object into pieces. A favorite technique of Rodin’s with his sculptures.

Gracile - slender or thin. In this case it's referencing someone's hands. From Winter on the Plain of Ghosts by Eileen Kernaghan.

Onager - the asiatic wild ass - currently endangered. Longer legged and more horselike than a donkey. In this case they were running around a campsite making a lot of noise.

Foetor or fetor- a strong, foul smell of decay. In this case it references decaying bodies after a battle and massive flood.

Ipse dixit- Latin for a dogmatic and unproven statement. In this case accused Confederate spy Greenhow was writing an appeal to the US Secretary of State claiming she had been unjustly detained. From Women’s Letters by Lisa Grunwald.

From a tribute to Daniel Dennett:

I first encountered Dennet through his book Darwin's Dangerous Idea, and a fine introduction it was, not just to Dennet but also to the idea that biology was nomothetic rather than just stamp collecting.

Nomothetic, (Wikipedia)

Acalde- a mayor. From Zorro by Isabel Allende in which the Don has gone off to dine with the Acalde.

Épée - a sharp, pointed dueling sword. In this case the Don is gifted with a book on dueling referencing the Épée.

Pettifogger - an inferior legal practitioner, especially one who deals with petty cases or employs dubious practices.

Felucca - a small vessel propelled by oars or lateen sails or both, used on the Nile and formerly more widely in the Mediterranean region. Our hero gets captured by Jean Lafitte who was using a felucca in his fleet.

Puerperal fever - a postpartum infection that often killed new mothers. In this case the lover of the pirate Jean Lafitte died of it.

Dimity- a hard-wearing, sheer cotton fabric woven with raised stripes or checks. A lady wore a dimity dress in the hot, humid climate of New Orleans.

Cesti- the plural of cestus- studded leather gloves used by gladiators worn when boxing. From A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert “Believe it or Not!” Ripley by Neal Thompson.

Mensur - academic fencing as practiced by the Germans pre-WWI. Ripley was aghast at the wounds they received.

Consanguinity- kinship between persons sharing a common ancestor. From Lamson of the Gettysburg a collection of Civil War letters between Lt. Lamson and his fiancée and other family. There was speculation that because of the consanguinity between Lamson and his future wife (cousins) that five of their seven children did not survive childhood and the two who lived failed to produce offspring

From The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke
Sidhe - Irish fairy folk.
Quotidian - Ordinary events of everyday life.
Coquelicot- Coquelicot ( /ˈkoʊklɪkoʊ/ KOHK-li-koh) is a shade of red. The term is originally the French name for the wild corn poppy, Papaver rhoeas, which is distinguished by its bright red color and orange tint.2 It eventually passed into English usage as the name of a color based upon that of the flower. The first recorded use of this usage was in the year 1795. In this case a gentleman is focused on the Coquelicot ribbon on a lady’s hat. 👒

Eyot - a small island especially found in the River Thames. From Toad Triumphant by William Horwood. In this case a depressed Mr. Mole is about to slip from an eyot into the river to end it all.

Scope - a nautical term meaning the length of a cable when a boat rides at anchor. From The Sailor’s Handbook.

Quangle-wangle - a crotchety, annoying person. From Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense

>120 varielle: Ha! I can think of a few people that fit that term!

Coup de foudre- a sudden unforeseen event, particularly love at first sight. From Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana.

Huff or huffing - in checkers/draughts In the past, the "huffing" rule was used. For this, if a player noticed that the opponent had failed to capture when the option was open (even if the offending piece had already captured one or more pieces that turn), the player can huff the offending piece before the next move is made and it is removed from the board.

Sectaries- members of a sect particularly one that is heretical. From Rafael Sabatini’s Mistress Wilding.

Garboil- a confused disordered state. In this case a dinner party devolves into insults resulting in a duel.

Matutinal - of or occurring in the morning.

Whilom - formerly as in the past. In this case a whilom friend.

I've just finished reading Gone with the Wind, which I very much enjoyed. I learned lots of new words as well!

croker sack - a coarse, loosely woven cloth which probably took its name from the sacks in which crocuses and saffron were shipped.

dido - a mischievious trick or prank

peart - lively, cheerful

scalawag - is now used as a term for a rogue, but in historical context referred to a white Southerner who collaborated with northern Republicans during the Reconstruction.

pellagra - a systemic disease caused by a severe vitamin B3 (niacin) deficiency.

carpetbagger - a person from the northern states who went to the south after the Civil War to profit from the Reconstruction.

paletot - a man's loose outer coat, also: a woman's fitted jacket esp. in the 19th century over a dress made from crinoline or a dress with a bustle.

cracker - in this historical setting, referring to poor rural whites in southern states.

tartalan - a thin, open-weave cotton that is stiffened to hold its shape.

scuppernong - a large variety of muscadine grapes, native to the southern U.S.

caisson - a chest or wagon used for holding or conveying ammunition.

shinplaster - paper money of low denomination, typically less than a dollar.

paddyrollers - organized groups of armed men who monitored and forced discipline on slaves in the antebellum U.S.

>124 ahef1963: I’ve also seen croker or croaker sack used to mean a burlap bag to carry frogs in after someone has gone frog gigging. 🐸

Tussore - coarse silk from the larvae of the tussore moth. In this case made into curtains in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Convolvulus - a twining plant with trumpet shaped flowers.

Hautbois - pl. of oboe. Dorian refers to the low voice of a doomed actress as sounding like hautbois.

Campanile - a bell tower especially one attached to a church.

Chaudfroid sauce, also spelled as chaud-froid sauce,1 is a culinary sauce that can be prepared using a reduction of boiled meat carcasses and other ingredients. It was being served at a dinner Dorian attended.

Pawl - a pivoted curved bar or lever whose free end engages with the teeth of a cogwheel or ratchet so that the wheel or ratchet can only turn or move one way. From The Sailor’s Handbook. In this case it’s holding an anchor chain in place.

Drogue- a device, typically conical or funnel-shaped with open ends, towed behind a boat, aircraft, or other moving object to reduce speed or improve stability.

Napthalene - a component of crude oil found in fuels and other consumer products. From Coup de Grace by Marguerite Yourcenar in which a soldier smells it in a war zone.

skillion: A room built against the back of another building, having a separate roof; synonym: lean-to

[Horace] will spend the night in his droughty mountaintop aerie: a dwarfish, thick-walled, dry-stone hut, slate shingles and a skillion roof, dug into the grassy tundra . . .

from The Montréal Review

Casuist- a person who uses clever but unsound reasoning especially relating to moral questions. From The Transvestite Memoirs of Abbe de Choisy. In this case it references a future Archbishop who quibbled over a university examination.

Conclaviste - A conclavist was a personal aide of a cardinal present in a papal conclave.

Fontange - or frelange, is a high headdress popular during the turn of the late 17th and early 18th centuries in Europe.

Steenkirk- a cravat with long hanging ends loosely twisted or looped together.

Echelle (with an accent mark on the first e) literally means a ladder. In this case it references lace ribbon with a ladder like pattern.

Ecu - (accent on the e) an obsolete French coin similar to the British crown.

An entremet or entremets (/ˈɑːntrəmeɪ/; French: ɑ̃tʁəmɛ; from Old French, literally meaning "between servings") in Medieval French cuisine referred to dishes served between the courses of the meal, often illusion foods and edible scenic displays. The term additionally referred to performances and entertainments presented between the courses.

Theorbo- The theorbo is a plucked string instrument of the lute family, with an extended neck that houses the second pegbox. Like a lute, a theorbo has a curved-back sound box with a flat top, typically with one or three sound holes decorated with rosettes.

Philology - the branch of knowledge that deals with the structure, historical development, and relationships of a language or languages. From Slow Reading by John Miedema.

Succedaneum- a substitute especially for a medicine. From Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense which is definitely not suitable for children!

Helve- the handle of a weapon or a tool. In this case an axe handle from The Last of How it Was.

Delectation - pleasure and delight. From The Culture-Vulture’s Quotation Book. It was referencing the goal of art.

Thyrsus - In Ancient Greece a thyrsus (/ˈθɜːrsəs/) or thyrsos (/ˈθɜːrsɒs/; Ancient Greek: θύρσος) was a wand or staff of giant fennel (Ferula communis) covered with ivy vines and leaves, sometimes wound with taeniae and topped with a pine cone, artichoke, fennel, or by a bunch of vine-leaves and grapes or ivy-leaves and berries, carried during Hellenic festivals and religious ceremonies.12 The thyrsus is typically associated with the Greek god Dionysus, and represents a symbol of prosperity, fertility, and hedonism similarly to Dionysus. From Robert Graves’ The Greek Myths Vol 1. In this case Dionysus felled a Titan with his thyrsus who was attacking Olympus.

Scarabaeus- the genus of a number of afro-Eurasian dung beetles including the sacred scarab beetle of Egypt.

Heliacal - of or near the Sun.

Sistrum - A sistrum (plural: sistra or (in Latin) sīstra; from the Greek σεῖστρον seistron of the same meaning; literally "that which is being shaken", from σείειν seiein, "to shake" is a musical instrument of the percussion family, a form of rattle, used most notably by the ancient Egyptians. From Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practicioner

An athame or athamé (/əˈθɒm/, /əˈθɒmə/, /ˈæθəmeɪ/, or /ˈæθɪmɪ/) is a ceremonial blade, generally with a black handle. It is the main ritual implement or magical tool among several used in ceremonial magic traditions, and by other neopagans, witchcraft, as well as satanic traditions. From Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner.

Menhir- a tall, upright stone erected in prehistoric times in Western Europe.

Guerdon- a reward or recompense. From a letter Helen Keller wrote to Mark Twain reprinted in Women’s Letters: America from the Revolutionary War to the Present.

Anomie- a noun meaning lack of the usual social or ethical standards in an individual or group. From Katie Roiphe’s In Praise of Messy Lives.

Elision - the omission of a sound or syllable when speaking (as in I'm, let's, e ' en ).
an omission of a passage in a book, speech, or film.
the process of joining together or merging things, especially abstract ideas.

cottered: past participle describing something tangled or matted, usually hair.

from cot: (<– Old French <– perhaps Latin for 'quilt' or 'mattress' filled with same) noun; matted or felted wool in the fleece

derivative: cotter: (noun) a tangle in the hair. [ Pat Barker, The Voyage Home. ]

Izakaya - in Japan a casual, comfortable drinking place similar to a pub. It literally means stay-drink-place. From The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki.

Longeron- a longitudinal structural component of an aircraft's fuselage. From Death of an Airman by Christopher St. John Sprigg. In this case, the longeron was being described after a fatal air crash.

Casuistry - the use of clever but unsound reasoning, especially in relation to moral questions; sophistry. In this case a Bishop had studied it.

Felloe- the outer rim of a wheel, to which the spokes are fixed. In this case a flight student’s aircraft went into a spin and he described the feeling as being like part of a wheel.

Boracic - Boracic is an adjective that means relating to, containing, or derived from boron. It is a synonym for boric. The word comes from the Medieval Latin word borac- and the International Scientific Vocabulary word -ic. Boric acid, also known as boracic acid, is a weak acid with antiseptic, antifungal, and antiviral properties. It is a compound of boron, oxygen, and hydrogen, and is usually found as a white powder or colorless crystals. Boric acid can be used to control pests like insects, spiders, mites, algae, molds, fungi, and weeds. Boric acid was also used in medical dressings called boracic lint. Boracic lint was made by soaking surgical lint in a hot solution of boracic acid and glycerine, and then letting it dry. It was used to treat leg ulcers, but is now less commonly used. The term "boracic" is also used in Cockney rhyming slang to mean having no money. It is a contraction of "boracic lint" and is used to say "skint". In this case, it was used to adulterate cocaine.

Oubliette - An oubliette is a dungeon or basement room that is used to imprison prisoners and undesirables and leave them to die. The word comes from the French word oublier, which means "to forget". Oubliettes are typically accessed by a hatch or hole in a high ceiling. In this case, a Frenchman was making a joke about being thrown into an oubliette at Scotland Yard.

Laddybuck or laddiebuck- Laddybuck is a slang word and it's slightly offensive. Lad means a boy and a buck means a horse. So, the term Laddybuck means a boy without manners who is like an untrained horse. In this case it references a man who insulted the food and cook while on safari. From The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway in the short story The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.

Hunt buff - means hunting buffalo.

Epicene - having characteristics of both sexes or no characteristics of either sex; of indeterminate sex. from The Secret History in which it’s used to reference a pair of fraternal male/ female twins.

Ablative- relating to or denoting a case (especially in Latin) of nouns and pronouns (and words in grammatical agreement with them) indicating separation or an agent, instrument, or location. In this case a couple of students are arguing about the translation of a classical text.

Dative - (in Latin, Greek, German, and other languages) denoting a case of nouns and pronouns, and words in grammatical agreement with them, indicating an indirect object or recipient. From the same above referenced argument.

Accusative- relating to or denoting a case of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives that expresses the object of an action or the goal of motion.

Locative - relating to or denoting a case in some languages of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives, expressing location.

* sorry but I missed out on Latin in school.

Tesserae - a small block of stone, tile, glass, or other material used in the construction of a mosaic.

Vulpine - of or having to do with foxes. Crafty, cunning. 🦊

Carious- decayed as in bones or teeth. In this case it references an old cemetery.

Tholos- A tholos is a circular building with a conical or domed roof, a style that was popular in ancient Greece and Rome. In this case an ornamental one in a garden.

Chiton - an Ancient Greek and Roman garment fastened on on shoulder. In this case, students wore them to throw a bacchanal.

Oreibasia- an ecstatic dance performed as a Dionysian rite.

Omophagia - the eating of raw food especially meat.

Incarnadine - a bright, crimson red color. In this case, a bloody axe.

canorous (can 'ōr ous) resonant, melodious

During grad school, I shared a two-bedroom apartment with an aspiring opera singer. Her voice and manner both were canorous and seductive. — adapted from Andrew Krivak: A Long Retreat

fulgent radiant, shining brightly
idem

I need help finding a definition for formate. It is a chemical compound. However, in Death of an Airman first published in the early 30s it is used the describe a pilot allowing another plane to “formate beside him”. I assume it meant that he permitted the other aircraft to be nearby but can’t find that definition anywhere.

>145 varielle: That's odd. Formate, in pilots' jargon, means pretty much that. Strictly, it's a back-formation from, er, formation, as in "to fly in formation" (which implies not only close but on a parallel course and in a more or less fixed relative position). The epitome of formation flying is the formation aerobatics teams like the Blue Angels.

Having said that, I can't find this meaning in a dictionary either. I read Death of an Airman myself not long ago, but didn't note the word specially.

>145 varielle: >146 haydninvienna: The OED lists both definitions: as a noun, a compound or ester of formic acid (which originally comes from Latin formica, an ant*); as a verb, the aviation back-formation from formation. The earliest quotation for the aviation term is 1929.
There’s also an earlier (obsolete) transitive verb, with just two references from the 16th and 17th centuries, meaning to form or mould a substance.

It’s not an easy word to google — it turns out that sodium formate is a deicing compound used in aviation, so it’s horrible to try to separate out the rare instances of the verb!

(*) The trade name “Formica”, the artificial laminate, has nothing to do with ants, the name was a punning reference to the natural laminate material mica which the developers were hoping to replace.

>146 haydninvienna: Thank you! I was beginning to think it was a typo.

From The Knight of Maison-Rouge
Carmagnole- A short jacket worn by working-class militant sans-culottes, adopted from the Piedmontese peasant costume named for the town of Carmagnola. Also, the name of a dance popular during the French Revolution. In this case, a young man seizes the carmagnole of a ruffian who was manhandling a lady.

Ancreontic- (of a poem) written in the style of the ancient Greek poet Anacreon, known for his celebrations of love and wine. Used in reference to a poetry spouting revolutionary.

Muscadin - (French: myskadɛ̃), meaning "wearing musk perfume", came to refer to mobs of young men, relatively well-off and dressed in a dandyish manner, who were the street fighters of the Thermidorian Reaction in Paris in the French Revolution (1789-1799).

Fiacre- a small four-wheeled carriage for public hire.

Ogival - describes something having the curved, pointed shape of an ogive, also known as a pointed or Gothic arch, and is derived from the French word "ogive" meaning "diagonal rib of a vault".

Ratiné - or "ratine" refers to a coarse, loosely woven fabric with a nubby or knotty surface, often made from cotton, wool, rayon, or other materials, and sometimes called sponge cloth. In this case a man’s jacket.

Cardan - a universal joint that transmits motion unchanged. From The Sailor’s Handbook.

Taffrail - In naval architecture, a taffrail is the handrail around the open deck area toward the stern of a ship or boat.

Punkah- (in India) a large cloth fan on a frame suspended from the ceiling, moved backward and forward by pulling on a cord. From The Siege of Krishnapur.

Ortolan - The ortolan is a small songbird and delicacy in French cuisine.

Gharry - a horse drawn cab in India or Burma.

Misprised- to hold in contempt : despise. In this case it was how English people born in India were looked upon.

Sais- religious mendicants.

Galoppe - a fast country dance named for the gate of a horse.

Badmash- a rogue, hooligan. Referencing some unruly sepoys on the eve of the rebellion.

Ryot- a peasant tenant farmer.

Feringhee - a disparaging word for foreigners , generally European but more specifically of Portuguese Indian descent.

Sowar- a mounted soldier during the Indian Raj.

Cutcherry - a public building such as a courthouse. Also a type of ginger plant.

Tensile - A tenaille is a military fortification term referring to a low outwork or defensive structure built in front of a curtain wall, typically between two bastions. It's a V-shaped or re-entrant angle designed to protect a postern gate or provide cover for defenders. The term can also refer to the tool "pincers" or "forceps" in French and Late Latin.

Cascabel - has many very different meanings but in this case it refers to a knoblike protrusion at the end of a muzzleloading cannon.

Fugass - high explosives

Erysipelas - a skin infection caused by streptococcus. One of the protagonists has it all over their face in grim detail.

Gopi -(Sanskrit: गोपी, IAST: Gopī) or Gopika in Hinduism are commonly referred to the group of milkmaids of Braj. They are regarded as the consorts and devotees of Krishna and are venerated for their unconditional love and devotion (Bhakti) to him as described in Bhagavata Purana and other Puranic literature. From a book of poetry The Hatchet Buddha in which a person in a poem finds themselves to be a “misplaced gopi”.

Concupiscence is an ardent longing, typically one that is sensual. In Christianity, concupiscence is the tendency of humans to sin. From Saint Joan of Arc in which soldiers lost all inclination towards concupiscence when they saw St. Joan.

Hammam - a Turkish bath. From Miss Carter and the Ifrit.

Maselyne- a 19th century British stage magician.

Cucurbite - a vessel for distilling.

Cark - transitive verb : to burden with care or anxiety : vex, worry, trouble fate had not smiled on him he was beset by carking troubles and anxieties.

Nard - an essential oil from spikenard.

Spumed- producing froth. In this case an angry person foaming at the mouth.

Smargadas - a type of emerald. The type an Ifrit might slip to you as a gift. 💎

hoi polloi- the masses, the common people. From 1491.

mendacious- not telling the truth, lying

pullulatingly- crowded and lively, teeming

adventitious- happening or carried on according to chance rather than design or inherent nature. not native

adoxography- skilled writing about an unimportant subject

>156 b.ray: https://worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-ado1.htm

>157 haydninvienna: dang. well, that's on me for trusting the author's definition.

>158 b.ray: No harm, no foul. I'd never seen the word before so we've both learned something.

Harling is a rough-cast wall finish consisting of lime and aggregate. (Wikipedia)

So, a type of exterior stucco.

Snuggery- a cozy, comfortable place especially a private room or den. From Little Dorrit where there was a snuggery in the debtor’s prison.

>161 varielle: 221B Baker Street must count as the classic example of a snuggery

>161 varielle: I only know that word because we had a pub/bar near us called "The Snuggery." I actually never went there, but my brother was there a lot, especially after softball games.

Perse - Very dark greyish (almost blackish) purple or blue. In this case it’s the color of Blanche Knopf’s eye shadow in The Lady with the Borzoi.

Nepenthe - refers to a fictional medicine, a plant, or anything that induces forgetfulness of sorrow or suffering. It's often used in literature and mythology to symbolize a remedy for grief. The word itself comes from Greek and means "without sorrow“. In this case it references Blanche Knopf’s upset when she was jilted by her lover.

Frangible- means easily broken or fragile. It describes something that is likely to shatter or crumble when subjected to force or stress. It implies susceptibility to breaking without necessarily implying weakness or delicacy. Referring to the state of the Knopf’s marriage.

Vidette - variant spelling of vedette : a mounted sentinel stationed in advance of pickets. From The Best of Ambrose Bierce.

>165 varielle:

That may be how Bierce uses the historic term, but these days it more often refers to the actor(s) who get billing above the title: i.e. the star(s).

Harmattan - a dry scorching land wind. From Sailing around the world alone.

Drogher - a small cargo ship, in this case a cattle boat.

Cavally- a type of fish. Also an area of the Ivory Coast.

From Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks:

barmaster (in the book they use barmester) - a local official arbiter or judge among English miners.

pipkin - a small, round, earthenware pot

shippon - a cowshed

wisket - a container made of interwoven strips of pliable material - here we are talking of a simple basket.

stowe - a machine that was used for drawing up the ore in tubs from the mine.

stemple - a wooden crossbar in a mine

clough - a narrow valley, gorge, or ravine

hirsel - a flock of sheep

sillion - thick, voluminous, shiny, soft soil turned over by a plow.

From An Excellent Mystery by Ellis Peters:

mangonel - a military device for throwing stones and other missiles.

>169 ahef1963:

You mean you don't have one? Your neighbourhood must different from mine! ;-)

"The widening wake [of the ship] gave new colors too: magentas, a rutilant line of gold at the edge of the waves." Twist, by Colum McCann page 85.

< classical Latin, "red, reddish, glistening"

Mill race - the channel conducting water to a waterwheel. From Travels in West Africa.

Shammock- to roam idly, loaf.

Puncheon - a large casque or barrel.

Higgler- a peddler

Astrakhan- a type of curly haired sheep.

Transpontine- from the other side of the ocean, particularly the Atlantic.

Prolixity - unnecessarily verbose, in reference to certain African languages.

Farrago- a state of confusion

Salviatti- a family of Murano glassmakers whose vases the author felt were particularly fragile.

opsimath: someone who learns late in life; see Wikipedia

No idea now where I saw this.

Hive mind, help me figure out what this is. In The Knight of Maison Rouge the hero is described as wearing a regulator hat. This is during the time of the French Revolution. What kind of hat is it? Google only gives trucker style baseball hats which I’m sure aren’t it. I don’t think it’s a Phrygian cap either since they are described elsewhere.

>174 varielle:

A look at the French could be helpful. Which chapter and paragraph does the term appear in? Could you quote an English sentence?

There’s this in the PG French text in Chapter XLV: C'est bien, dit Lorin. Et, sans ajouter un mot, il se leva, ajusta son ceinturon, se coiffa du chapeau d'uniforme, et, comme avait fait Maurice, il prit deux pistolets chargés qu'il mit dans ses poches.

If that’s the passage concerned, then I suppose it would just be “uniform hat”. Too early to be a képi, probably.

>175 librorumamans: It’s about a page and a half from the end of chapter 45 called “Searching.” “Without another word he rose, adjusted his sword belt, clapped the regulatory hat on his head, and, as Maurice had done before him, took two loaded pistols and shoved them in his pockets.” This is page 332 of the Modern library Classics edition.

Billhook- a cutting tool with a curved blade used in agriculture. From Extra Virgin: A Young Woman Discovers the Italian Riviera. I kind of knew having seen them but didn’t know what they were called.

>176 thorold: >177 varielle:

So, what, these days, one might call a 'service cap', its actual design dependent on what unit he served in.

Secateur - a specialized type of pruning shear, in this case for roses. From Extra Virgin: A Young Woman Discovers the Italian Riviera.

Stranieri- Italian for foreigner, stranger.

Amarene - a type of Italian cherry preserved in syrup. 🍒

Bastoni- sticks. In this case, they are sticks used to knock olives out of the tree.

Petanc’ or Pétanque - is a sport that falls into the category of boules sports. In these sports, players or teams play their boules/balls towards a target ball. In pétanque, the objective is to score points by positioning one's boules closer to the target ball than those of the opponent after all boules have been thrown.

Comprinting — in the 17th century, the right of certain printers to share in the printing of privileged books (e.g. Oxford and Cambridge universities were allowed to print books that were otherwise the monopoly of the Royal Printer); in the 18th century it came to be used for printing copy belonging to another printer without permission. The OED says “The following misuse of the word inserted by Kersey in his ed. of Phillips, 1706, has been copied from Dictionary to Dictionary ever since; in some it is even given to the exclusion of the correct meaning”

- via Adrian Johns, The nature of the book

Obloquy- strong public criticism or verbal abuse leading to disgrace. From Not War but Murder Cold Harbor 1864. In this case, Gen. Meade is consoling himself that if things go badly the obloquy will be heaped on Gen. Grant and not himself.

Kepi - A kepi is a type of military cap, often associated with the French military, characterized by a stiff, often leather, visor and a chinstrap. It's a light, practical head covering, distinct from heavier helmets or forage caps.

Equinoctial - of or occurring at the time of an equinox. From Little Dorrit. In this case, it’s describing an equinoctial gale.

From A Little Life:

Ikebana - the Japanese art of flower-arranging

From The Skylark's Secret - it's set in northern Scotland, so there's a lot of dialect words that I needed to look up:

wabbit - feeling tired, weak, not very healthy

kye - British navy slang for hot cocoa

skirlie - a Scottish dish of oatmeal fried with onions, fat, and seasonings

dulse - an edible red seaweed

garron - a small sturdy horse or pony

ack-ack gun - an anti-aircraft gun

crowdie - a soft, fresh cheese made from cow's milk

squattie - a langoustine, an edible crustacean that resemble a small lobster or large shrimp

gansey (also a Guernsey) - a seaman's knitted woolen sweater

lochan - a small loch (lake)

From A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush:

pakol/pakul - a soft, flat, rolled up men's cap

aneroid - a device that operates without the use of fluids, typically a barometer

tumulus - an ancient burial mound, a barrow

qanat - a water-supply system developed in ancient Iran

Sulphaguanadine - a medicine that treats dysentery

cynosure - a person or thing that is the centre of attention

Fillip- something that acts as a stimulus or flicking something with the fingers. From French Exit.

Secateur - pruning shears. Interestingly enough I spotted it when I was reading Extra Virgin and I still haven’t been able to absorb the meaning.

Sine die - Latin phrase meaning "without a day" or "indefinitely." It's used in legal and political contexts to describe a meeting, session, or event that is adjourned without setting a specific date for its resumption. From King Jesus by Robert Graves.

Spina - in architecture the wall or barrier in the middle of a Roman circus around which competitors turned, such as the one built by Herod.

Coulter - a vertical cutting blade fixed in front of a plowshare or the part of a seed drill that makes the furrow for the seed.

Ogdoad -In Egyptian mythology, the Ogdoad refers to a group of eight primordial deities, specifically four pairs of male and female beings, who were associated with the chaotic waters before creation. The Ogdoad were worshipped in the city of Hermopolis.

Baetyl - a sacred stone, often a meteorite, that was venerated and believed to be the dwelling place of a god or deity in ancient times.

Ithyphallic - refers to the portrayal of a male figure with an erect phallus, particularly in ancient Greek and Roman contexts.

Fylfot - also known as the fylfot cross, is a type of truncated swastika associated with medieval Anglo-Saxon culture. It's a cross with perpendicular extensions, usually at 90 degrees or close angles, radiating in the same direction. While similar to the swastika, the fylfot is typically upright and has truncated limbs.

Terebinth- a small Mediterranean tree, also known as Pistacia terebinthus, belonging to the cashew family.

From Greta & Valdin:

soju: a Korean distilled alcoholic beverage usually made from rice., clear in colour.

makgeolli: a Korean alcoholic drink, made from raw rice, milky in appearance.

asado: the technique and social event of having or attending a barbecue in various South American countries. The meat, usually beef, is grilled in a simple and flavourful way.

hongi: the traditional meeting in Maori culture where two people press their noses and foreheads together. It symbolizes the sharing of breath and the unity of life.

kumara: the Maori word for sweet potato.

vanitas: a genre of still-life painting the transience of life and the inevitably of death. Yes, one of the characters is chronically depressed!

monstera: I honestly thought that this was the word for a female monster! It turns out to be the genus of 59 species of flowering plants, native to the tropics.

alfajor: this is a food I'd like to try! A sweet dessert popular in Argentina, made of wheat, honey, almonds, hazelnuts, and dulce de leche. They look like cookies.

From Caste: The Origin of our Discontents:

endogamy: the custom of marrying only within one's community, clan, or tribe. In this book it refers to the ban on American black people having a sexual relationship of any kind with white people.

Dalit: marginalized castes in India and south Asia, particularly untouchables and outcasts

One word so far from The Light Years:

Petersham ribbon: a thick, stiff, flexible corded ribbon used mainly in millinery.

One word that I found looking for information about a medical condition:

scintigraphy: a nuclear medicine imaging technique that uses injected radiographic material, specifically gamma rays, to study the function and structure of organs and tissues.

>188 varielle:

I've seen Fylfots in the church at Kirkwall, Orkney, part of an archipelago north of Scotland. I meant to look up why there were swastikas in a Viking-era church, but forgot. Thanks for filling me in, years later!

trug: a shallow, oblong basket of wooden strips; a Sussex trug (Wikip.)

found in Murder Most Royal, which is as delightful as Bennett's other Elizabethan whodunnits.

Fissile - has a nuclear meaning regarding fission. However, in this case the reference is to a rock that’s easily split referencing the instability of Hungarian society in The Burning of the World: A Memoir of 1914.

Swotting - studying or cramming for an exam. In this case new soldiers are trying to learn regulations.

Mannlicher refers to Ferdinand Mannlicher, an Austrian engineer and small arms designer, as well as the firearms company Steyr Arms, which was formerly known as Steyr Mannlicher. Mannlicher is also associated with a family of rifles and pistols designed by Ferdinand Mannlicher. In this case soldiers find these weapons on the ground because they’ve been fouled by sand.

Squaddie - an informal term for a private soldier.

Caput mortuum - Latin for "dead head", is a synthetic, non-toxic, inorganic pigment that can range in color from a dull red-violet to a deep, dark brown-violet. It's used in oil paints and paper dyes, and is known for its lightfastness and opaque effect. In this case the author was an artist drafted into WWI and was referencing the color of the blood from his head wound.

Macelleria- a butcher shop.

Mitis green - refers to a specific shade of green, also known as Paris green or emerald green, historically used as a pigment and insecticide. It's a bright, emerald-green color, derived from copper acetoarsenite. While it was once popular in fine arts and other applications, it's now known for its toxicity due to the arsenic content.

From The Road to Roswell:

kleig light: a powerful electric lamp used in filming.
nictiating membrane: the transparent or translucent eyelid found in many animals.
kachina: a doll representing a supernatural being.
saguaro: a tree-like cactus species.
javelina: a type of peccary found in Central and South America. They're so cute!

From Home Stretch:
tabard: a sleeveless garment consisting only of a front and a back part, with a hole for the head.

From The Road to Roswell:

kleig light: a powerful electric lamp used in filming.
nictiating membrane: the transparent or translucent eyelid found in many animals.
kachina: a doll representing a supernatural being.
saguaro: a tree-like cactus species.
javelina: a type of peccary found in Central and South America. They're so cute!

From Home Stretch:
tabard: a sleeveless garment consisting only of a front and a back part, with a hole for the head.

I started reading People of the Book last night, and already I've got unfamiliar words.

siddur: Jewish prayer book containing the daily prayers for weekdays and the Sabbath.
eretz: Hebrew for land or country. Used as Eretz Israel it is a term meaning the Promised Land.
Ladino: a Romance language spoken by Sephardic Jews
stoush: an Australian term for a bad argument, often with fists involved.
Haggadah: a text setting forth the order of the Passover Seder

Parvenu - parvenu is a person who has recently or suddenly acquired wealth or power, often from a lower social standing, and is considered by some to be lacking in the appropriate manners, refinement, or prestige associated with their new status. The term is used in a derogatory way. I knew what it meant in general terms but thought I’d double check. In this case it’s referencing the turn of the 20th century Americans flaunting their new wealth with extravagant yachts, joking that the word should no longer be considered an insult. From The Golden Age of Travel 1880-1939.

pinder: A person in charge of impounding stray animals. <- pind v. to enclose; related to the noun pound.

Toga praetexta-The toga praetexta was a distinctive toga worn in ancient Rome, characterized by a broad, purple border. It was a symbol of status, worn by magistrates, priests, and children of freeborn parents before they reached adulthood. The purple stripe indicated the wearer's elevated status and often represented a connection to religious or political authority. From The Light Bearer.

Belletristic-characteristic of or pertaining to writing that is artistic in nature rather than purely informative

derived from belles-lettres

From Tooth & Claw by Jo Walton

sejant - adj. (of an animal) sitting upright

couchant - adj. (of an animal) lying with the body resting on the legs and the head raised

>202 BookConcierge: Interesting. They are both French words, easily recognizable even to a poor french student such as myself. The etymology from Latin was also interesting. Thanks!

Flambeau--a torch

From A Tale of Two Cities

I've always associated it with Hercule Flambeau, from the Father Brown tv series, so I was surprised to find out it was a real word. Not particularly surprised by the meaning, as it is clearly a cognate of some kind.

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