new words

They've been a long time coming, but here's another batch of new words. These mostly came from The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Antarctica, and Anvil of Stars (the last is still in progress). "Boustrophedonic" came from the Five-Dollar Words series in Fabulous Adventures in Coding.

assignation - a secret rendezvous, as between lovers

mendacious - lying, untruthful, or dishonest

gracile - slender and graceful

oleaginous - oily or greasy

quisling - a traitor, one who collaborates with the enemy

gauleiter - an overbearing or unpleasant official

vermifuge - a medication used in the treatment of intestinal worms/parasites

louche - of questionable taste or morality

apotheosis - the ideal or perfect example of a kind

turgid - bombastic, lofty in style

iconoclast - one who attacks cherished ideas or institutions

pandiculate - to yawn and stretch

shibboleth - a word or pronunciation used to distinguish outsiders, or a manner of speaking particular to a specific group

marl - a loose mixture of clay

calumny - an attack or false charge meant to discredit

adenoidal - sounding as if the nose were pinched

thew - muscle or sinew

coffle - a chained line of prisoners or slaves

boustrophedonic - a writing system where successive lines alternate direction (L->R, then R->L, then L->R, etc)

avuncular - resembling an uncle in kindness

ailurophobe - someone who hates or fears cats

depauperate - to impoverish or stunt the growth of

chiaroscuro - the contrast of light and dark, for artistic effect

aleatory - dependent on chance or luck

fata morgana - a mirage caused by temperature inversion

birbyne - a Lithuanian wind instrument

inchoate - incomplete, or only partially in existence

There are some good ones in here, but I'm still attached to defenestrate.

New feature: The Vocabulary Hall of Shame. I make no guarantees to add an entry with every "new word" post, but here's the first inductee:

bromance - a love affair or complicated affection between two straight men

Now just to be clear, I have no gripe with men being close, sharing their feelings, or doing anything else for that matter. What I object to is this horrible, horrible word. May every man have as many close male relationships as his heart desires, and may none of those suffer the name "bromance".

Random side note: I can't get enough of Chrome's "recently closed" feature. Any time you open a new tab, a list of recently-closed tabs appears in the lower right. Click one of these, and you're dropped straight back where you were. Not only that, but your history comes back too, so you can hit the Back button in your restored tab and move back to the previous page(s). Brilliant!