Vocabulary

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• eschew
  v : avoid and stay away from deliberately; stay clear of [syn: shun]
• obfuscation
  n 1: confusion resulting from failure to understand [syn: bewilderment, puzzlement, befuddlement, mystification, bafflement, bemusement]
  2: the activity of obscuring people's understanding, leaving them baffled or bewildered [syn: mystification]
  3: darkening or obscuring the sight of something
• agnosia
  Main Entry: ag-no-sia
  Pronunciation: ag-'nO-zh&, -sh&
  Function: noun
  Etymology: New Latin, from Greek agnOsia ignorance, from a- + gnOsis knowledge, from gignOskein
  Date: circa 1900
  : loss or diminution of the ability to recognize familiar objects or stimuli usually as a result of brain damage
• schadenfreude
  Main Entry: scha-den-fro��de
  Pronunciation: 'sh-d&n-"froi-d&
  Function: noun
  Usage: often capitalized
  Etymology: German, from Schaden damage + Freude joy
  : enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others
• petrichor
  : the pleasant smell of rain after a dry spell
• accismus
  (ak-SIZ-muhs) noun
  : feigning disinterest in something while actually desiring it
• virga
  (v&r-g&) noun
  : wisps of precipitation evaporating before reaching the ground
• term of art (also called "word of art")
  a word or phrase used by legal professionals that has a precise meaning in a particular subject area. Knowing the terms of art and their definitions for your area of practice will save you time and effort in your research.
  - "blue sky laws" (refers to state securities laws)
  - "TINA" (an acronym for the Truth in Negotiation Act)
• verso
  (ver'-so) noun
  1. left-hand page
  2. the back of a page
• recto
  (rek'-to) noun
  right-hand page
• hesternal
  (he-STER-nuhl) adjective
  of yesterday
• hodiernal
  today
• yestreen
  (ye-STREEN) noun
  yesterday evening
• nudiustertian
  (noo-dee-uhs-TUR-shuhn, nyoo-)
  adjective: Of or relating to the day before yesterday
  Etymology: From Latin nudius tertius, literally, today is the third day.
  Earliest documented use: 1647.
  Also see hesternal (relatinv to yesterday) hodiernal (relating to today)
  Usage: "I'd ordered the key on-line for £48 that nudiustertian morning and was not expecting it to arrive until the following week." Benjamin Nolan; Cyclin' the City; Syniq.co.uk; Aug 22, 2012.
• polenta
  paste made from cornmeal (or other grain)
• palliate
  ('pa-lE-"At) transitive verb
  from Late Latin to cloak, conceal
  1: to reduce the violence of (a disease): abate
  2: to cover by excuses and apologies
  3: to moderate the intensity of
  palliative
  ('pa-lE-"A-tiv) adjective
  : serving to palliate
• uffdah (spelling?)
  Swedish for "Oh, my!"
  It is a multipurpose regionalism connoting dismay, surprise or sensory overload. It is particularly useful in commenting on the weather, "Uffdah! That's cold."
• in situ
  in place (without removing to special medium or circumstance)
• in vivo
  within the living (experiment in the living organism)
• in vitro
  within glass (experiment in a test tube)
• ex vivo
  experiment is performed in vivo and then analyzed in vitro
• etymology
  history of a linguistic form (as a word) shown by tracing its development since its earliest recorded occurrence in the language where it is found, by tracing its transmission from one language to another, by analyzing it into its component parts, by identifying its cognates in other languages, or by tracing it and its cognates to a common ancestral form in an ancestral language
• entomology
  a branch of zoology that deals with insects
• etiology
  1: cause, origin: specifically: all of the cuases of a disease or abnormal condition
  2: a branch of knowledge concerned with causes: specifically: a branch of medical science concerned with the causes and origins of diseases
• misanthrope
  a person who hates or distrusts mankind
• isochronous (eye-sock-ra-nuss)
  time-dependent. Refers to processes where data must be delivered within certain time constraints. For example, multimedia streams require an isochronous transport mechanism to ensure that data is delivered as fast as it is displayed and to ensure that the audio is synchronized with the video.
• redact \Re*dact"\ (r?*d?kt"), v. t. [L. redactus, p. p. of
  redigere; pref. red-, re-, again, back + agere to put in motion, to drive.]
  To reduce to form, as literary matter; to digest and put in shape (matter for publication); to edit.
  n : someone who puts text into appropriate form for publication [syn: redactor, reviser, rewriter, rewrite man]
  v 1: formulate in a particular style or language; "I wouldn't put it that way"; "She cast her request in very polite language" [syn: frame, cast, put, couch]
  2: prepare for publication or presentation by correcting, revising, or adapting; "Edit a a book on lexical semantics"; "she edited the letters of the politician so as to omit the most personal passages" [syn: edit]
• busker \busk"er\ n.
  a person who entertains people for money in public places (as by singing or dancing). [Chiefly British]
• hortatory \Hor"ta*to*ry\, a. [L. hortatorius.]
  Giving exhortation or advise; encouraging; exhortatory; inciting; as, a hortatory speech. --Holland.
  adj : giving strong encouragement [syn: exhortative, exhortatory, hortative]
• hegemony \He*gem`o*ny\, n. [Gr. ?, fr. ? guide, leader, fr. ? to go before.]
  Leadership; preponderant influence or authority; -- usually applied to the relation of a government or state to its neighbors or confederates.
  n : the domination of one state over its allies
• parsimonious
  Exhibiting parsimony; sparing in expenditure of money; frugal to excess; penurious; niggardly; stingy. --
  Par`si*mo"ni*ous*ly, adv. -- Par`si*mo"ni*ous*ness, n.
  A prodigal king is nearer a tyrant than a parsimonious. --Bacon.
  Extraordinary funds for one campaign may spare us the expense of many years; whereas a long, parsimonious war will drain us of more men and money. --Addison.
  Syn: Covetous; niggardly; miserly; penurious; close; saving; mean; stingy; frugal. See Avaricious.
  adj : excessively unwilling to spend; "parsimonious thrift relieved by few generous impulses"; "lived in a most penurious manner--denying himself every indulgence" [syn: penurious]
• penurious \Pe*nu"ri*ous\, a. [From Penury.]
  1. Excessively sparing in the use of money; sordid; stingy; miserly. "A penurious niggard of his wealth." --Milton.
  2. Not bountiful or liberal; scanty.
  Here creeps along a poor, penurious stream. --C. Pitt.
  3. Destitute of money; suffering extreme want. [Obs.] "My penurious band." --Shak.
  Syn: Avaricious; covetous; parsimonious; miserly; niggardly; stingy. See Avaricious.
  [1913 Webster] --Pe*nu"ri*ous*ly, adv. --
  Pe*nu"ri*ous*ness, n.
  adj 1: not having enough money to pay for necessities [syn: hard up, impecunious, in straitened circumstances(p), penniless, pinched]
  2: excessively unwilling to spend; "parsimonious thrift relieved by few generous impulses"; "lived in a most penurious manner--denying himself every indulgence" [syn: parsimonious]
• desultory
  adj : marked by lack of definite plan or regularity or purpose; jumping from one thing to another; "desultory thoughts"; "the desultory conversation characteristic of cocktail parties"
• desultory \Des"ul*to*ry\, a. [L. desultorius, fr. desultor a leaper, fr. desilire, desultum, to leap down; de + salire to leap. See Saltation.]
  1. Leaping or skipping about. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
  I shot at it [a bird], but it was so desultory that I missed my aim. --Gilbert White.
  [1913 Webster]
  2. Jumping, or passing, from one thing or subject to another, without order or rational connection; without logical sequence; disconnected; immethodical; aimless; as, desultory minds. --Atterbury.
  [1913 Webster]
  He [Goldsmith] knew nothing accurately; his reading had been desultory. --Macaulay.
  [1913 Webster]
  3. Out of course; by the way; as a digression; not connected with the subject; as, a desultory remark.
  Syn: Rambling; roving; immethodical; discursive; inconstant; unsettled; cursory; slight; hasty; loose. [1913 Webster]
• xerostomia
  n : abnormal dryness of the mouth resulting from decreased secretion of saliva [syn: dry mouth]
• doula [Modern Greek doula, from Greek dialectal doula, servant-woman, slave.]
  n : A woman who assists another woman during labor and provides support to her, the infant, and the family after childbirth.
• Reggaeton
  Form of dance music which became popular with Latin American youth during the 1990s and spread to North America during the first few years of the 21st century. Raggaeton blends Jamaican music influences of reggae and dancehall with those of Latin American, such as bomba and plena, as well as that of hip hop. The music is also combined with rapping in Spanish.
• Appall \Ap*pall"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Appalled; p. pr. & vb.
  n. Appalling.] [OF. appalir to grow pale, make pale; a (L. ad) + p[^a]lir to grow pale, to make pale, p[^a]le pale. See Pale, a., and cf. Pall.]
  1. To make pale; to blanch. [Obs.]
  [1913 Webster]
  The answer that ye made to me, my dear, . . . Hath so appalled my countenance. --Wyatt.
  [1913 Webster]
  2. To weaken; to enfeeble; to reduce; as, an old appalled wight. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
  [1913 Webster]
  Wine, of its own nature, will not congeal and freeze, only it will lose the strength, and become appalled in extremity of cold. --Holland.
  [1913 Webster]
  3. To depress or discourage with fear; to impress with fear in such a manner that the mind shrinks, or loses its firmness; to overcome with sudden terror or horror; to dismay; as, the sight appalled the stoutest heart.
  [1913 Webster]
  The house of peers was somewhat appalled at this alarum. --Clarendon.
  [1913 Webster]
  Syn: To dismay; terrify; daunt; frighten; affright; scare; depress. See Dismay.
  [1913 Webster]
• cockcrow \Cock"crow\, Cockcrowing \Cock"crow`ing\, n.
  The time at which cocks first crow; the early morning; the first light of day.
• cockshut (KOK-shut) noun
  Evening; twilight.
  [Apparently from the time when poultry is shut in to rest.]
  or Cockshut \Cock"shut`\, n.
  A kind of net to catch woodcock. [Obs.] --Nares.
  [1913 Webster]
  cockshut time or cockshut light, evening twilight; nightfall; -- so called in allusion to the tome at which the cockshut used to be spread. [Obs.] --Shak. B. Jonson.
  [1913 Webster]
• kine \Kine\ (k[imac]n), n. pl. [For older kyen, formed like oxen, fr. AS. c[=y], itself pl. of c[=u] cow. See Cow, and cf. Kee, Kie.]
  Cows. "A herd of fifty or sixty kine." --Milton. Kinematic
• kin \Kin\ (k[i^]n), n. Also Kine \Kine\ (k[imac]n). [Gr. kinei^n to move.] (Physics)
  The unit velocity in the C. G. S. system -- a velocity of one centimeter per second.
  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
• cloacal (as in cloacal kiss)
  Reproduction among birds (79% birds do not have phalluses) Cloacal \Clo*a"cal\, a.
  Of or pertaining to a cloaca.
  [1913 Webster]
  Cloaca \Clo"a"ca\, n.; pl. Cloac[ae]. [L.]
  1. A sewer; as, the Cloaca Maxima of Rome.
  [1913 Webster]
  2. A privy.
  [1913 Webster]
  3. (Anat.) The common chamber into which the intestinal, urinary, and generative canals discharge in birds, reptiles, amphibians, and many fishes.
  [1913 Webster]
• colleague \col"league\ (k[o^]l"l[=e]g), n. [F. coll[`e]gue, L. collega one chosen at the same time with another, a partner in office; col- + legare to send or choose as deputy. See Legate.]
  A partner or associate in some civil or ecclesiastical office or employment. It is never used of partners in trade or manufactures.
  Syn: Helper; assistant; coadjutor; ally; associate; companion; confederate.
  [1913 Webster]
• parthenogenesis \par`the*no*gen"e*sis\
  (p[aum]r`th[-e]*n[-o]*j[e^]n"[-e]*s[i^]s), n. [Gr. parqe`nos a virgin + E. genesis.]
  1. (Biol.) The production of new individuals from virgin females by means of ova which have the power of developing without the intervention of the male element; the production, without fertilization, of cells capable of germination. It is one of the phenomena of alternate generation. Cf. Heterogamy, and Megagenesis.
  [1913 Webster]
  2. (Bot.) The production of seed without fertilization, believed to occur through the nonsexual formation of an embryo extraneous to the embryonic vesicle.
  [1913 Webster]
• tocological
  Of or pertaining to midwifery.
• cathect
  v : inject with libidinal energy
  To invest emotional energy (in a person, object, or thing) (See cathexis)
• cathexis
  n : (psychoanalysis) the libidinal energy invested in some idea or person or object; "Freud thought of cathexis as a psychic analog of an electrical charge"
• compossible (kom-POS-uh-buhl) adjective
  compatible; possible along with something else
  [From Latin com- (with) + possibilis (that may be done), from posse (to be able). Ultimately from the Indo-European root poti- (powerful, lord) that is also the source of power, potent, possess, and pasha.]
• synesthesia (Ancient Greek syn (with) and aisthesis (sensation))
  n : a sensation that normally occurs in one sense modality occurs when another modality is stimulated [syn: synaesthesia]
  A neurologically based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. In one common form of synesthesia, known as grapheme, color synesthesia, letter or numbers are perceived as inherently colored, while in ordinal linguistic personification, numbers, days of the week and months of the year evoke personalities. In spatial-sequence, or number form synesthesia, numbers, months of the year, and/or days of the week elicit precise locations in space, or may have a three-dimensional view of a year as a map.
  Sibellus reportedly had sound-to-color synesthesia
• grapheme \graph"eme\ n. (Linguistics)
  a written symbol that is used to represent speech.
• obsequious
  adj 1: attempting to win favor from influential people by flattery
  [syn: bootlicking, fawning, sycophantic, toadyish]
  2: attentive in an ingratiating or servile manner; "obsequious shop assistants"
• Terpsichore (muse)
  terpsichore (choregraphy)
  n 1: (Greek mythology) the Muse of the dance and of choral song
  2: taking a series of rhythmical steps (and movements) in time to music [syn: dancing, dance, saltation]
• interregnum
  n : the time between two reigns, governments, etc.
  [also: interregna (pl)]
• per stirpes (pur-STUR-peez) noun
  A method of dividing an estate in which each branch of the descendants of a deceased person receives an equal share.
  [From Latin, literally "by roots" or "by stocks".]
  An example would be helpful. A man has three children A, B, and C, and at the time of his death, only A and B are alive. Per stirpes division of the property means that A receives one third, B receives one third, and the final one third share is equally divided among C's children.
  A different way to divide an estate is per capita (by heads) where each person receives equal share irrespective of how far down he or she lies in the family tree.
• Priapism (Ancient Greek)
  priapism is a potentially harmful medical condition in which the erect penis does not return to its flaccid state (despite the absence of both physical and psychological stimulation) within about four hours. It is often painful. Priapism is considered a medical emergency, which should receive proper treatment by a qualified medical practitioner.
  The name comes from the Greek god Priapus, referring to the myth that he was ironically punished by the other gods for attempting to rape a goddess, by being given a huge (but useless) set of wooden genitals.
• lagniappe (lan-YAP, LAN-yap) noun
  An unexpected benefit, especially a small gift a customer receives with a purchase.
• cwm
  n : a steep-walled semicircular basin in a mountain; may contain a lake [syn: cirque, corrie]
• crwth
  \Crwth\ (kr[=oo]th), n. [W.] (Mus.)
  See crowd.
  crowd \crowd\, n. [W. crwth; akin to Gael. cruit. Perh. named from its shape, and akin to Gr. kyrto`s curved, and E. curve. Cf. Rote.]
  An ancient instrument of music with six strings; a kind of violin, being the oldest known stringed instrument played with a bow. [Written also croud, crowth, cruth, and crwth.]
  [1913 Webster]
• quidnunc \Quid"nunc\, n. [L., what now?]
  One who is curious to know everything that passes; one who knows, or pretends to know, all that is going on. "The idle stories of quidnuncs." --Motley.
  [1913 Webster]
• quid pro quo (Latin for "something for something" [1])
  indicates a more-or-less equal exchange or substitution of goods or services. English speakers often use the term to mean "a favor for a favor" and the phrases "what for what", "give and take" have similar meanings.
• perspicacious
  adj 1: acutely insightful and wise; "much too perspicacious to be taken in by such a spurious argument"; "observant and thoughtful, he was given to asking sagacious questions"; "a source of valuable insights and sapient advice to educators" [syn: sagacious, sapient]
  2: mentally acute or penetratingly discerning; "too clear-eyed not to see what problems would follow"; "chaos could be prevented only by clear-sighted leadership"; "much too perspicacious to be taken in by so spurious an argument"
  [syn: clear-eyed, clear-sighted]
• sagacious
  adj 1: acutely insightful and wise; "much too perspicacious to be taken in by such a spurious argument"; "observant and thoughtful, he was given to asking sagacious questions"; "a source of valuable insights and sapient advice to educators" [syn: perspicacious, sapient]
  2: skillful in statecraft or management; "an astute and sagacious statesman"
  sagacity
  n 1: ability to make good judgments [syn: sagaciousness, judgment, judgement, discernment]
  2: the trait of forming opinions by distinguishing and evaluating [syn: judiciousness, sagaciousness]
• acumen
  n 1: a tapering point
  2: shrewdness shown by keen insight [syn: insightfulness]
• mawkish
  adj : effusively or insincerely emotional; "a bathetic novel"; "maudlin expressons of sympathy"; "mushy effusiveness"; "a schmaltzy song"; "sentimental soap operas"; "slushy poetry" [syn: bathetic, drippsy, hokey, maudlin, mushy, schmaltzy, schmalzy, sentimental, slushy]
• nosocomial
  Originating or acquired in hospital. Used to refer to infections.
  http://wordsmith.org/words/nosocomial.html
• iartogenic
  It is bad enough to acquire a illness while hospitalized. It is even worse to have a health care facility or worker CAUSE the problem. The word for such a condition is iartogenic: http://www.iatrogenic.org/define.html
• appelation
  n : identifying word or words by which someone or something is called and classified or distinguished from others [syn: demonimation, designation, appelative]
• ataraxic
  adj 1. tending to soothe or calm or tranquilize Syn: calming, sedative, soothing, tranquilizing
  adj : tending to soothe or tranquilize; "valium has a tranquilizing effect"; "took a hot drink with sedative properties before going to bed" [syn: ataractic, sedative, tranquilizing, traquilising]
  n : 1. drug that reduces nervous tension and gives peace of mind.
• weenie (also weeney, )
  1. informal: a wiener, small sausage (abbreviation of wienerWurst)
  2. slang: penis
  3. slang: an insignifcant, disliked person; a person, especially a man, who is regarded as being weak and ineffectual
  4. computer hacker slang: weenie
  1. [on BBSes] Any of a species of luser resembling a less amusing version of B1FF that infests many BBS systems. The typical weenie is a teenage boy with poor social skills travelling under a grandiose handle derived from fantasy or heavy-metal rock lyrics. Among sysops, the weenie problem refers to the marginally literate and profanity-laden flamage weenies tend to spew all over a newly-discovered BBS. Compare spod, geek, terminal junkie, warez d00dz.
  2. [among hackers] When used with a qualifier (for example, as in Unix weenie, VMS weenie, IBM weenie) this can be either an insult or a term of praise, depending on context, tone of voice, and whether or not it is applied by a person who considers him or herself to be the same sort of weenie. Implies that the weenie has put a major investment of time, effort, and concentration into the area indicated; whether this is good or bad depends on the hearer's judgment of how the speaker feels about that area. See also bigot.
  3. The semicolon character, ; (ASCII 0111011).
• alifile
  n: professional armpit hair remover
• Sepak takraw
  game popular in Thailand that is a cross between volleyball and soccer
• haptic
  adj : of or relating to or proceeding from the sense of touch; "haptic data"; "a tactile reflex" [syn: tactile, tactual]
• facetious
  adj: Given to wit and good humor; merry; sportive; jocular; as, a facetious companion.
  Note: Has all five vowels in order (see abstemious)
• abstemious
  adj 1: sparing in consumption of especially food and drink; "the pleasures of the table, never of much consequence to one naturally abstemious"- John Galsworthy [ant: gluttonous]
  2: marked by temperance in indulgence; "abstemious meals"; "a light eater"; "a light smoker"; "ate a light supper" [syn: light(a)]
  Note: Has all five vowels in order (see facetious)
• bollix (also bolix or bollox)
  [origin 1930-35; vulgar var. of ballocks, balls, testes, testicles]
  v : make a mess of, destroy or ruin; "I botched the dinner and we had to eat out"; "the pianist screwed up the difficult passage in the second movement" [syn: botch, bumble, fumble, botch up, muff, blow, flub, screw up, ball up, spoil, muck up, bungle, fluff, bollix up, bollocks, bollocks up, bobble, mishandle, louse up, foul up, mess up, fuck up]
  n: a confused bungle
• ambo
  n: a platform raised above the surrounding level to give prominence to the person on it [syn: dais, podium, pulpit, rostrum, stump, soapbox]
  a large pulpit or reading desk, in the early Christian churches
• haptic \haptic\ adj.
  relating to or based on the sense of touch.
• pogonotrophy
  [from Greek pogon, beard + -trophy, nourishment or growth]
  growing of a beard
  pogonophobia: fear of beards
  Latin: Philosophum non facit barba. (A beard does not make one a philosopher.)
  French: barbe a papa (cotton candy)
• nudnick
  n : (Yiddish) someone who is a boring pest [syn: nudnik]
• ciceronian
  adj: marked by ornate language, expansive flow, and furcefulness of expressions
• cicerone
  n : a guide who conducts and informs sightseers
  [also: ciceroni (pl)]
• apotheosis
  n 1: model of excellence or perfection of a kind; one having no equal [syn: ideal, paragon, nonpareil, sait, nonesuch, nonsuch]
  2: the elevation of a person (as to the status of a god) [syn: deification, exaltation]
  [also: apotheoses (pl)]
• celerity
  adj: rapidity of motion; quickness; swiftness.
• digerati
  (Or "digirati". By analogy with "literati" - people knowledgeable about literature) People knowledgeable about computers, "computer literate".
• ptyalism
  n : excessive flow of saliva
• aptyalism (a-tile-ism)
  n : absence of or deficiency in secretion of saliva
• plutocrat
  n : someone who exercises power by virtue of wealth
  plutocracy
  n : a political system governed by the wealthy people
• pescetarian: A vegetarian who eats fish
  n: a pescetarian eats fish or other non-mammalian aquatic animals but will not eat terrestrial animals or marine mammals. Some animal products like eggs and dairy may be part of a pescetarian diet.
• bowdlerize \Bowd"ler*ize\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bowdlerized; p. pr. & vb. n. Bowdlerizing.] [After Dr. Thomas Bowdler, an English physician, who published an expurgated edition of Shakespeare in 1818.]
  To expurgate, as a book, by omitting or modifying the parts considered offensive; to remove morally objectionable parts;
  -- said of literary texts.
  Syn: bowdlerise, expurgate, shorten, cut.
  [1913 Webster + WordNet 1.5]
  It is a grave defect in the splendid tale of Tom Jones . . . that a Bowdlerized version of it would be hardly intelligible as a tale. --F. Harrison.
  [1913 Webster] -- Bowd`ler*i*az"tion, n. -- Bowd"ler*ism, n.
  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
• callipygian
  adj : pertaining to or having finely developed buttocks; "the quest for the callipygian ideal" [syn: callipygous]
• nosism
  the practice of using "we" to refer to oneself. From the Latin nos (we). Example: The 'royal we' as in , "We are not amused," attributed to Queen Victoria.
• fete \f[^e]te\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. F[^e]ted; p. pr. & vb. n. F[^e]ting.] [Cf. F. f[^e]ter.]
  To feast; to honor with a festival. Fetich
  Richard Strauss was frequently feted as a great composer.
  fete
  n 1: an elaborate party (often outdoors) [syn: feast, fiesta]
  2: an organized series of acts and performances (usually in one place); "a drama festival" [syn: festival]
  v : have a celebration; "They were feting the patriarch of the family"; "After the exam, the students were celebrating" [syn: celebrate]
• rhotacism \Rho"ta*cism\, n. [Gr. "rwtaki`zein to use the letter r ([rho]) overmuch: cf. F. rhotacisme.]
  An oversounding, or a misuse, of the letter r; specifically (Phylol.), the tendency, exhibited in the Indo-European languages, to change s to r, as wese to were.
  [1913 Webster]
• catachresis \Cat`a*chre"sis\, n. [L. fr. Gr. ? misuse, fr. ? to misuse; kata` against + ? to use.] (Rhet.)
  (kat-uh-KREE-sis)
  n : strained or paradoxical use of words either in error (as `blatant' to mean `flagrant') or deliberately (as in a mixed metaphor: `blind mouths')
  A figure by which one word is wrongly put for another, or by which a word is wrested from its true signification; as, "To take arms against a sea of troubles". --Shak. "Her voice was but the shadow of a sound." --Young.
  [1913 Webster] Catachrestic
• parapraxis
  n : a minor inadvertent mistake usually observed in speech or writing or in small accidents or memory lapses etc. [syn: slip, slip-up. miscue]
  [also: parapraxes (pl)]
• praxis
  1. Practice, as opposed to the theory.
  2. Accepted practice or custom.
  3. A set of practice exercises.
  Definition #1 of "praxis" reminded me of the following bon mot: In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice; but, in practice, there is.
• bon mot (French) "good word"
  a witty remark, a clever remark, witticism
• esprit d'escalier
  n : (e-SPREE des-kal-i-YE) also esprit de l'escalier [from French esprit de 'lescalier, from esprit (wit) + escalier (stairs).]
  Thinking of a witty remark too late; hindsight wit or afterwit. Also such a remark.
• popinjay
  n: a vain and talkative person (chatters like a parrot)
• rapprochement
  n : the reestablishing of cordial relations [syn: reconcilliation]
• skeuomorph (SKYOO-uh-morf)
  n: A design feature copied from a similar artifact in another material, even when not functionally necessary. For example, the click sound of a shutter in an analog camera that is now reproduced in a digital camera by playing a sound clip.
• Serein \Se*rein"\, n. [F. Cf. Serenade, n.] (Meteorol.)
  A mist, or very fine rain, which sometimes falls from a clear sky a few moments after sunset. --Tyndall.
  [1913 Webster]
• epeolatry n. [Greek epos (word) + -latry (worship)]
  The worship of words
• cacology \Ca*col"o*gy\, n. [Gr. kako`s bad + -logy: cf. F. cacologie.]
  Bad speaking; bad choice or use of words. --Buchanan.
  [1913 Webster] Cacomixtle
  Cacomixle
  1) Poor choice of words, 2) Incorrect pronunciation
• obambulate (o-BAM-byuh-layt) v. tr.
  [from Latin ob- (to) + ambulare (to walk)).
  Earliest documented use 1614.] to walk about
• tessellation
  n 1: the careful juxtaposition of shapes in a pattern; "a tessellation of hexagons"
  2: the act of adorning with mosaic
• quiddity
  n 1: an evasion of the point of an argument by raising irrelevant distinctions or objections [syn: quibble, cavil]
  2: the essence that makes something the kind of thing it is and makes it different from any other [syn: haecceity]
• maugre (MAW-guhr) also maugre
  in spite of
• autodidact
  n : a person who is self-taught
• didactic
  adj 1: instructive (especially excessively) [syn: didactic, didactical]
• logy
  adj : stunned or confused and slow to react (as from blows or drunkenness or exhaustion) [syn: dazed, foggy, groggy, stuporous]
  [also: logiest, logier]
• prolix
  adj : tediously prolonged or tending to speak or write at great length; "editing a prolix manuscript"; "a prolix lecturer telling you more than you want to know" [ant: concise]
• argal
  n : wild sheep of semidesert regions in central Asia [syn: argali, Ovis ammon]
  conjunction, adv :
  a ludicrous corruption of the Latin word ergo, therefore.
• sobeit
  conjunction: (from so + be + it) provided that
• absquatulate (ab-SKWOCH-uh-layt)
  v : run away; usually includes taking something or somebody along [syn: abscond, bolt, decamp, run ott, go off]
• espalier (i-SPAL-yuhr, -yay)
  noun: A tree trained to grow flat against a wall.
  verb tr.: To train a tree in such a way.
  ETYMOLOGY: From French espalier, from Italian spalliera (shoulder support), from spalla (shoulder), from Latin spatula (shoulder blade).
  NOTES: The word originally referred to the trellis or framework on which a tree was trained to grow in a plane. Typically fruit trees such as apple and pear are grown as espalier. The advantages of an espalier are that it can be grown in a small space, gets more sunlight, and provides easier access to the fruit.
• topiary (TOE-pee-er-ee)
  noun: The art of creating sculptures by clipping, trimming, and training plants. Also, such a sculpture or garden.
  adjective: Of or related to a tree or garden shaped in such a way.
  ETYMOLOGY: From Latin topiarius (ornamental gardener), from topia (ornamental gardening), from Greek topos (place).
• pollard (POL-uhrd) [from ME polle (head)]
  n 1: a tree with limbs cut back to promote a more bushy growth of foliage
  2: a usually horned animal that as either shed its horns or had them removed
  v : convert into a pollard; "pollard trees" [syn: poll]
• aioli \aioli\ n. (Cooking)
  a French garlic-flavored mayonnaise. It is often served with fish and other seafood, and sometimes with vegetables.
  n : garlic mayonnaise [syn: aioli sauce, garlic sauce]
• jury nullification
  n: an act of a jury (its verdict) intended to make an official rule, especially a statute, void in the context of a particular case. In other words, "the process whereby a jury in a criminal case effectively nullifies a law by acquitting a defendant regardless of the weight of evidence against him or her."
• lacuna \La*cu"na\ (l[.a]*k[=u]"n[.a]), n.; pl. L. Lacun[ae] (l[.a]*k[=u]"n[ae]); E. Lacunas (l[.a]*k[=u]"n[.a]z). [L., ditch, pit, lake, orig., anything hollow. See Lagoon.]
  1. A small opening; a small pit or depression; a small blank space; a gap or vacancy; a hiatus.
  [1913 Webster]
  2. (Biol.) A small opening; a small depression or cavity; a space, as a vacant space between the cells of plants, or one of the spaces left among the tissues of the lower animals, which serve in place of vessels for the circulation of the body fluids, or the cavity or sac, usually of very small size, in a mucous membrane.
  [1913 Webster] Lacunal
• nugatory (NOO-guh-tor-ee, NYOO-)
  adj: 1. Of little value; trifling. 2. Having no force; ineffective.
  (Etymology: From Latin nugatorius (trifling), from nugari (to trifle))
  (Example: When issuing updates to technical documents produced for the DoD, a cover letter always describes the reasons for the version change. As irreverent engineers, a favorite reason was to "remedy nugatory lacunas".)
• propinquity [Latin propinquitas (nearness), from prope (near)]
  n : the property of being close together [syn: proximity]
  nearness in space, time or relationship
• perendinate (puh-REN-di-nayt)
  verb tr. : To put off until the day after tomorrow.
  verb intr.: To stay at a college for an extended time.
  Etymology: From Latin perendinare (to defer until the day after tomorrow), from perendie (on the day after tomorrow), from die (day).
  Notes: The word procrastinate is from Latin cras (tomorrow). So when you procrastinate, literally speaking, you are putting something off till tomorrow. Mark Twain once said, "Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow." In other words, why procrastinate when you can perendinate?
  Usage: "In Peterhouse the Master and Fellows might now allow a stranger to perendinate for more than a fortnight unless they were certified of his moral character and of his ability and willingness to do the College some notable service." Thomas Alfred Walker; Peterhouse; Hutchinson & Co.; 1906.
• overmorrow
  PRONUNCIATION: (oh-vuhr-MOR-oh)
  MEANING:
  noun: The day after tomorrow.
  adjective: Of or relating to the day after tomorrow.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From over (above) + morrow (tomorrow), from Old English morgen (morning). Earliest documented use: 1535. Also see hodiernal (relating to today), hesternal (relating to yesterday), and nudiustertian (relating to the day before yesterday).
  USAGE:
  "We can go not overmorrow, but on Thursday."
  The Parliamentary Debates; H.M. Stationery Office; 1925 .
• attestation
  n 1: noun.group:law,;c the action of bearing witness
  2: the evidence by which something is attested
• expatiate (ek-SPAY-shee-ayt)
  v. intr.
  1. To speak or write at length
  2. To move about freely
  From Latin exspatiatus, past participle of exspatiari (to wander or digress), from ex- (out) + spatiari (to walk about), from spatium (space).
  "I spent part of the day of the debate watching a parade of talking heads expatiate endlessly on how dire was the need to Obama to go macho."
  Joe Klein; Hit Her Again! Time (New York); Oct 31, 2007.
• Plethysmograph \Pleth"ys*mo*graph\, n. [Gr. ? an enlargement + -graph.] (Physiol.)
  An instrument for determining and registering the variations in the size or volume of a limb, as the arm or leg, and hence the variations in the amount of blood in the limb. Webster] -- Pleth`ys*mo*graph"ic, a.
  [1913 Webster]
• plethysmograph (pleth-IS-mo-graf)
  n : a measuring instrument for measuring changes in volume of a part or organ or whole body (usually resulting from fluctuations in the amount of blood it contains)
• nihil obstat (NY-hil OB-stat, NEE-)
  noun:
  1. Official approval.
  2. In the Roman Catholic Church, a statement by a church censor that a book is not offensive to the Church.
  etymology:
  From Latin nihil obstat (nothing hinders), from nihil (nothing) + obstare (to hinder), from ob- (against) + stare (to stand). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sta- (to stand) that is also the source of stay, stage, stable, instant, establish, static, and system.
  usage:
  "The Army Corps of Engineers last week gave its nihil obstat to the Hudson River Park, New York City's scheme."
  New York's Finny Friends; New York Post; Jun 5, 2000.
• eidetic
  adj : of visual imagery of almost photographic accuracy
• nadir
  n 1: an extreme state of adversity; the lowest point of anything [syn: low-water mark]
  2: the point below the observer that is directly opposite the zenith on the imaginary sphere against which celestial bodies appear to be projected [ant: zenith]
• aptronym (AP-troh-NIM) noun
  A name that is especially suited to the profession of its owner.
  - Examples: Dan Druff for a barber, Felicity Foote for a dance teacher, and James Bugg for an exterminator -- all real monikers. More famously, we have William Wordsworth, the poet; Margaret Court, the tennis champion; Sally Ride, the astronaut; Larry Speakes, the White House spokesperson, Jim Kiick, the football star; and Lorena Bobbitt ("bob it") the you-know-what-er.
• aglet
  n 1: metal or plastic sheath over the end of a shoelace or ribbon [syn: aiglet]
  2: ornamental tagged cord or braid on the shoulder of a uniform [syn: aiglet, aiguilette]
• esurient
  adj 1: extremely hungry; "they were tired and famished for food and sleep"; "a ravenous boy"; "the family was starved and ragged"; "fell into the esurient embrance of a predatory enemy" [syn: famished, ravenous, sharp-set, starved]
  2: (often followed by `for') ardently or excessively desirous; "avid for adventure"; "an avid ambition to succeed"; "fierce devouring affection"; "the esurient eyes of an avid curiosity"; "greedy for fame" [syn: avid, devouring(a), greedy]
  3: devouring or craving food in great quantities; "edacious vultures"; "a rapacious appetite"; "ravenous as wolves"; "voracious sharks" [syn: edacious, rapacious, ravening, ravenous, voracious, wolfish]
• props
  n : proper respect; "I have to give my props to the governor for the way he handled the problem"
• sedulous
  adj : marked by care and persistent effort; "her assiduous attempts to learn French"; "assiduous research"; "sedulous pursuit of legal and moral principles" [syn: assiduous]
• trichotillomania (trik-uh-til-uh-MAY-nee-uh)
  [greek tricho- (hair) + tillein (to pluck, pull out) + -mania (excessive enthusiasm or craze)]
  n : an irresistible urge to pull out your own hair
• Salmagundi \Sal`ma*gun"di\, n. [F. salmigondis, of uncertain origin; perhaps from L. salgama condita, pl.; salgama pickles + condita preserved (see Condite); or from the Countess Salmagondi, lady of honor to Maria de Medici, who is said to have invented it; or cf. It. salame salt meat, and F. salmis a ragout.]
  1. A mixture of chopped meat and pickled herring, with oil, vinegar, pepper, and onions. --Johnson. [1913 Webster]
  2. Hence, a mixture of various ingredients; an olio or medley; a potpourri; a miscellany. --W. Irving. [1913 Webster]
  n 1: a collection containing a variety of sorts of things; "a great assortment of cars was on display"; "he had a variety of disorders"; "a veritable smorgasbord of religions" [syn: assortment, mixture, mixed bag, miscellany, miscellanea, variety, smorgasbord, potpourri, motley]
  2: cooked meats and eggs and vegetables usually arranged in rows around the plate and dressed with a salad dressing
• neologism
  n 1: a newly invented word or phrase [syn: neology, coinage]
  2: the act of inventing a word or phrase [syn: neology, coinage]
• acnestis
• vellicate
  v 1: touch (a body part) lightly so as to excite the surface nerves and cause uneasiness, laughter, or spasmodic movements [syn: tickle, titillate]
  2: irritate as if by a nip, pinch, or tear; "smooth surfaces can vellicate the teeth"; "the pain is as if sharp points pinch your back" [syn: pinch]
• Morton's fork (MOR-tuhns fork)
  noun: A situation involving choice between two equally undesirable outcomes.
  Etymology: After John Morton (c. 1420-1500), archbishop of Canterbury, who was tax collector for the English King Henry VII. To him is attributed Morton's fork, a neat argument for collecting taxes from everyone: those living in luxury obviously had money to spare and those living frugally must have accumulated savings to be able to pay.
  Usage: "[Japan's political elites] face a Morton's fork between being ignored or being seen as a problem to which there is little solution." Michael Auslin; Japan Dissing; The Wall Street Journal (New York); Apr 22, 2010.
• Hobson's choice (HOB-sonz chois)
  noun: An apparently free choice that offers no real alternative.
  Etymology: After Thomas Hobson (1544?-1630), English keeper of a livery stable, from his requirement that customers take either the horse nearest the stable door or none.
  Notes: Hobson had some 40 animals in his rent-a-horse business and a straightforward system: a returning horse goes to the end of the line, and the horse at the top of the line gets to serve next. He had good intentions -- rotating horses so his steeds received good rest and an equal wear, but his heavy-handed enforcement of the policy didn't earn him any customer service stars. He could have offered his clients the option of choosing one of the two horses nearest the stable door, for instance, and still achieve nearly the same goal. More recently Henry Ford offered customers a Ford Model T in any color as long as it was black.
  Usage:"There, many are given a legal Hobson's choice: Plead guilty and go home or ask for a lawyer and spend longer in custody." Sean Webby; No Lawyer in Sight for Many Making Way Through System; San Jose Mercury News (California); Dec 30, 2009.
• jactitation (jak-ti-TAY-shun)
  noun:
  1. A false boast or claim that is intended to harm someone, especially a malicious claim by a person that he or she is married to a particular person.
  2. Involuntary tossing and twitching of the body and limbs.
  Etymology: From Latin jactitation (tossing, false declaration), past participle of jactitare (to throw out publicly, to boast), frequentative of jactare (to throw about), frequentative of jacere (to throw).
  Usage: "Film actress Meera has filed a suit for jactitation of marriage against her alleged husband Attique Ur Rehman, seeking court directions to stop him from claiming her as his legal wife." Meera Files for Marriage Jactitation; The Pak Banker (Pakistan); Feb 10, 2010.
  "Tizanidine hydrochloride has been used for the treatment of jactitation."
  How to Relieve Chronic Pain After Amputation; Pulse (UK); May 5, 2001.
• anisotropy
  n : the property of being anisotropic; having a different value when measured in different directions [ant: isotropy]
  lopsidedness
• clowder
  n : a group of cats
  - A group of cats is called a clowder or a clutter. If they are cats, a mother cat has just had a "litter". Most cats live solitary lives with the exception of lions. In this case it would be called a pack or pride. A large group of cats can be called a clan.
• sienna \si*en"na\, n. [It. terra di Siena, fr. Siena in Italy.] (Chem.)
  Clay that is colored red or brown by the oxides of iron or manganese, and used as a pigment. It is used either in the raw state or burnt.
  Burnt sienna, sienna made of a much redder color by the action of fire.
  Raw sienna, sienna in its natural state, of a transparent yellowish brown color.
• nankeen
  n : a durable fabric formerly loomed by hand in China from natural cotton having a yellowish color
• gamboge
  n 1: a gum resin used as a yellow pigment and a purgative
  2: a strong yellow color [syn: lemon, lemon yellow, maize]
• sinopia
  n : a red ocher formerly used as a pigment [syn: sinopis, sinoper]
• solferino
  n 1: a purplish pink dye was discovered in 1859, the year a battle was fought at Solferino [syn: purplish pink]
  2: an indecisive battle in 1859 between the French and Sardinians under Napoleon III and the Austrians under Francis Joseph I [syn: battle of Solferino]
• posology \Po*sol"o*gy\, n. [Gr. ? how much + -logy: cf. F. posologie.] (Med.)
  The science or doctrine of doses; dosology.
  n : the pharmacological determination of appropriate doses of drugs and medicines
• tmesis \Tme"sis\ (m[=e]"s[i^]s or t'm[=e]"s[i^]s; 277), n. [L., from Gr. tmh^sis a cutting, fr. te`mnein to cut.] (Gram.) The separation of the parts of a compound word by the intervention of one or more words; as, in what place soever, for whatsoever place.
  (tuh-MEE-sis, TMEE-sis)
  n : Stuffing a word into the middle of another word. Examples: a-whole-nother, abso-bloody-lutely.
• susurrus \Su*sur"rus\, n. [L.]
  n : the indistinct sound of people whispering [syn: susurration] The act of whispering; a whisper; a murmur. The soft susurrus and sighs of the branches. --Longfellow.
• soffit
  n : the underside of a part of a building (such as an arch or overhang or beam etc.)
• thirty-day notice
  n. a notice by a landlord to a tenant on a mont-to-month tenancy or a hold-over tenant to leave the premises within 30 days. Such notice does not have to state any reason and is not based on failure to pay rent. The landlord's service of the notice and the tenant's failure to vacate at the end of 30 days provides the basis for a lawsuit for unlawful detainer (eviction) and a court judgment ordering the tenant to leave. While this is a common notice period, it does not apply in all states or all circumstances, such as local rent control ordinances. (See: unlawful detainer, landlord and tenant, service)
  from http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/thirty-day+notice
• coprolite \Cop"ro*lite\, n. [Gr. ko`pros dung + -lite.]
  (Paleon.)
  A piece of petrified dung; a fossil excrement.
• lucubrate \Lu"cu*brate\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Lucubrated; p. pr. & vb. n. Lucubrated.] [L. lucubratus, p. p. of lucubrare to work by lamplight, fr. lux light. See Light, n.]
  1. To study by candlelight or a lamp; to study by night.
  2. To elaborate, perfect, or compose, by night study or by laborious endeavor.
  v : add details, as to an account or idea; clarify the meaning of and discourse in a learned way, usually in writing; "She elaborated on the main ideas in her dissertation"
  [syn: elaborate, expaitate, exposit, enlarge, flesh out, expand, expound, dilate] [ant: abridge]
• parvenue
  noun One who has newly acquired wealth or status, but has not yet gained acceptance by others in that class [from French parvenu (upstart), from parvenir (to arrive), from Latin per- (through) + venire (to come). Earliest documented use: 1787]
  adj characteristic of someone who has risen economically or socially but lacks the social skills appropriate for this new position [syn: nouveau-riche, parvenu, upstart]
• imperial vs. metric
• relational vs. notional
• notional
  adj 1: having descriptive value as distinguished from syntactic category; "sex is a notional category; gender is a syntactic one"
  2: not based on fact; dubious; "the falsehood about some fanciful secret treaties"- F.D.Roosevelt; "a small child's imaginary friends"; "her imagined fame"; "to create a notional world for oneself" [syn: fanciful, imaginary, imagined]
  3: not based on fact or investigation; "a notional figure of cost helps in determining production costs"; "speculative knowledge" [syn: speculative]
  4: indulging in or influenced by fancy; "a fanciful mind"; "all the notional vagaries of childhood" [syn: fanciful]
  5: being (or being of the nature of) a notion or concept; "a plan abstract and conceptional"; "to improve notional comprehension"; "a notional response to the question" [syn: conceptional, idealional]
  
• solipsism
  n : (philosophy) the philosophical theory that the self is all that you know to exist
• ferrule
  pencil's eraser holder, usually made of brass
  n 1: a metal cap or band placed on a wooden pole to prevent splitting [syn: ferrule, collet]
  Ferrule \Fer"rule\ (f[e^]r"r[i^]l or f[e^]r"r[.u]l; 277), n.
  [Formerly verrel, F. virole, fr. L. viriola little bracelet, dim. of viriae, pl., bracelets; prob. akin to viere to twist, weave, and E. withe. The spelling with f is due to confusion with L. ferrum iron.] [Sometimes spelled ferule.]
  1. A ring or cap of metal put round a cane, tool, handle, or other similar object, to strengthen it, or prevent splitting and wearing.
  2. (Machinery) Any of various circular or cylindrical metal objects used at joints in a tube, pipe, or rod, especially to assist making a tight seal at a joint.
  3. Hence: (Steam Boilers) A bushing for expanding the end of a flue to fasten it tightly in the tube plate, or for partly filling up its mouth.
  4. Hence: (Chemistry) A bushing used at the joints of metal tubing in HPLC equipment to make a tight seal.
  5. (Fishing) One of several small rings at the top of a casting rod which holds the fishing line.
• pergola \Per"go*la\, n. [It., fr. L. pergula shed, shop, vine arbor.]
  Lit., an arbor or bower; specif.: (Italian art) An arbor or trellis treated architecturally, as with stone columns or similar massive structure.
  n 1: a framework that supports climbing plants; "the arbor provided a shady resting place in the park" [syn: arbor, arbour, bower, pergola]
• Raclette
  Switzerland's answer to fondue. Raclette is essentially melted cheese, served over boiled potatoes with lots of ground black pepper, accompanied by small pickled onions and gherkins. The name comes from the French verb "racler", to scrape, becasue of the way hte melted cheese is scraped off the block of a special raclette machine.
• defenestrate v.t.
  to throw (something or someone) out of a window.
• gardyloo n. [F. gare l'eau beware of the water.]
  An old cry in throwing water, slops, etc., from the windows in Edingburgh.
• damascene
  adj 1: of or relating to or characteristic of Damascus or its people; "damascene city gates"
  2: (of metals) decorated or inlaid with a wavy pattern of different (especially precious) metals; "a damascened sword"
  n 1: a native or inhabitant of Damascus
  2: a design produced by inlaying gold or silver into steel
  v 1: inlay metal with gold and silver
• Injera
  Ethiopian food is eaten without utensils, only your hands. The staple behind all Ethiopian dishes is Injera (pronounced en-je-ra). Injera is a special type of flat bread made from a type of grain that is indigenous to Ethiopia called �Teff�. Teff is highly nutritional in iron, fiber, some protein and calcium. Typically injera is eaten with a stew like sauce called �wot�. �Wot� is a variety of stew-like sauces made from meats and vegetables. To eat an Ethiopian dish, tear off a bite-size piece of injera and grab some wot with it; now roll up the injera and wot and enjoy!
• phat (fat)
  adjective: Great; excellent.
  from: Respelling of fat. Various acronyms have been suggested as possible origins of the word, but they are examples of backronyms. The word phatic has nothing to do with phat. Earliest documented use: 1963.
• phatic
  Relating to a communication meant to generate an atmosphere of social relationship rather than to convey some information. from: [Coined by anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942). From Greek phatos, from phanai (to speak), which also gave us prophet and aphasia (loss of ability to speak or understand language as a result of an injury).]
  usage: When you bump into your neighbor on your way out and say, "How are ya?" you're engaging in phatic communion. The idea is not to inquire your neighbor's state of affairs but simply to create a feeling of shared goodwill. Later, at work, when you discuss weather with someone at the water cooler, it's the same idea.
• tarantism (TAR-uhn-tiz-uhm) noun
  n 1: a nervous disorder characterized by an uncontrollable impulse to dance; popularly attributed to bite of the southern European tarantula or wolf spider
  An uncontrollable urge to dance.
  [After Taranto, a town in southern Italy where this phenomenon was experienced during the 15-17th centuries. It's not clear whether tarantism was the symptom of a spider's bite or its cure, or it may have been just a pretext to dodge a prohibition against dancing. The names of the dance tarantella and the spider tarantula are both derived from the same place.]
• dandle
  v 1: move (a baby) up and down in one's arms or on one's knees
  2: pet; "the grandfather dandled the small child"
• nudiustertian (nu-di-uhs-TUR-shuhr) adjective
  Of or relating to the day before yesterday
  [From Latin nudius tertius, literally, today is the third day.]
• pollicitation \Pol*lic`i*ta"tion\, n. [L. pollicitatio, fr. pollicitari to promise, v. intens. fr. polliceri to promise: cf. F. pollicitation.]
  A promise or an offer made but not yet accepted.
  1. A voluntary engagement, or a paper containing it; a promise.
  2. (Roman Law) A promise without mutuality; a promise which has not been accepted by the person to whom it is made.
• prelusive \Pre*lu"sive\, a. [see prelude.]
  Of the nature of a prelude; introductory; indicating that something of a like kind is to follow. "Prelusive drops."
  --Thomson. --Pre*lu"sive*ly, adv.
• proprioception
  n 1: the ability to sense the position and location and orientation and movement of the body and its parts
• solidus
  n 1: a gold coin of the Byzantine Empire; widely circulated in Europe in the Middle Ages [syn: bezant, bezzant, byzant, solidus]
  2: a punctuation mark (/) used to separate related items of information [syn: solidus, slash, virgule, diagonal, stroke, separatrix]
• paradiddle
  n 1: the sound of a drum (especially a snare drum) beaten rapidly and continuously [syn: paradiddle, roll, drum, roll]
• halcyon
  adj 1: idyllically calm and peaceful; suggesting happy tranquillity; "a halcyon atmosphere"
  2: marked by peace and prosperity; "a golden era"; "the halcyon days of the clipper trade" [syn: golden, halcyon, prosperous]
  n 1: (Greek mythology) a woman who was turned into a kingfisher [syn: Alcyone, Halcyon]
  2: a large kingfisher widely distributed in warmer parts of the Old World [syn: Halcyon, genus Halcyon]
  3: a mythical bird said to breed at the time of the winter solstice in a nest floating on the sea and to have the power of calming the winds and waves
• quincunx \Quin"cunx\, n. [L., fr. quinque five + uncia an ounce.
  The quincunx was marked by five small spots or balls. See Five, and Ounce the weight.] an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
  1. An arrangement of things by fives in a square or a rectangle, one being placed at each corner and one in the middle; especially, such an arrangement of trees repeated indefinitely, so as to form a regular group with rows running in various directions.
  2. (Astrol.) The position of planets when distant from each other five signs, or 150[deg]. --Hutton.
  3. (Bot.) A quincuncial arrangement, as of the parts of a flower in [ae]stivation. See Quincuncial, 2.
• ostracon (plural: ostraca)
  [Greek: shell or a shard of pottery use as a voting ballot] piece of pottery (or stone, e.g. limestone), usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In archaeology, ostraca may contain scratched-in words or other forms of writing which may give clues as to the time when the piece was in use.
• scion \Sci"on\, n. [OF. cion, F. scion, probably from scier to saw, fr. L. secare to cut. Cf. section.]
  n 1: a descendent or heir; "a scion of royal stock"
  2. (Bot.)
  (a) A shoot or sprout of a plant; a sucker.
  (b) A piece of a slender branch or twig cut for grafting.
  [Formerly written also cion, and cyon.]
• iatrogenic
  [brought forth by a healer (from the Greek iatros, healer)]
  adj 1: induced by a physician's words or therapy (used especially of a complication resulting from treatment)
• diaspora
  n 1: the body of Jews (or Jewish communities) outside Palestine or modern Israel
  2: the dispersion of the Jews outside Israel; from the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 587-86 BC when they were exiled to Babylonia up to the present time
  3: the dispersion or spreading of something that was originally localized (as a people or language or culture)
• sobriquet
  n 1: a familiar name for a person (often a shortened version of a person's given name); "Joe's mother would not use his nickname and always called him Joseph"; "Henry's nickname was Slim" [syn: nickname, moniker, cognomen, sobriquet, soubriquet, byname]
• auscultate (AW-shuhl-tayt)
  v: To listen to the sounds made by internal organs (heart, lungs, etc.) to aid in the diagnosis.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  Back-formation from auscultation, from auscultare (to listen). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ous- (ear) which is also the source of ear, aural, and scout. Earliest documented use: 1862; auscultation is from 1634.
  USAGE:
  "A Chinese official has been jailed for two years for deserting a sick beggar in a neighboring county and causing the man's death. ... In his defence, Chen said he had asked a general practitioner to auscultate him before the man was sent away. The doctor said his heart beat was normal."
  Chinese Official Jailed; Xinhua News Agency (Beijing, China); Dec 6, 2007.
• sine die (literally without day)
  adv 1: without a date fixed (as of an adjournment)
• larrupin (LAR-uh-ping)
  adverb: very
  adjective: excellent
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From larrup (to beat or thrash), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Dutch larpen (to thrash). earliest documented use: 1888.
  USAGE:
  "Little lady, you got any more of these larruping good biscuits?"
  Bandit's Hope; Marcia Gruver; Barbour Books; 2011.
• doddle
  n 1: an easy task (British usage)
• iatrogenic
  adj:
  - Caused by medical intervention. Referring to injuries caused by a doctor. For instance, nasal trauma may occasionally result from a doctor's examiniation of the nose or complications from plastic surgery.
  - Induced in a patient by a physician's activity, manner, or therapy
  - Caused by treatment or diagnostic procedures. An iatrogenic disorder is a condition that is caused by medical personnel or procedures or that develops through exposure to the environment of a health care facility. See the nouns iatrogenesis, iatrogeny.
  ETYMOLOGY: Gk, iatro (physician), genein (to produce)
• nosocomial (nos-u-ko'-me-ul)
  adj: 1. Of or relating to a hospital.
  2. Of or being a secondary disorder associated with being treated in a hospital but unrelated to the patient's primary condition.
  ETYMOLOGY: Gk, nosokomeian, hospital
• xerostomia
  n: Dryness of the mouth resulting from diminished or arrested salivary secretion.
  - Dryness of the mouth caused by cessation of normal salivary secretion. The condition is a symptom of various diseases such as diabetes, acute infections, hysteria, and Sjogren's syndrome and can be caused by paralysis of facial nerves. It is also a common adverse reaction to drugs.
  ETYMOLOGY: Gk, xeros + stoma, mouth
• ramekin \Ram"e*quin\ (r[a^]m"[-e]*k[i^]n), n. [F.]
  1. (Cookery) A mixture of cheese, eggs, etc., formed in a mold, or served on bread. [Written also ramekin.]
  2. The porcelian or earthen mold in which ramequins are baked and served, by extension, any dish so used.
  ETHYMOLOGY: Fr ramequin, "cheese dish" or from German ramken, "cream"
• saltimbocca (also saltinbocca) [It.] jumps in the mouth
  veal lined ot topped with prosciutto and sage, marinated in waine, oil or saltwater depending on the regions or one's own taste. Occasionally topped with capers. Saltimbocca alla Romana is veal, prosciutto or ham, and sage, rolled-up and cooked in Marsala and butter.
• saltado
  Peruvian stir-fried beef and potatoes (mix of Chinese stir-fry and Peruvian meat and potatoes). Potatoes, garlic, beef, red onions, hot yellow pepper, soy sauce, vinegar, red peppers, plum tomatoes, salt, pepper.
• ideology \I`de*ol"o*gy\, n. [Ideo- + -logy: cf. F. id['e]ologie.]
  n 1: an orientation that characterizes the thinking of a group or nation [syn: political orientation, ideology, political theory]
  2: imaginary or visionary theorization
  ---
  1. The science of ideas.
  2. (Metaph.) A theory of the origin of ideas which derives them exclusively from sensation.
  Note: By a double blunder in philosophy and Greek, id['e]ologie . . . has in France become the name peculiarly distinctive of that philosophy of mind which exclusively derives our knowledge from sensation. --Sir W. Hamilton.
  3. A set or system of theories and beliefs held by an individual or group, especially about sociopolitical goals and methods to attain them; in common usage, ideology is such a set of beliefs so strongly held by their adherents as to cause them to ignore evidence against such beliefs, and thus fall into error -- in this sense it is viewed as a negative trait; contrasted to pragmatism, and distinct from idealism.
• naff (naf)
  adjective:
  1. Very unstylish or unsophisticated.
  2. Useless; of poor quality.
  ETYMOLOGY: Origin unknown, perhaps from Polari slang.
  Earliest documented use: 1950s.
• suss (suhs)
  verb tr.
  to inspect, investigate, or to figure out
  ETYMOLOGY: By shortening of suspect, from Latin sub- (below) + specere (to look). Earliest documented use: 1953.
• icosehedron (Greek eikosi, twenty + hedra, seat)
  regular polyhedron with 20 identical equilateral triangular faces, 30 edges, and 12 vertices. It is one of the five Platonic solids.
  It is the dual of the dodecahedron (12 regular pentagonal faces). This is the item at the bottom of the Magic 8-Ball with the answers.
• oosik (oo' sik)
  Eskimo word for the walrus penile bone (baculum).
• baculum
  a bony support in the penis of certain mannals, esp. the carnivores (from the latin meaning stick or staff)
  Also called Os Penis, or Os Priapi, the penis bone of certain mammals. The baculum is one of several heterotropic skeletal elements (i.e. bones dissociated from the rest of the body skeleton). It is found in all insectivores (e.g. shrews, hedgehogs), bats, rodents, and carnivores and in all primates except humans. Such wide distribution suggests that it appeared early in mammalian evolution.
  Argumentum ad baculum (Latin for 'argument to the cudgel' or 'appeal to the stick'), also known as 'appeal to force', is an argument where force, coercion, or the threat of force, is given as a justification for a conclusion.
  If x accepts P as true, then Q.
  Q is a punishment on x.
  Therefore, P is not true.
• Valsalva maneuver
  Pinch your nose and shut your mouth, then try forcing air out through your nostrils. It helps equalize the pressure in your ears.
• Muse \Muse\, n. [F. Muse, L. Musa, Gr. ?. Cf. Mosaic, n., Music.]
  1. (Class. Myth.) One of the nine goddesses, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, who presided over song and the different kinds of poetry, and also the arts and sciences;
  -- often used in the plural. At one time certain other goddesses were considered as muses.
  Note: The names of the Muses and the arts they presided over were: Calliope (Epic poetry), Clio (History), Erato (Lyric poetry), Euterpe (music), Melpomene (Tragedy), Polymnia or Polyhymnia (religious music), Terpsichore (dance), Thalia (comedy), and Urania (astronomy).
  Note: New Orleans is, of course, world famous for its food, music, and culture. In one of the oldest sections of the City there are streets named after all nine Muses: Terpsichore, Calliope, Clio, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomene, Erato, Polymnia, and Urania. Laissez le bon temps rouler.
  2. A particular power and practice of poetry; the inspirational genius of a poet. --Shak.
  3. A poet; a bard. [R.] --Milton.
  Muse \Muse\, v. t.
  1. To think on; to meditate on.
  Come, then, expressive Silence, muse his praise. --Thomson.
  2. To wonder at. [Obs.] --Shak.
• Classification of dinosaurs
  animal
  vertebrate
  reptile
  synapsid <-- humans are synapsids
  dimetrodon
  edaphosaurus
  therapsid
  cynodont
  thrinaxodon
  diictodon
  gorgonopsid
  therocephalian
• i.e. [from Latin: id est]
  that is
• e.g. [from Latin: exempli gratia]
  for example; for the sake of example; such as
• nouveau pauvre
  (NOO-voh POH-vruh)
  adjective: Recently impoverished.
  noun: One who is newly impoverished.
  Etymology: From French nouveau (new) + pauvre (poor), patterned after nouveau riche. Earliest documented use: 1877.
• cerumen \Ce*ru"men\ n. [NL., fr. L. cera wax.] (Physiol.)
  n 1: a soft yellow wax secreted by glands in the ear canal [syn: cerumen, earwax]
• highfalutin
  [Perh. a corruption of highflighting.]
  adj 1: affectedly genteel [syn: grandiose, hifalutin, highfalutin, highfaluting, hoity-toity, la-di-da]
• sang-froid \Sang`-froid"\, n. [F., cold blood.]
  n 1: great coolness and composure under strain; "keep your cool"
  [syn: aplomb, assuredness, cool, poise, sang- froid]
• spoonerism (SPOO-nuh-riz-em)
  noun: The transposition of (usually) the initial sounds of words producing a humorous result. For example: "It is now kisstomary to cuss the bride."
  (Spooner while officiating at a wedding)
  "Is the bean dizzy?" (Spooner questioning the secretary of his dean)
  ETYMOLOGY:
  After William Archibald Spooner (1844-1930), clergyman and educator, who was prone to this. Earliest documented use: 1900.
  USAGE:
  "As for her own red-faced moment on air, Hudson recalled how she coined a somewhat racy spoonerism in a reference to Killorglin's Puck Fair." Seán McCárthaigh; AA Roadwatch Broadcasters Celebrate 21 Years; Irish
  Examiner (Cork, Ireland); Aug 31, 2010.
• malapropism (MAL-uh-prop-iz-ehm)
  noun: The humorous misuse of a word by confusing it with a similar-sounding word. For example, "pineapple of perfection" for "pinnacle of perfection".
  ETYMOLOGY:
  After Mrs. Malaprop, a character in Richard Sheridan's play, The Rivals (1775), who confused words in this manner. Earliest documented use: 1830.
  USAGE:
  "Mayor Thomas Menino is sometimes made fun of for his malapropisms; he once said the city's parking shortage was 'an Alcatraz* around my neck'." Katharine Q. Seelye; Ailing Mayor of Boston Says He's Still Up to the Job; The New York Times; Dec 17, 2012. *albatross
• eggcorn (EG-korn)
  noun: An erroneous alteration of a word or phrase, by replacing an original word with a similar sounding word, such that the new word or phrase also makes a kind of sense.
  For example: "ex-patriot" instead of "expatriate" and "mating name" instead of "maiden name".
  ETYMOLOGY:
  Coined by linguist Geoffrey Pullum (b. 1945) in 2003. From the substitution of the word acorn with eggcorn. Earliest documented use as a name for this phenomenon is from 2003, though the term eggcorn has been found going back as far as 1844, as "egg corn bread" for "acorn bread".
  USAGE:
  "Will eggcorns continue to hatch? This is a moot point (or is that mute?). Yet certainly anyone waiting with 'baited' (bated) breath for 'whole scale' (wholesale) changes may need to wait a while." Bill & Rich Sones; If Elevator Falls, Don't Jump to Conclusions; Salt
  Lake Telegram (Utah); Jul 3, 2008.
• mondegreen (MON-di-green)
  noun: A word or phrase resulting from mishearing a word or phrase, especially in song lyrics. For example:
  "The girl with colitis goes by" for "The girl with kaleidoscope eyes" in the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds".
  ETYMOLOGY:
  Coined by author Sylvia Wright when she misinterpreted the line "laid him on the green" as "Lady Mondegreen" in the Scottish ballad "The Bonny Earl of Murray". Earliest documented use: 1954.
  USAGE:
  "Since I live in Thailand, the most meaningful mondegreen for me was my own mishearing of a line from The Jam's Eton Rifles. Instead of the correct 'What chance do you have against a tie and a crest?', for years I heard 'What chance do you have against a Thai in a dress?'" Richard Watson Todd; Much Ado about English; Nicholas Brealey Publishing; May 1, 2007.
• sprezzatura (spret-sah-TOOR-uh)
  noun: Doing (or giving the appearance of doing) something effortlessly; effortless grace; nonchalance.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Italian. Earliest documented use: 1957.
  USAGE:
  "Norris is a man always in equipoise, a living illustration of the art of sprezzatura. No one has ever seen him ruffled." Hilary Mantel; Bring Up the Bodies; Henry Holt; 2012.
• equipoise (EE-kwuh-poiz, EK-wuh-)
  noun: 1. A state of balance. 2. Something that serves as a counterbalance.
  verb tr.: To counterbalance.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Latin aequi- (equal) + Old French pois (weight), from Latin pendere (to weigh). Ultimately from the Indo-European root (s)pen- (to draw, to spin), which is also the source of pendulum, spider, pound, pansy, pendant, ponder, appendix, penthouse, depend, and spontaneous.
  USAGE:
  "In his [Denzel Washington's] luminous portrait, dignity and destructiveness find a perfect equipoise." John Lahr; Theatre: Wheels of Misfortune; The New Yorker; May 10, 2010.
• bromide (BRO-myd)
  noun:
  1. A tired or meaningless remark.
  2. A tiresome or boring person.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From bromine, from Greek bromos (stench). Earliest documented use: 1836.
  NOTES:
  In earlier times, potassium bromide used to be taken as a sedative. So any statement that was intended to be soothing ("Don't worry, everything will be OK.") acquired the name bromide. Eventually any commonplace or tired remark and anyone uttering such remarks came to be known as a bromide.
  The term was popularized in the title of Gelett Burgess's 1906 book "Are You a Bromide?" It was to promote this book that Burgess coined the term "blurb".
  USAGE:
  "His daddy occasionally pops back in to dispense nonsensical bits of advice -- 'If you're not first, you're last' -- a bromide that the young Ricky Bobby adopts as his motto." Teresa Wiltz; Where There's Will; Washington Post; Aug 4, 2006.
• parnassian (pahr-NAS-ee-uhn)
  adjective: Of or relating to poetry.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  After Mount Parnassus, a mountain in Greece, considered sacred to Apollo, the Greek god of music and poetry, and the Muses. Earliest documented use: 1565.
  USAGE:
  "Whether scaling to Parnassian heights or plunging inward to insight, the poems' impeccable musicality and craftsmanship will win the trust and admiration of many."
  Fiction Reviews; Publishers Weekly (New York); Oct 15, 2007.
• chevy (CHEV-ee)
  verb tr.: To chase or annoy.
  noun: A chase, hunt, or a hunting cry.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  After Cheviot Hills bordering England and Scotland. A battle between English and Scottish forces over a hunting expedition is described in a 15th-century ballad (The Ballad of Chevy Chase). A chase is a tract of land reserved for hunting. The name of the city Chevy Chase in Maryland has the same origin. Earliest documented use: before 1825.
  USAGE:
  "[Boys] chevied the younger boys to greater speed as they stumbled down the stairs."
  Clinton W. Trowbridge; All Tied Up; The Christian Science Monitor (Boston, Massachusetts); Jan 22, 1999.
• chartreuse (shahr-TROOZ, -TROOS)
  noun: 1. A light, yellowish green. 2. An aromatic, usually yellow or green liqueur, originally made by Carthusian monks in Grenoble, France.
  adjective: Having a light, yellowish green color.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From mountain to monastery to drink to color -- that's the circuitous route for this word's origin. La Grande Chartreuse, a monastery got its name after the Chartreuse Mountains. The liqueur got its name because it was first made by the monks in the monastery. Finally, the color got its name from the liqueur. Earliest documented use: 1806.
  USAGE:
  "The tree crowns were packed together like puffballs and shimmered with every hue, tint, and shade of green: chartreuse, emerald, lime, aquamarine, teal, bottle, olive, jade." Douglas Preston; The El Dorado Machine; The New Yorker; May 6, 2013.
• lares and penates (LAR-eez and puh-NAY-teez)
  noun:
  1. Household gods (the benevolent gods in an ancient Roman household).
  2. Household goods (a family's treasured possessions).
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Latin Lares et Penates, from Lares, plural of Lar (in Roman mythology, the deity or spirit who protected a household) + et (and) + Penates (deities of the household that were believed to bring wealth), from penus (provisions, interior of a house). Earliest documented use: 1616.
  USAGE:
  "But let's face it, the nearest thing that many Aussies have in the way of religion, or, as it is labelled with new-age vagueness, spirituality, are those little do-it-yourself offerings to the roadside gods, the lares and penates of the new-age pantheists." The Soft Toy Taking on a Religious Symbolism; The Canberra Times (Australia); Jan 14, 2006.
  "The storehouse of all the shame and vulnerability in Ben's life would be locked; a private museum of curios with but one visitor, himself, to stare at the degraded and rejected lares and penates." Kate Fillion; The Artful Forgery of the Self; The Toronto Star (Canada); Feb 6, 1993.
• mumpsimus (MUMP-suh-muhs)
  noun
  1. A view stubbornly held in spite of clear evidence that it's wrong.
  2. A person who holds such a view.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  According to an old story, a priest used the nonsense word mumpsimus (instead of Latin sumpsimus) in the Mass. Even when told it was incorrect, he insisted that he had been saying it for 40 years and wouldn't change it. The expressiopn is "quod in ore sumpsimus" ("which we have taken into the mount"). Earliest documented use: 1530.
  USAGE:
  "She knows the boss's behavior is wrong but mumpsimus has set in." Mary Lou Dobbs, Reportting Yourself; O Books; 2010.
  "Do not be amumpsimus about networking. ... Resist the popular notion that networking is all fake sincerity and pushy behavior." dean Lindsay; Cracking the Networking Code; Word Bumgo; 2005.
• fustilarian (fuhs-tuh-LAR-ee-hun)
  noun: A fat and slovenly person.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Middle English fusty (smelly, moldy). Earlest documented use: 1600.
  NOTES:
  The first recorded use of the word is from Shakespeare's Henry IV in which Falstaff exclaims, "Away, you scullion! You rampallion! You fustilarian! I'll tickle your catastrophe."
  USAGE:
  "I've no fancy to be guzzled up by a wolf or spitted on the tusks of one of the fustilarian wild boars."
  Joan Aiken; Whispering Mountain; Starscape; 2002.
• bellygod (BEL-ee god)
  noun: One who takes great pleasure in eating; a glutton.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  A bellygod is one who makes a god of his belly, i.e. a glutton. >From Old English belig (bag) + god. Earliest documented use: 1540.
  USAGE:
  "Hudibras becomes the puritan bellygod par excellence: Our knight did bear no less a pack Of his own buttocks on his back."
  Kristen Poole; Radical Religion from Shakespeare to Milton; Cambridge University Press; 2000.
  "The figure of Hercules [rebuked] Comus the belly-god for his 'drunken orgies' and addiction to swinish pleasure."
  Ian Donaldson; Ben Jonson: A Life; Oxford University Press; 2011.
• makebate (MAYK-bayt)
  noun: One who incites quarrels.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From make, from Old English macian (to make) + bate (contention), from Latin battuere (to beat) which also gave us abate, debate, and rebate. Earliest documented use: 1529.
  USAGE:
  "'You leave my ma out of this, you makebate! She always said you'd end on the gallows, and she was right.'"
  Barbara Metzger; Christmas Wishes; Signet; 2010.
• vection
  the transference of a disease from one person to another
• logomania (lo-go-MAY-nee-uh)
  noun:
  1. Obsessive interest in words.
  2. Excessive and often incoherent talking.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Greek logo- (word) + -mania (excessive enthusiasm or craze). Earliest documented use: 1882.
  USAGE:
  "I just talked and talked, unstoppably, as if possessed by logomania." Imre Kertész; Kaddish for a Child Not Born; Hydra Books; 1997.
• zymurgy (ZY-muhr-jee)
  noun: The branch of chemistry dealing with fermentation, as brewing.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Greek zym- (ferment) + -urgy (work). Earliest documented use: 1868.
  NOTES:
  While zymurgy's day job is raising spirits, it also moonlights as the last word in a dictionary. Some dictionaries have employed other, more accomplished, words for the job. Aardvark serves on the opposite end.
  USAGE:
  "Zymurgy's reek was everywhere."
  Ceylon L. Barclay; Red Rum Punch; Cross Cultural Publications; 1994.
• animadversion (an-i-mad-VUHR-zhuhn)
  noun:
  1. The act of criticizing.
  2. An unfavorable comment.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Latin animadvertere (to turn the mind to), from animus (mind) + advertere (to turn). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wer- (to turn or bend), also the source of wring, weird, writhe, revert, universe, wroth, , conversazione, versicolor, and prosaic . Earliest documented use: 1535.
  USAGE:
  "This newspaper has never felt that it is above criticism, especially from politicians and other public officials who take the brunt of our animadversion."
  PM, Beware the Danger of Attacking the Media; Jamaica Observer (Kingston); Dec 9, 2011.
• sempiternal (sem-pi-TUHR-nuhl)
  adjective: Everlasting.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Latin semper (always) + aeternus (eternal). Earliest documented use: before 1475.
  USAGE:
  "The US Postal Service might embrace sempiternal status, too, in the form of a stamp that would enable the bearer to infinitely freeze the price of first-class postage with a 'forever' stamp."
  Kathy Stevens; Post Office Hopes 'Forever' Stamp Will Deliver; The York Dispatch (Pennsylvania); Feb 27, 2007.
• allodoxaphobia
  fear of opinions
• allochthonous (uh-LOK-thuh-nuhs)
  adjective: Originating in a region other than where it is found.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Greek from allos (other) + chthon (earth, land). Ultimately from the Indo-European root dhghem- (earth), which also sprouted human, homicide, humble, homage, chamomile, exhume, inhume, chthonic, disinter, chameleonic, and Persian zamindar (landholder). Earliest documented use: 1888.
  USAGE:
  "Like many other countries with a colonial legacy, Rwanda's constitutions before 1994 were rather allochthonous. The existing constitutions were based on foreign models which never took into account the peculiarities of the Rwandan nation." Michael Ngabo; Alleged Lack of Political Space; The New Times (Rwanda); Apr 6, 2011.
  "Fish populations have been deeply altered, allochthonous fish species accounting for the 42% of the total fish species in the Ebro."
  Damià Barceló and Mira Petrovic; The Ebro River Basin; Springer; 2011.
• procrustes (pro-KRUS-teez) procrustean
  noun: A person imposing conformity without concern for individuality.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  After Procrustes, a giant in Greek mythology, who stretched or cut his victims to make them fit his bed. He was killed by Theseus. From Greek Procroustes (stretcher). The word is more often used in its adjective form procrustean. Earliest documented use: 1581.
  USAGE:
  "But is not almost every man a Procrustes? We have not the power of showing our cruelty exactly in the same method, but actuated by the like spirit, we abridge of their liberty, and torment by scorn, all who either fall short, or exceed the usual standard."
  Sarah Scott; Millennium Hall; Broadview Press; 1995.
• fugleman (FYOO-guhl-muhn)
  noun: One who leads a group, company, or party.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From German Flügelmann (flank man), from Flügel (wing) + Mann (man). A fugleman was once a soldier placed usually on a flank during drill to serve as a guide for his company. Earliest documented use: 1804.
  USAGE:
  "H.L. Mencken was trying single-handedly to drag American culture out of Puritanism and into the twentieth century, to act as fugleman on this side of the Atlantic for a literary and artistic renaissance comparable to the one then taking place on the other side."
  Jonathan Yardley; The Sage of Baltimore; The Atlantic Monthly (New York); Dec 2002.
• tragus (TRAY-guhs)
  noun: The small fleshy projection at the front of the external ear, slightly extending over the opening of the ear.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Greek tragos (goat; hairy part of the ear), from the supposed resemblance of the tuft of hair at the opening of the ear to a goat's beard. The word is sometimes also applied to this hair growing in the ear. Earliest documented use: 1684.
  USAGE:
  "Rich Lee, a 34-year-old American, had magnets implanted in the tragus ... that act as speakers when combined with a coil necklace."
  I've Got You Under My Skin; Independent (South Africa); Aug 7, 2013.
• chevron (SHEV-ruhn, -ron)
  noun: A pattern in the shape of a V or an inverted V.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Old French chevron (rafter, from the resemblance of the pattern to the shape of two rafters on a roof), from Latin caper (goat). The goat connection is not clear. Earliest documented use: 1395.
  USAGE:
  "Tommy watched a flight of geese fly overhead in chevron formation."
  Lis Wiehl; Waking Hours; Thomas Nelson; 2011.
• ne'er-do-well
  an idle worthless person
• lapsus linguae (LAP-suhs LING-gwee, LAHP-soos LING-gwy)
  noun: A slip of the tongue.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Latin lapsus linguae (slip of the tongue). Earliest documented use: 1668.
  NOTES:
  Malapropisms and spoonerisms are two examples of lapsus linguae. And here is an example of a lapsus linguae which cost a game show contestant a potential one-million-dollar prize.
  A lapsus calami is a slip of the pen.
  USAGE:
  "True, Bush mispronounced the name of Spain's Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, but not even that lapsus linguae could sour the mood in the first meeting between the two conservatives."
  Bush's Gateway to Europe; Los Angeles Times; Jun 22, 2001.
• lapsus calami
  noun: A slip of the pen.
  from calamus, the hollow base of a feather; a quill
• lapsus clavis
  noun: A slip of the typewriter.
• lapsus manus
  noun: A slip of the hand.
• lapsus memoriae
  noun: A slip of memory.
• lapsus computus
  noun: A slip in calculation or computing.
• tumid (TOO-mid, TYOO-)
  adjective:
  1. Swollen.
  2. Bulging.
  3. Pompous, bombastic.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Latin tumere (to swell). Earliest documented use: 1541.
  USAGE:
  "Her tumid eyes filled with tears and she began to cry."
  Joseph Heller; Catch-22; Simon & Schuster; 1961.
  -
  "Think of all the suits in marketing, communications, and public relations who clog up the institutional arteries with their tumid prose and clichéd sound bites."
  Blaise Cronin; Bloomington Days; AuthorHouse; 2012.
• pluviophile
  phuviophilous, pluviophile, pluviophily in biology
  n: a lover of rain; someone who finds joy and peace of mind during rainy days
  - Thriving in conditions of abundant rainfall
• nous \Nous\, n. [NL., fr. Gr. noy^s mind.]
  mind or intellect
  1. Intellect; understanding; talent; -- used humorously.
  2. (Philos.) The reason; the highest intellect; God regarded as the World Reason.
  n 1: common sense; "she has great social nous"
  2: that which is responsible for one's thoughts and feelings; the seat of the faculty of reason; "his mind wandered"; "I couldn't get his words out of my head" [syn: mind, head, brain, psyche, nous]
• skeuomorph (Gr: skeuos: container or tool; Gr morphe: shape)
  a derivative object that retains ornamental design cues from structures that were necessary in the original. examples include pottery embellished with imitation rivets reminiscent of similar pots made of metal and a software calendar that imitates the appearance of binding on a paper desk calendar.
• Smalt is a deep blue pigment typically used in ceramics. Smalt is a glass that is created when cobalt salts are added to molten glass. It has a very subtle purple undertone but is better described as a pure blue. Much like cobalt, it has a luminescent quality, making it look backlit.
• Byzantium is a vibrant shade of purple that can be confused with fuchsia. While fuchsia is a bold color derived from pink, byzantium is derived from purple and is deeper.
• Cordovan is a rich shade of burgundy/brown, most commonly used to describe leather. These leather sofas are a perfect example of cordovan. The name originates from the city of Cordova, Spain, which is known for its production of fine leather.
• Vermilion is a bright red to reddish orange. These gorgeous lamps are a classic shade of vermillion, which is also called Chinese red because it's used in making Chinese lacquerware.
• Sienna is a reddish brown earth color. The color originates from Siena, Italy, and describes a clay that consists of iron oxide and manganese oxide.
• Gamboge is a deep mustard yellow. This color gets its name from the gamboge tree, which excretes a sap that is mustard yellow.
• Fulvous is ultimately a variation of brown but can be described as having yellow undertones, like these painted walls. Fulvous is inspired by the feathers of ducks and birds.
• Pavo is an electric blue that refers to the feathers of a peacock. Best described as between royal blue and deep turquoise.
• Verdigris is a shade of green that describes copper when it is exposed to a moisture element.
• Aubergine is a deep brownish purple inspired by the exterior color of an eggplant.
• Lichen is a murky shade of gray/yellow green, like in this kitchen wall color. Lichen recently received attention as Pantone's top color for fall 2013. This mellow shade of green is inspired by the plant-like fungus that grows in shady spots especially around tree trunks.
• Malachite is a vibrant green that is very similar to emerald. The main difference is the undertone of gray, which emerald does not have. Malachite is an earth color that scientifically is a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral.
• Aureolin is a bright, vivid yellow that's also sometimes referred to as cobalt yellow.
• Bole is a brownish-red hue that really looks like chocolate to me.
• Fallow is a tannish brown and is inspired by the light brown fur of a deer's back.
• sub rosa (sub RO-zuh)
  adverb: Secretly, privately, or confidentially.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Latin sub (under) rosa (rose). Earliest documented use: 1654. The English term "under the rose" is also used to refer to something in secret.
  NOTES:
  In Roman mythology, Venus's son Cupid gave a rose to Harpocrates, the god of silence, to ensure his silence about Venus's many indiscretions. Thus the flower became a symbol of secrecy. Ceilings of banquet halls were decorated with roses to indicate that what was said sub vino (under the influence of wine) was also sub rosa.
  USAGE:
  "'Much of this goes on sub rosa and never comes to public view,' said Wesley Wark."
  Peter Goodspeed; Vladimir Putin's Support of Spying; National Post (Canada); Jan 23, 2012.
• amaranthine (am-uh-RAN-thin, -thyn)
  adjective
  1. Unfading; everlasting.
  2. Of deep purple-red color.
  3. Of or related to the amaranth.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From amaranth (an imaginary, undying flower), from Latin amarantus, from Greek amarantos (unfading), from a- (not) + marainein (to fade). Ultimately from the Indo-European root mer- (to rub away or to harm), which is also the source of morse, mordant, amaranth, morbid, mortal, mortgage, nightmare, ambrosia, and premorse. Earliest documented use: 1667.
  USAGE:
  "Garda has retained its amaranthine appeal as one of the continent's most timeless getaways."
  Thomas Breathnach; Still Waters Run Deep at Lake Garda; Irish Independent (Dublin, Ireland); Oct 19, 2013.
  "The sky was now a deep dark amaranthine -- the color of blood -- and it was getting progressively harder to see through the gloom."
  Steve Feasey; Demon Games; Macmillan; 2012.
• serac s'erac \S['e]`rac"\, n. [F. (in the Alps), orig., a kind of solid cheese.]
  A pinnacle of ice among the crevasses of a glacier; also, one of the blocks into which a glacier breaks on a steep grade.
• pogrom (puh-GROM, POH-gruhm)
  noun:
  1: An organized massacre, officially tolerated or encouraged, against a particular group.
  2: organized persecution of an ethnic group (especially Jews)
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Yiddish pogrom, from Russian pogrom (destruction). Earliest documented use: 1891.
• autochthonous (o-TOK-thuh-nuhs)
  adjective:
  1. Aboriginal; indigenous.
  2. Formed or originating in the place where found.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Greek autochthon (of the land itself), from auto- (self) + chthon (earth, land). Ultimately from the Indo-European root dhghem- (earth), which also sprouted human, homicide, humble, homage, chamomile, exhume, inhume, chthonic, disinter, chameleonic, and Persian zamindar (landholder). Earliest documented use: 1804. The opposite of this term is allochthonous.
  USAGE:
  "As if this were a holy place, a shrine where the autochthonous tribes had gathered to worship."
  T.C. Boyle; The Women; Viking; 2009.
• mien (meen)
  noun: Appearance, bearing, or demeanor.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  Probably a shortened form of demean (to conduct oneself in a specified manner), influenced by French mine (appearance). Earliest documented use: 1522.
  USAGE:
  "Everyone Nanako Coates greets walks away smiling. But beyond that exuberant, youthful mien is a seasoned veteran with years of professional experience in the restaurant business."
  Eizo Kobayashi; Daughter Follows in Family's Culinary Tradition; Oakland Tribune (California); Sep 17, 2013.
• derp (urban slang)
  A simple, undefined reply when an ignorant comment or action is made.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  Brought to life in the South Park series, when Mr. Derp made a guest apperance at South Park Elementary as the chef for a day, followed by hitting himself in the head with a hammer and exclaiming "Derp!"
• quondam (KWON-duhm)
  adjective: Former; onetime.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Latin quondam (formerly). Earliest documented use: 1535.
  USAGE:
  "One of the assumptions Madison and others labored under was that Britain would be too preoccupied with beating Napoleon to pay much attention to its quondam colonies."
  Joyce Appleby; The Washington Post; A Stumbling, Fiery End to War of 1812; May 5, 2013.
• Heath Robinson (heeth ROB-in-suhn) adjective
  Absurdly complex and fancifully impractical.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  The term was coined after W. Heath Robinson (1872-1944), a British artist known for drawing ingeniously complicated devices.
  BACKGROUND:
  It's not only mechanical devices that can be Heath Robinsonish. A few years back I came across a book titledHow to Wash Your Face. I'm not kidding -- this 256-page tome was authored by a doctor and lists for $14. They say reality is stranger than fiction. The fiction that comes to mind here is a Heath Robinson contraption, or one devised by his US counterpart,Rube Goldberg.
  -
  Who knows, those illustrations might make you laugh, resulting in the coffee in your mug getting spilled on the tail of the pet cat on your lap, making the startled kitty jump and hit the ceiling, thus activating the fire-sprinkler and causing it to trigger the fire alarm, making you look up in curiosity, so that your face is splashed with the sprinkler water, thus saving you the $14 cost of the aforementioned book. Who said those devices were useless?
  USAGE
  "The ancient church of St John the Baptist in Clayton, East Sussex, has a bat problem. Several devices of a Heath Robinson nature are suggested - boards to deflect the trajectory of urine and droppings, flashing lights, ultra-sound, unpleasant smells, stuffed owls, rustling aluminium foil and helium-filled balloons."
  Bat Raves; The Economist (London, UK); Jan 23, 1999.
• sartorius \Sar*to"ri*us\, n. [NL., fr. L. sartor a patcher, tailor, fr. sarcire, sartum, to patch, mend.] (Anat.) A muscle of the thigh, called the tailor's muscle, which arises from the hip bone and is inserted just below the knee. So named because its contraction was supposed to produce the position of the legs assumed by the tailor in sitting.
  sartorial
  adj 1: of or relating to the sartorius muscle
  2: of or relating to a tailor or to tailoring
• scud (skud)
  verb intr.:
  1. To run or move swiftly.
  2. In nautical parlance, to run before a gale with little or no sail set.
  noun:
  1. The act of scudding.
  2. Clouds, rain, mist, etc. driven by the wind.
  3. Low clouds beneath another cloud layer.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  Of uncertain origin, possibly from Middle Low German schudden (to shake). Earliest documented use: 1609.
  USAGE:
  "The moon was bright, but the clouds scudding across kept throwing them [Harry, et al] into darkness."
  J.K. Rowling; Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone; Bloomsbury; 1997.
• perse (puhrs)
  adjective: Of a grayish blue or purple color.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From persus (dark blue), from Latin Persicus (Persian), from Persia, former name of Iran. Why this color is associated with Persia is not entirely clear. Earliest documented use: 1387.
  USAGE:
  "How much the amethyst ring on her right hand mirrored the fading perse color of the sky."
  Lisa Kusel; Hat Trick; Hyperion; 2005.
  ---
  "He noticed the perse under each lid, and the blue, death-struck lips."
  Thomas Keneally; Bring Larks and Heroes; Cassell Australia; 1967.
• vivacity
  n 1: characterized by high spirits and animation quality or state of being lively or spirited; vivaciousness.
• whet \Whet\, n.
  1. The act of whetting.
  2. That which whets or sharpens; esp., an appetizer. "Sips, drams, and whets." --Spectator.
  Whet slate (Min.), a variety of slate used for sharpening cutting instruments; novaculite; -- called also whetstone slate, and oilstone.
• grok (grok)
  verb tr.: To understand deeply and intuitively.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  Coined by Robert A. Heinlein in his science-fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land. Earliest documented use: 1961.
  NOTES:
  In Stranger in a Strange Land, Heinlein describes grok as a Martian word meaning "to drink". That's the literal meaning, however, figuratively it means to understand something in a profound way. To grok something is to be one with it in a way that the observer and the observed become merged.
  USAGE:
  "Any first-time Apple user immediately groks the nature of the device." Melvin Bukiet; Me and My Mac; The Chronicle of Higher Education (Washington, DC); Oct 16, 2011.
• waldo (WAL-doh)
  noun: A device for manipulating objects by remote control, for example, a
  remotely-operated arm.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  After Waldo F. Jones, an inventor in a science-fiction story by Robert A. Heinlein. Earliest documented use: 1942.
  NOTES:
  Modern applications of waldo as a remote manipulator are in surgery, space, and in working in hazardous conditions, such as those involving radiation.
  USAGE:
  "I stuck my hand back into the waldo ... The remote arms peeled back the thin metal of the gondola."
  Ben Bova; Venus; Tor; 2000.
• bagatelle
  n 1: a light piece of music for piano
  2: something of little value or significance [syn: bagatelle, fluff, frippery, frivolity]
  3: a table game in which short cues are used to knock balls into holes that are guarded by wooden pegs; penalties are incurred if the pegs are knocked over [syn: bagatelle, bar billiards]
• hohlraum
  n A cavity whose walls are in thermodynamic equilibrium with the radiation emitted by the cavity
  ---
  An experimental source of blackbody radiation in the form of an isothermal cavity with a small opening. The walls of the cavity are partially reflective and are kept at constant temperature, maintaining radiative equilibrium within the cavity. A hohlraum is also a perfect absorber since it traps all radiation that enters the small aperture.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  Borrowing from German Hohlraum ("hollow area")
  USAGE:
  A tiny chamber made of gold, called a hohlraum, is used to contain the pellet of heavy hydrogen fuel at the center of a fusion reaction at the National Ignition Facility.
• hypergelast
  one who cannot stop laughing after hearing a joke
• anomia
  one who suffers from an inability to remember names
• dysanagnosia
  an inability to understand certain words
• escutcheon (i-SKUCH-uhn)
  noun:
  1. An ornamental or protective plate surrounding a keyhole, light switch, door handle, etc.
  2. Used in the phrase: blot on one's escutcheon (a stain on one's reputation).
  3. A shield or shield-shaped surface bearing a coat of arms.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Latin scutum (shield). Earliest documented use: 1480.
  USAGE:
  "Georgina drew the bolts on the front door and turned the large key in its handsome escutcheon."
  Gina Rossi; The Wild Heart; The Wild Rose Press; 2012.
  ---
  "I've never been arrested. I did get a parking ticket last week, but that's about the only blot on my escutcheon."
  Lawrence Block; A Week as Andrea Benstock; Arbor House; 1975.
• crural (KROOR-uhl)
  adjective: Relating to the leg.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Latin crus (leg). Earliest documented use: 1599.
  USAGE:
  "She could tell by his occasional grimace that her massage of his crural muscle above the patella on his right knee still caused him discomfort." Kenneth Johnson; V: The Second Generation; Tor; 2008.
• acedia (uh-SEE-dee-uh)
  noun: Apathy; boredom; sloth.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Latin acedia, from Greek akedia, from a- (not) + kedos (care). Earliest documented use: 1607.
  USAGE:
  "Acedia plagues the novice much more than the experienced solitary; unlike some of the new guards, I do not suffer from boredom or listlessness."
  Chloe Aridjis; Asunder; Mariner Books; 2013.
• bathos \Ba"thos\ (b[=a]"th[o^]s), n. [Gr. ba`qos depth, fr. baqy`s deep.] (Rhet.)
  n 1: triteness or triviality of style
  2: insincere pathos [syn: mawkishness, bathos]
  3: a change from a serious subject to a disappointing one [syn: anticlimax, bathos]
• vituperate (vi-TOO-puh-rayt, -TYOO-, vi-)
  verb tr., intr.: To use harsh or abusive language.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Latin vituperare (to blame), from vitium (fault) + parare (to make or prepare). Earliest documented use: 1542.
  USAGE:
  "In debate, Thaddeus Stevens vituperates with relish -- You fatuous nincompoop, you unnatural noise! -- at foes of the 13th amendment."
  Roy Blount; Mr. Lincoln Goes to Hollywood; Smithsonian (Washington, DC); Nov 2012.
• scrutate (SKRU-tayt)
  verb tr.: To investigate.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  from Latin scrutari (to examine). Earliest documented use: 1882.
  USAGE:
  "Philosophers have too often thought that they can learn more about human nature by scrutating the murky depths of substance and faculties than by interpreting the obvious evidence."
  John Lachs; The Relevance of Philosophy to Life; Vanderbilt University Press; 1995.
• distend (di-STEND)
  verb tr., intr.: To swell, inflate, or extend.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Latin dis- (away, apart) + tendere (to stretch). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ten- (to stretch), which is also the source of tense, tenet, tendon, tent, tenor, tender, pretend, extend, tenure, tetanus, hypotenuse, tenable, tenuous, extenuate, countenance, pertinacious, and detente. Earliest documented use: 1400.
  USAGE:
  "My lungs felt inefficient, distended, like balloons full of water."
  Edwin Cameron; Was I Ready to Be a Judge with HIV?; Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg, South Africa); Feb 7, 2014.
• manducate (MAN-joo-kayt)
  verb tr.: To chew or eat.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Latin mandere (to chew). Ultimately from the Indo-European root menth- (to chew), which also gave us masticate, mandible, and manger. Earliest documented use: 1623.
  USAGE:
  "Flem literally manducates, chewing over his surroundings."
  Michael Wainwright; Darwin and Faulkner's Novels; Palgrave Macmillan; 2008.
• polyphiloprogenitive (pol-ee-fi-luh-pro-JEN-uh-tiv) adjective
  Extremely prolific.
  [From Latin poly- (many) + philo- (loving) + progenitive (producing offspring), from pro- (toward) + past participle of gignere (to beget).
  Earliest documented use: 1919, in a poem by T.S. Eliot.]
  USAGE
  "Polyphiloprogenitive Joe Fallon, the needy, breedy father of seventeen, or was it nineteen? I was never sure, any more than Joe himself."
  Aidan Higgins; Dog Days; Secker & Warburg; 1998.
  "All spring and summer my parents ricochet from garden to garden, mulching, watering, pulling up the polyphiloprogenitive weeds, 'until', my mother says, 'I'm bent over like a coat hanger.'"
  Margaret Atwood; Bluebeard's Egg; McClelland & Stewart; 1983.
• mimetic
  adj 1: characterized by or of the nature of or using mimesis; "a mimetic dance"; "the mimetic presentation of images"
  2: exhibiting mimicry; "mimetic coloring of a butterfly"; "the mimetic tendency of infancy"- R.W.Hamilton
• Bortle Dark-Sky Classification
  Bortle Scale (1 - excellent dark-sky; 9 - inner-city sky light pollution)
• kibitz [kib-its]
  verb (used without object)
  1. to act as a kibitzer.
  verb (used with object)
  2. to offer advice or criticism to as a kibitzer: to kibitz the team from the bleachers.
  Origin:
  1925–30, Americanism; < Yiddish kibetsn, equivalent to German kiebitzen to look on at cards, derivative of Kiebitz busybody, literally, lapwing, plover
• lap·wing [lap-wing]
  noun
  1. a large Old World plover, Vanellus vanellus, having a long, slender, upcurved crest, an erratic, flapping flight, and a shrill cry.
  2. any of several similar, related plovers.
• secret of Polichinelle (SEE-krit uv po-LISH-i-nel)
  noun: A supposed secret that's widely known: an open secret.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From French secret de Polichinelle. Polichinelle (English Punch or Punchinello) was a stock character in Italian puppetry. Earliest documented use: 1828.
  USAGE:
  "The tsar waited until after the memorial services on the fortieth day after the empress's death ... and announced that he had decided to marry Katya. The games between the tsar and the minister, the secret of Polichinelle, were over."
  Edvard Radzinsky; Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar; Free Press; 2005.
  -----
  "How often has she taunted me with lack of dignified reserve and needful caution! How many times has she saucily insinuated that all my affairs are the secret of Polichinelle!"
  Charlotte Brontë; Villette; Smith, Elder & Co.; 1853.
• sciolism (SY-uh-liz-uhm)
  noun: Pretentious display of superficial knowledge.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Late Latin sciolus (smatterer), diminutive of Latin scius (knowing), from scire (to know). Ultimately from the Indo-European root skei- (to cut or split), which also gave us schism, ski, shin, science, conscience, nice, scienter, nescient, exscind, and adscititious. Earliest documented use: 1810.
  USAGE:
  "This consists of some of the dullest sciolism in the history of prose, a standardized academic jargon and rhetoric, the dutiful rehearsal of received theory, and the deliberate misrepresentation of anything challenging or rejecting academic postmodernism."
  Michael Donaghy; The Shape of the Dance; Picador; 2009.
• edacity (i-DAS-i-tee)
  noun: Greediness; good appetite.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Latin edere (to eat). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ed- (to eat, to bite) that has given other words such as edible, comestible, obese, etch, fret, and postprandial. Earliest documented use: 1626.
  USAGE:
  "Allender is still undaunted, but hungry, not with the reckless experience appetite of a kid, but rather with the edacity of an older gourmand who wants as much of what he loves as possible."
  Alan Tennant; The Guadalupe Mountains of Texas; U of Texas Press; 1980.
• turgid (TUR-jid)
  adjective:
  1. Swollen; congested.
  2. Pompous; high-flown.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Latin turgere (to swell). Earliest documented use: 1620.
  USAGE:
  "It's not surprising that [Norm Macdonald] would take the wind out of the sails of peers who write turgid, self-important autobiographies ... he has earned attention for his deflating Twitter responses to various celebrity tweets."
  Eric Volmers; Norm Macdonald Still Working at His First Love of Standup Comedy; Calgary Herald (Canada); Feb 4, 2014.
• skerry \Sker"ry\, n.; pl. Skerries. [Of Scand. origin; cf. Icel. sker, Sw. sk[aum]r, Dan. ski?r. Cf. Scar a bank.]
  A rocky isle; an insulated rock. [Scot.]
  USAGE:
  Symphony "A Legend of the Skerries", Op. 20, by Alfven
• portmanteau
  n 1: a new word formed by joining two others and combining their meanings; "`smog' is a blend of `smoke' and `fog'"; "`motel' is a portmanteau word made by combining `motor' and `hotel'"; "`brunch' is a well-known portmanteau" [syn: blend, portmanteau word, portmanteau]
  2: a large travelling bag made of stiff leather [syn: portmanteau, Gladstone, Gladstone bag]
  ETYMOLOGY
  The word comes from the English portmanteau luggage (a piece of luggage with two compartment), itself derived from the French porter (to carry) and manteau (coat), with is a false friend of the French compound word porte-manteau meaning coat rack.
• euchre (YOO-kuhr)
  verb tr.: To cheat, trick, or outwit.
  noun: A card game for two to four players usually played with the 32 highest cards in the pack.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  [Of uncertain origin. Perhaps from the Alsatian game of Juckerspiel as the two top trumps are Jucker (jack). The verb sense of the word arises from the fact that the failure to win three tricks is known as being euchred and results in the opponent scoring two points. Earliest documented use: 1846.]
  USAGE:
  "You got euchred. The company lied to you about its status and you foolishly bought its lie."
  Colin Barrett; A Harsh Lesson on Due Diligence; Journal of Commerce (New York); May 23, 2013.
• vole (vohl)
  noun: The winning of all the tricks in some card games.
  verb intr.:
  1. To risk everything in the hope of great rewards. Typically used in the phrase "go the vole".
  2. To try every possibility. [From French voler (to fly), from Latin volare (to fly), which also gave us volatile and volley. Earliest documented use: 1680.]
  noun: Any of various rodents of the genus Microtus and related genera.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  [Short for volemouse, from Norwegian vollmus, from voll (field) + mus (mouse). Earliest documented use: 1805.]
  USAGE:
  "Don't blame me if you go the vole!"
  -----
  "So, as I was determined to go the vole, I have taken care you shall dip as deep as I."
  Sir Walter Scott; Tales of My Land; 1819.
• ambage (AM-bij)
  noun: Ambiguity; circumlocution.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Middle English ambages (equivocation), taken as a plural and the singular ambage coined from it. From Latin ambages, from ambi- (both, around) + agere (to drive). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ag- (to drive, draw, or move), which also gave us act, agent, agitate, litigate, synagogue, ambassador, agonistes, axiomatic, cogent, incogitant, exigent, exiguous, intransigent. Earliest documented use: 1374.
  USAGE:
  "This increase in ambage measures increased arbitrariness." Harrison C. White; Identity and Control; Princeton University Press; 2008.
• arrant (AR-uhnt)
  adjective: Complete; thorough.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  Here's a word that has had both its spelling and meaning bent out of shape from use. It's a variant of errant (wandering). Earlier the word was used in the sense of wandering or vagrant, for example, an arrant thief or an arrant knave. Over time the word began to be taken as an intensifier so an arrant fool was no longer a vagrant fool, but a complete fool.
  Via French, from Latin iterare (to journey), from iter (journey). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ei- (to go), which is also the ancestor of words such as exit, transit, circuit, itinerary, obituary, and adit. Earliest documented use: 1386.
  USAGE:
  "Norman Macrae also dismissed the Club of Rome's prediction that the world was about to run out of food as arrant nonsense."
  The Unacknowledged Giant; The Economist (London, UK); Jun 17, 2010.
• sashay (sa-SHAY)
  verb intr.:
  1. To move, walk, or glide along nonchalantly.
  2. To strut or move in a showy manner.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From switching of syllables in a mispronunciation of French chassé (a ballet movement involving gliding steps with the same foot always leading), past participle of chasser (to chase), from captare (to try to catch), frequentative of Latin capere (to take). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kap- (to grasp), which also gave us captive, capsule, chassis, cable, occupy, deceive, behoof, caitiff, percipient, captious, and gaff. Earliest documented use: 1836.
  USAGE:
  "Tyler switched to 6th Street, the car swaying and sashaying through the leafy old homes of Hancock Park."
  Denise Hamilton; Damage Control; Scribner; 2011.
• sord \sawrd\
  n. a flight or flock of mallards
• Dogberry (DOG-ber-ee, -buh-ree)
  noun: A pompous, incompetent, self-important official.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  After Dogberry, a constable in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, in which he goes about his blundering ways while mouthing malapropisms. Earliest documented use: 1801.
  USAGE:
  "Why doesn't he do something, then? Ignorant Dogberry! Useless bumpkin! Calls himself a copper and doesn't even know where to start!"
  Edmund Crispin; The Glimpses of the Moon; Gollancz; 1977.
  ---
  "The mayor of Bangor, Maine, vetoed a time-altering resolution passed by its city council ... for which Railway Age lampooned him in an editorial that began 'A Dogberry who holds the office of mayor.'"
  Jack Beatty; Age of Betrayal; Knopf; 2007.
• Portia (POR-shuh, -shee-uh)
  noun: A female lawyer.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  After Portia, the heroine of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. Portia is a rich heiress who disguises herself as a lawyer to save Antonio's life. Earliest documented use: 1869.
  USAGE:
  "'Listen sister...law isn't the only subject I've mastered!' snaps Betty, ... 'I may be a Portia, but my middle name's Dempsey!'"
  Mike Madrid; Divas, Dames & Daredevils; Exterminating Angel Press; 2013.
• Timon (TY-muhn)
  noun: One who hates or distrusts humankind
  ETYMOLOGY:
  After Timon, the misanthropic hero of Shakespeare's play "Timon of Athens". Earliest documented use: 1598.
  USAGE:
  "My soul was swallowed up in bitterness and hate ... I saw nothing to do but live apart like a Timon."
  Upton Sinclair; Prince Hagen; Heinemann; 1903.
• Prospero (PROS-puh-roh)
  noun: Someone who is capable of influencing others' behavior or perceptions without their being aware of it.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  After Prospero, the deposed Duke of Milan and a magician, in Shakespeare's The Tempest. Earliest documented use: 1785.
  USAGE:
  "Melliora is the Prospero who engineers a return to social order entirely in accord with her desires."
  David Oakleaf (ed.), Eliza Haywood; Love in Excess; Broadview Press; 2000.
• graupel
  soft hail or snow pellets
• rime
  vt. to freeze or congeal into hoarfrost
  n. white frost; hoarfrost; congealed dew or vapor
• tractable (TRAK-tuh-buhl) adjective
  Easily handled, managed, or controlled.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  [From Latin tractare (to handle), frequentative of trahere (draw). Earliest documented use: 1504.]
• frequentative
  n 1: a verb form that serves to express frequent repetition of an action
• quiff (kuif) noun
  1. A tuft of hair brushed up above the forehead. [Origin uncertain, perhaps from coif. Earliest documented use: 1890.]
  2. A woman considered as promiscuous. [Origin unknown. Earliest documented use: 1923.]
• mew (myoo)
  noun: 1. A cage for hawks, especially while molting.
  2. A place for retiring or hiding.
  3. In the UK, as mews, stables with living quarters. Also, a row of apartments converted from stables.
  verb tr.: 4. To confine.
  verb intr.: 5. To molt.
  noun: 6. The high-pitched sound of a cat.
  7. The characteristic sound of a gull.
  8. A seagull (Larus canus).
  ETYMOLOGY:
  For 1-5: From Old French muer (to molt), from Latin mutare (to change). Ultimately from the Indo-European root mei- (to change or move) that has also given us commute, mutual, migrate, common, mistake, immune, and excommunicate. Earliest documented use: 1375. For 6-7: Of imitative origin. Earliest documented use: 1325. For 8: From Old English maew. Earliest documented use: before 12th c.
  USAGE:
  "They set him free the last day of October, after he had been mewed up for a month."
  Lucy Montgomery; Anne of Ingleside; Sovereign; 2012.
  "Up above two falcons were mewing against the brilliant blue of the sky."
  Robert Twigger; Dr Ragab's Universal Language; Picador; 2009.
• ananias (an-uh-NY-uhs)
  noun: A liar.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  After Ananias, who along with his wife Sapphira, was struck dead for lying. They sold a piece of land. Instead of giving away all of the proceeds from the sale, they kept a portion for themselves, to the displeasure of Peter. Earliest documented use: 1876.
  USAGE:
  "Their 'exaggerations' and 'inventions' were roundly condemned. The worst offender was the Ananias whose dispatches to the New York World from Fort Keogh told of dead cattle, sixty-below temperatures, snow eight to fifty feet deep and the like."
  Helena Huntington Smith; The War on Powder River; University of Nebraska Press; 1966.
• Duchenne smile
  Researchers have identified a number of different types of smiles.
  - The "Duchenne smile", after the researcher Guillaume Duchenne, is the most studied, and involves the movement of both the zygomatcus major muscle near the mouth and the orbicularis oculi muscle near the eyes. It is believed that the Duchenne smile is only produced as an involuntary response to genuine emotion, and is therefore what one could call the "genuine" smile.
  - The "Pan American smile", on the other hand is the smile expressed to showpoliteness, for example by a flight attendant on the former airline with the same name.
• Polonian (po-LO-nee-uhn)
  adjective:
  1. Abounding in aphoristic expressions.
  2. A native or inhabitant of Poland.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  For 1: After Polonius, a courtier and the father of Ophelia in Shakespeare's play Hamlet, known for his moralistic aphorisms. Earliest documented use: 1847.
  For 2: From Latin Polonia (Poland). Earliest documented use: 1533.
  NOTES:
  Some of Shakespeare's best-known quotations come out of Polonius's mouth. As his son Laertes heads for France, Polonius advises: "Neither a borrower nor a lender be, For loan oft loses both itself and friend."
  ;---
  "This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."
  ;---
  At another time, he says: "Brevity is the soul of wit." As happens with quotations, some of his words have become simplified and sharpened with time, such as from the original "For the apparel oft proclaims the man." to "Clothes make the man."
  USAGE:
  "A few Polonian precepts can do something to indicate whether or not a scientist is cut out for collaboration."
  P.B. Medawar; Advice To A Young Scientist; Harper and Row; 1980.
  ;---
  "Derek Mahon's admonitory phrases often sounds Polonian rather than Apollonian: 'Everything thrives on contrariety', 'Equip yourself in every way you can / to take it like a woman or a man.'"
  Hugh Haughton; The Poetry of Derek Mahon; Oxford University Press; 2007.
• pellucid (pel*lu"cid)
  adj 1: transmitting light; able to be seen through with clarity; "the cold crystalline water of melted snow"; "crystal clear skies"; "could see the sand on the bottom of the limpid pool"; "lucid air"; "a pellucid brook"; "transparent crystal" [syn: crystalline, crystal clear, limpid, lucid, pellucid, transparent]
  2: (of language) transparently clear; easily understandable; "writes in a limpid style"; "lucid directions"; "a luculent oration"- Robert Burton; "pellucid prose"; "a crystal clear explanation"; "a perspicuous argument" [syn: limpid, lucid, luculent, pellucid, crystal clear, perspicuous]
• namaste (nah'mas-tay)
  A form of greeting commonly found among people of South Asia. Usually spoken with a slight bow and hands pressed together, palms touching and fingers pointing upwards, thumbs close to the chest.
• noesis (no-EE-sis)
  noun
  1. Cognition; perception.
  2. The exercise of reason.
  ETYMOLOGY
  [From Greek noesis (thought), from noein (to think, to perceive), from nous (mind). Earliest documented use: 1881.]
  "The noesis of the fact that tigers roamed these areas since there were no boundaries, nor fences in this forest, didn't jab much at me."
  Vishal Gupta; A Bittersweet Nostalgia; Strategic Book Publishing; 2012.
  "In an attempt to recollect the former few days, flashes of noesis pervaded my concentration."
  Jane E. Hill; So, Here I Stand; AuthorHouse; 2010.
• apostasy noun, plural a·pos·ta·sies.
  n 1: the state of having rejected your religious beliefs or your political party or a cause (often in favor of opposing beliefs or causes) [syn: apostasy, renunciation, defection]
  2: the act of abandoning a party for cause [syn: apostasy, tergiversation]
  ETYMOLOGY
  1350–1400; Middle Englishapostasye (< Anglo-French) < Late Latinapostasia < Greek: a standing away, withdrawing, equivalent to apóstas(is) (apo- apo- + sta- stand + -sis -sis) + -ia -ia
• keen (keening)
  noun
  1. the act of a person who keens.
  2. a wailing lament for the dead; keen.
  ETHYMOLOGY
  1875–80; keen2+ -ing1 noun
  1. a wailing lament for the dead. verb (used without object)
  1. to wail in lamentation for the dead. verb (used with object)
  1. to bewail or lament by or withkeening.
  ETYMOLOGY
  1805–15; < Irish caoine (noun),caoin- (v., stem of caoinim ) lament
• sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia
  spheno
  palatine
  ganglio
  neuralgia
  ice-cream headache, brain freeze, icebergers syndrome
• seo-ri (Korean)
  Literal translation of "seo ri" is "frost". Seori is the act of someone stealing farm products like watermelon, Korean melons, cucumbers or sometimes chickens. But in old Korean customs, it was considered to be children's mischievous activities for fun rather than criminal activities. On summer nights, children stealthily crawled along on all fours to the melon field. There they would steal some fruits or farm products just for fun. They enjoyed the thrill which Seori gave them. When they got caught red-handed, they ran away from the yelling farm owner. Some generous farm owners turned their heads the other way and let them go. Seori could have been bad, but it created unforgettable memories for those who did it in their childhood.
• paraskevidekatriaphobia
  Fear of Friday the 13th
• selenophobia
  Fear of the moon
• camarilla (kam-uh-RIL-uh, Spanish: kah-mah-REE-yah)
  noun: A group of confidential scheming advisers.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Spanish, diminutive of cámara (chamber), from Latin camera (room), from Greek kamara (an object with an arched cover). Earliest documented use: 1839.
  USAGE:
  "In China ... successions to a bureaucratic collective leadership are managed by a tiny camarilla in a self-declared one-party state."
  Simon Sebag Montefiore; In Russia, Power Has No Heirs; The New York Times; Jan 11, 2009.
• pungle (PUNG-uhl)
  verb tr.: To make a payment; to shell out.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  Alteration of Spanish póngale (put it down), from poner (to put), from Latin ponere (to put). Ultimately from the Indo-European root apo- (off or away) that is also the source of after, off, awkward, post, puny, apposite, apropos, and dispositive. Earliest documented use: 1851.
  USAGE:
  "Congress pungled up $700 billion for a bailout."
  Steve Rubenstein; 2008 in Review; San Francisco Chronicle; Dec 30, 2008.
• conative \Co"na*tive\ a. [See conatus.]
  Of or pertaining to conation.
  USAGE:
  This division of mind into the three great classes of the cognitive faculties, the feelings, . . . and the exertive or conative powers, . . . was first promulgated by Kant. --Sir W. Hamilton.
• conatus \Co*na"tus\, n. [L., fr. conatus, p. p. of conari to attempt.]
  A natural tendency inherent in a body to develop itself; an attempt; an effort.
  USAGE:
  What conatus could give prickles to the porcupine or hedgehog, or to the sheep its fleece? --Paley.
• puce (pyoos)
  noun: A dark red or brownish purple color.
  adjective: Of this color.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From French puce (flea), from Latin pulex (flea). Earliest documented use: 1778. Other terms coined after the flea are flea market, a direct translation of French marché aux puces and ukulele (from Hawaiian, literally leaping flea, perhaps from the rapid motion of the fingers in playing it).
  USAGE:
  "An increasingly puce Mr Farage complained about Britain's loss of sovereignty."
  The Third Man; The Economist (London, UK); Mar 29, 2014.
• mossback (MOS-bak)
  noun: A very old-fashioned person or one holding extremely conservative views.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From the idea that someone is old enough to have moss grow on his back. Old aquatic animals, such as turtles, do develop mosslike growth on their backs. Earliest documented use: 1865.
  USAGE:
  "Here, Markowitz deals with ... moldy old mossbacks in English departments who won't teach writing by women."
  Miriam Markowitz; Here Comes Everybody; The Nation (New York); Dec 9, 2013.
• kipper
  n 1: salted and smoked herring [syn: kipper, kippered herring]
• ablution
  n 1: the ritual washing of a priest's hands or of sacred vessels
• gymnopedie (gymnopédies)
  a festival or dance in ancient Greece (literally "naked feet" in Greek) Perhaps a 19th century neologism referring to an annual festival in Ancient Sparta where naked youths (athletes in Ancient Greece were always naked) performed athetic dances.
• toponym (from Greek topos: place)
  word derived from a place name
  EXAMPLES:
  What does a marathoner have in common with a Neanderthal (http://wordsmith.org/words/neanderthal.html) and a milliner (http://wordsmith.org/words/milliner.html)? All three are derived from the names of places. The word marathon is from Marathon in Greece, the word Neanderthal is coined from Neander valley in Germany, and a milliner is, literally, someone from Milan, Italy.
• voluptuary \Vo*lup"tu*a*ry\ (?; 135), n.; pl. voluptuaries. [L. voluptuarius or voluptarius, fr. voluptas pleasure.]
  adj 1: displaying luxury and furnishing gratification to the senses; "an epicurean banquet"; "enjoyed a luxurious suite with a crystal chandelier and thick oriental rugs"; "Lucullus spent the remainder of his days in voluptuous magnificence"; "a chinchilla robe of sybaritic lavishness" [syn: epicurean, luxurious, luxuriant, sybaritic, voluptuary, voluptuous]
  n 1: a person addicted to luxury and pleasures of the senses [syn: voluptuary, sybarite]
• idempotent
  1. A function f : D -> D is idempotent if f (f x) = f x for all x in D. i.e. repeated applications have the same effect as one. This can be extended to functions of more than one argument, e.g. Boolean & has x & x = x. Any value in the image of an idempotent function is a fixed point of the function.
  2. This term can be used to describe C header files, which contain common definitions and declarations to be included by several source files. If a header file is ever included twice during the same compilation (perhaps due to nested #include files), compilation errors can result unless the header file has protected itself against multiple inclusion; a header file so protected is said to be idempotent.
  3. The term can also be used to describe an initialisation subroutine that is arranged to perform some critical action exactly once, even if the routine is called several times.
  Contrast to nullipotent (e.g. look up name in database)
• peacotum
  Peach, apricot, and plum hybrid. Small as an apricot. Firm flesh like a plum. Skin like a plum. Tastes like plum and apricot with a hint of peach. Juicy like an apricot. Outside swirls of color on skin in purple and red on yellowish background. Not as sweet as a peach. Not delicate. Pit like an apricot.
• pettifogger (PET-ee-fog-uhr)
  noun:
  1. A petty, unscrupulous lawyer.
  2. One who quibbles over trivial matters.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From petty (small) + fogger, perhaps after Fuggers, a Bavarian family of merchants in the 15th and 16th centuries. Earliest documented use: 1564.
  USAGE:
  "Many banks refuse to give lawyers loans, and landlords won't rent them property, fearful that the pettifoggers will find loopholes to worm out of making payments."
  Richard Leiby; In Pakistani City, Lawyers Go from Heroes to 'Gangsters'; The Washington Post; Nov 12, 2012.
• presentiment (pri-ZEN-tuh-ment)
  noun: A sense that something is going to happen, especially something bad.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From French pressentiment (premonition), from pressentir (to have a premonition), from Latin pre- (before) + sentire (to feel). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sent- (to head for or to go), that is also the source for send, scent, sense, sentence, assent, consent, and ressentiment. Earliest documented use: 1663.
  USAGE:
  "That the reader has a presentiment of what will happen doesn't necessarily impoverish its affecting mystery."
  Ten White Geese; The New Yorker; Mar 11, 2013.
• plangent (PLAN-juhnt)
  adjective:
  1. Loud and resounding.
  2. Sad or mournful.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Latin plangere (to beat the br- east, lament). Ultimately from the Indo-European root plak- (to strike), which also gave us plague, plankton, fling, and complain. Earliest documented use: 1666.
  USAGE:
  "When the two horns answered each other's plangent calls from opposite sides of the vast auditorium the effect was electrifying." A Majestic Canon; The Economist (London, UK); Sep 4, 2003.
  ;;---
  "Enthrallingly told, beautifully written, and so emotionally plangent that some passages bring tears."
  Amanda Vaill; A Luminous Novel of Children in War ("All the Light We Cannot See"); The Washington Post; May 6, 2014.
• deportment (di-PORT-ment)
  noun: The manner in which one conducts oneself in public.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From French déportement, from Latin deportare, from de- (away) + portare (carry). Ultimately from the Indo-European root per- (to lead, pass over), which also gave us support, comport, petroleum, sport, passport, colporteur (a peddler of religious books), rapporteur, Norwegian fjord (bay), and Sanskrit parvat (mountain). Earliest documented use: 1601.
  USAGE:
  "To etiquette expert Judi James, Kate's deportment contrasts pleasingly with other royals' fidgety stiffness."
  Charlie Gillis; Queen Making; Maclean's (Toronto, Canada); May 2, 2011.
• bupkis (also bupkes, bupkis, bupkus, bubkis, bubkes)
  noun: nothing
  Yiddish for either "beans" or "goat droppings", or figuratively "nothing, nada, zilch". Can also be an offer so low as to be an insult, and as Leo Rosten noted in his classic "The Joy of Yiddish," "bupkes" is a howl of outrage often heard in the cutthroat world of show business.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  Possibly of Slavic, Vlach, or Greek origin (see Polish bobki 'animal droppings')
  USAGE:
  "I should have got at least ten bucks but i got BUPKES!!"
• puissance (PWIS-uhns, PYOO-i-suhns)
  noun: Power or strength.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Old French puissance (power), from Latin posse (to be able). Ultimately from the Indo-European root poti- (powerful, lord) which also gave us possess, power, possible, posse, potent, plenipotentiary, Italian podesta, and Turkish pasha (via Persian). Earliest documented use: 1420.
  USAGE:
  "If a recent negotiated deal between Washington and Tehran reaches fruition, Turkey will achieve its goal of limiting Kurdish puissance without firing a shot."
  Linda S. Heard; Kurdish Rebel Action Tests Turkey-US Ties; Gulf News (Dubai); Jun 5, 2007.
• degust (di-GUHST)
  verb tr.: To taste or savor appreciatively.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From Latin degustare (to taste), from de- (completely) + gustare (to taste). Ultimately from the Indo-European root geus- (to taste or choose), which also gave us choice, choose, gusto, ragout, and disgust. Earliest documented use: 1623.
  USAGE:
  "Within a decade, the first insects [beetles] crossed the western border of the Soviet Union to degust Ukrainian and Belarusan potatoes."
  Laura Williams; The Bug That Brought Russia to its Knees; Russian Life (Montpelier, Vermont); Jul/Aug 2007.
• dag \Dag\, v. t. [1, from Dag dew. 2, from Dag a loose end.]
  1. To daggle or bemire. [Prov. Eng.]
  2. To cut into jags or points; to slash; as, to dag a garment. [Obs.] To edge (a garment, cloth, etc.) with decorative scallops or the like
  3. v. i. To be misty; to drizzle. [Prov. Eng.]
  (d[a^]g), n. [Cf. F. dague, LL. daga, D. dagge (fr. French); all prob. fr. Celtic; Cf. Gael. dag a pistol, Armor.
  dag dagger, W. dager, dagr, Ir. daigear. Cf. Dagger.]
  1. One of a series of decorative scallops or foliations along the edge of a garment, cloth, etc.
  1. A dagger; a poniard. [Obs.]
  2. A large pistol formerly used. [Obs.]
  3. (Zool.) The unbranched antler of a young deer.
• prorogue (pro-ROHG)
  verb tr.:
  1. To discontinue a session of something, for example, a parliament.
  2. To defer or to postpone.
  ETYMOLOGY:
  From French proroger (to adjourn), from Latin prorogare (to prolong or defer), from pro- (before) + rogare (to ask). Ultimately from the Indo-European root reg- (to move in a straight line, to lead or rule), which is also the source of regime, direct, rectangle, erect, rectum, alert, source, and surge. Earliest documented use: 1419.
  USAGE:
  "This sitting will be the last one before Parliament is prorogued."
  Lee U-Wen; Cost of Catching Sports on TV a Hot House Topic; The Business Times (Singapore); Apr 12, 2014.
• cognoscente \Cog`nos*cen"te\, n.; pl. cognoscenti. [OIt.
  cognoscente, p. pr. of cognoscere, It. conoscere to know.]
  n 1: an expert able to appreciate a field; especially in the fine arts [syn: connoisseur, cognoscente]
• xerophilous (zee-ROF-uh-luhs) adjective
  Adapted to a very dry or desert environment.
  [From Greek xero- (dry) + -philous (liking). Earliest documented use: 1863.]
  "'We need to focus on the landscaping without using water,' said Plambeck ... She wants to turn the Castaic School site into a xerophilous garden."
  Bhavna Mistry; Garden May Go on Site; Daily News (Los Angeles, California); Dec 25, 1999.
• objective correlative
  n 1: a completely depicted situation or chain of events that objectifies a particular emotion in such a way as to produce or evoke that emotion in the reader.
• arachibutyrophobia
  n 1: fear of getting peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth

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