Reading and writing is a very powerful tool to help build your language skills. With that comes a massive uptick in your vocabulary. Whether you remember them, use them, or not is a function of committing them to memory. How many of these do you know? What words have you learned from reading and writing?
| word | definition |
|---|---|
| adubmbrate | to foreshadow vaguely |
| armillary | Open work globe sundial combination often used as garden art |
| besom | A broom or brush made of straws or twigs tied to a stick, as a classic witch’s broom. Also, an insult to a woman who does not ‘know her place.’ |
| bibulous | relating to the consumption of alcohol |
| brummagem | cheap or showy |
| casuistic | Specious or excessively subtle reasoning intended to rationalize or mislead |
| chaffer | To haggle or barter. Slur of “cheap fare.” |
| chattel | an item of tangible movable or immovable property except real estate and things (such as buildings) connected with real property |
| chicanery | Deception by trickery or sophistry |
| cobby | Having short legs and a compact body; stocky. Used of animals |
| coelenterate | bearing tentacles with nematocysts, like a jellyfish. An echinoderm, by the way, is basically a starfish, and a nudibranch is a sea slug |
| Comprimario | A comprimario role is an operatic bit part. |
| contraposto | Used in the visual arts to describe a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot so that its shoulders and arms twist off axis from the hips and legs. |
| copse | a small group of trees |
| coruscate | To give forth flashes of light; sparkle and glitter: diamonds coruscating in the candlelight. |
| deign | to do something that one considers beneath one’s dignity |
| exsanguinate | to drain of blood |
| Fach | a German loan word, meaning vocal type. Is the soprano a coloratura? a spinto? That type of difference is the fach. |
| farrier | one who shoes horses |
| fenestration | the arrangement of pattern of window openings, aka windowing |
| graupel | Pellets of snow or ice, also called soft hail, small hail, or snow pellets, which are not translucent ice but white and opaque. (Handy where I live now!) |
| hierophant | a person who brings congregants into the presence of the holy |
| houri | A seductive, alluring woman. |
| laconic | Using or marked by the use of few words; terse or concise. |
| limn | to depict or describe in painting or words |
| louche | Dubious, shady, disreputable. |
| manse | a clergy house or a large imposing residence |
| menhir | A prehistoric monument of a class found chiefly in the British Isles and northern France, consisting of a single tall, upright megalith |
| mordant(ly) | bitingly sarcastic |
| palanquin | an Asian means of conveyance |
| peal | loud ringing of a bell or bells |
| pedantic | Excessively concerned with minor details or rules; over-scrupulous |
| puissance | power; might |
| Recherché | Out of the ordinary |
| rictus | A gaping grimace: “his mouth gaping in a kind of rictus of startled alarm” (Richard Adams) |
| roborant | restoring vigor or strength |
| Spinto | a term for vocal heft in between lyric (light) and dramatic (heavy). |
| tare | To set a scale for weight to read zero when a container such as a bowl or plate rests on it, resulting in only the weight of the contents of the bowl or plate being measured |
| tesselate | to decorate a floor with mosaics |
| Tessitura | Where the bulk of the notes in a role lie. Are most of the notes in the upper register or the lower register? That difference in tessitura determines who can sing different roles. |
| threnody | A poem or song of mourning or lamentation. |
| vertiginous | causing vertigo especially by being extremely high or steep |
| vicissitude | a change in fortune, typically for the worse |
| mafic dyke swarm | a large geological structure consisting of a major group of parallel, linear, or radially oriented dikes intruded within continental crust. They consist of several to hundreds of dikes emplaced more or less contemporaneously during a single intrusive event, and are magmatic and stratigraphic |
| askance | with disapproval, suspicion, or distrust |
| assuage | To make (something burdensome or painful) less intense or severe |
| meringue | A mixture of egg whites and sugar beaten until stiff and baked until slightly brown, often used as a topping on pies |
| Pharisee | A member of an ancient Jewish sect that emphasized strict interpretation and observance of the Mosaic law in both its oral and written form |
| palimpsest | A manuscript, typically of papyrus or parchment, that has been written on more than once, with the earlier writing incompletely scraped off or erased and often legible |
| Luddite | Any of a group of British workers who between 1811 and 1816 rioted and destroyed laborsaving textile machinery in the belief that such machinery would diminish employment. |
| sesquipedalian | given to or characterized by long words, or long |
| polysyllabic | Having more than two and usually more than three syllables. |
| epitome | A representative or perfect example of a class or type |
| ferrule | a metal ring or cap placed around a pole or shaft for reinforcement or to prevent splitting |
| fleuron | a flower |
| fungible | Returnable or negotiable in kind or by substitution, as a quantity of grain for an equal amount of the same kind of grain. |
| finial | A sculptured ornament, often in the shape of a leaf or flower, at the top of a gable, pinnacle, or similar structure. |
| triskelion | A figure consisting of three curved lines or branches, or three stylized human arms or legs, radiating from a common center. |
| trefoil | Any of various plants of the pea family, chiefly of the genera Trifolium and Lotus, having compound trifoliolate leaves. |
| caduceus | the greek symbol of commerce, thieves and tricksters: a winged staff with two intertwined snakes. Often confused with the rod of Asclepius, the symbol of medicine, which is a single snake coiled around a staff (the caduceus is often used instead of the rod of Asclepius to represent medicine in America, but this is considered incorrect elsewhere) |
| pong | a strong, unpleasant smell, as in the pong of unwashed boy |
| Sepulcher | a burial vault |
| Aurochs | a large wild Eurasian ox that was the ancestor of domestic cattle |
| Redoubt | a temporary or supplemental fortification, typically square or polygonal and without flanking defenses |
| Sigil | an inscribed or painted sign or symbol considered to have magical powers |
| Caparisoned | an ornamental covering spread over a horse’s saddle or harness |
| Plinth | a heavy base supporting a statue or vase |
| Crone | an old woman who is thin and ugly |
| Skirl | a shrill sound, esp. that of bagpipes |
| Tremulous | marked by trembling, quivering, or shaking |
| roundhouse | hit with a big sweep of the hand |
| phantasmagorical | dreamlike |
| Reticule | a handbag or purse that closes with a drawstring |
| Dazzle Camouflage | complex patterns of geometric shapes in contrasting colours, interrupting and intersecting each other |
| Chthonic | of, or related to, the Underworld |
| Quaquaversal | spreading from a single point to every direction equally, like ripples in a pond or a domed roof |
| Xylem | the water and nutrient transport system in plants |
| Parliament | can also mean a group of owls, aside from the more obvious meaning of a governing body |
| Tabi | a kind of Japanese sock |
| Pusillanimous | lacking in courage |
| Pronking | that bounding gait peculiar to deer, antelope, and a few other animals, where they move around in a series of leaps. |
| Automaton | A moving mechanical device made in imitation of a human being |
| Cupule | A cup |
| conroi | group of five to ten knights who trained and fought together in the Middle Ages. |
| mesnie | medieval household. |
| destrier | a medieval knight’s warhorse. |
| braies | medieval men’s underwear. |
| osculatrix | A curve or surface that osculates another curve or surface |
| wayn | an archaeic term for wagon, alternative spelling for wain |
| murder | a collection of crows |
| privvy | toilet |
| miffed | upset or offended |
| numpty | incompetent or unwise |
| spawny | lucky |
| midden | slurry or septic tank |
| tosh | nonsense or rubbish |
| Mephitic | foul smelling, noxious gas. |
| Caitiff | a cowardly or contemptible person. |
| Trebuchet | A machine used in medieval siege warfare for hurling large stones or other missiles. |
| Inimical | tending to obstruct or harm |
| Querulous | complaining in a petulant or whining manner |
| Carrack | a large merchant ship of a kind operating in European waters in the 14th to 17th century |
| Pennon | a long triangular or swallow |
| Basilisk | a mythical reptile with a lethal gaze or breath, hatched by a serpent from a cock’s egg |
| Vair | fur, typically bluish |