English

Front 1

altiloquent
\awl-TIL-uh-kwuhnt\
noun

Back 1

High-flown or pretentious language.

Hint 1

He remembered that the politeness seemed too elaborate, too florid, altiloquent to the extent of insincerity.
-- Holman Day, All-Wool Morrison

Front 2

intromit
\in-truh-MIT\
verb

Back 2

To introduce; to send, put, or let in.

Front 3

matrilineal
\ma-truh-LIN-ee-uhl\
adjective

Back 3

Inheriting or determining descent through the female line.

Hint 3

Several of the women I talked to had decided to challenge the influence of the matrilineal clan and to bequeath part of their land to their sons. The ways they had chosen in this regard were however quite different.
-- Birgit Englert and Elizabeth Daley, Women's Land Rights & Privatization in Eastern Africa

Front 4

prorogue
\proh-ROHG\
verb

Back 4

1. To defer; postpone.
2. To discontinue a session of (the British Parliament or a similar body).

Front 5

spruik
\sprook\
verb

Back 5

To make or give a speech, especially extensively; spiel.

Hint 5

Cain and Leek spruik their foul and immoral stories by the fire at night and the rest of the men grow excited and the mood of the camp becomes restless.
-- Tim Winton, Shallows

Front 6

omphalos
\OM-fuh-luhs\
noun

Back 6

1. The central point.
2. The navel; umbilicus.
3. Greek Antiquity. A stone in the temple of Apollo at Delphi, thought to mark the center of the earth.

Hint 6

To that incurable romantic the Trenton hovel was omphalos, the hub of existence, the center of mass.
-- Ellen Queen, Halfway House

Front 7

pip
verb

Back 7

1. To peep or chirp.
2. (Of a young bird) to break out from the shell.
3. To crack or chip a hole through (the shell), as a young bird.

Hint 7

Stone's watch pipped eight o'clock. He had curly hair the color of motor oil, and pale green eyes.
-- Jonathan Franzen, The Twenty-Seventh City

Front 8

phatic
adj

Back 8

Denoting speech used to create an atmosphere of goodwill.

Hint 8

They're just filling the air with noise. This is what's called phatic speech. "How are you?" they might ask.
-- Adriana Lopez, Fifteen Candles

Front 9

gambit
noun

Back 9

1. A remark made to open or redirect a conversation.
2. Chess. An opening in which a player seeks to obtain some advantage by sacrificing a pawn or piece.
3. Any maneuver by which one seeks to gain an advantage.

Hint 9

The leader was eyeing him up and down, shrewdly calculating. "Thirsty as all that, are you, my friend?" he asked. Gratefully Bomilcar seized upon the gambit. “Thirsty enough to buy everyone here a drink,” he said.
-- Colleen McCullough, The First Man in Rome

Front 10

belabor
\bih-LEY-ber\
verb

Back 10

1. To explain, worry about, or work more than is necessary.
2. To assail persistently, as with scorn or ridicule.
3. To beat vigorously; ply with heavy blows.
4. Obsolete. To labor at.

Hint 10

Yours and everybody else's, thought Swiffers, but he didn't wish to belabor the obvious.
-- Tom Robbins, Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates

Front 11

cumulus
noun

Back 11

1. A heap; pile.
2. A cloud of a class characterized by dense individual elements in the form of puffs, mounds, or towers, with flat bases and tops that often resemble cauliflower.

Hint 11

He was organizing the year's remnants. He was logging and archiving and filing it all. The whole swollen yearlong cumulus.
-- Dana Spiotta, Stone Arabia

Front 12

chrestomathy
\kres-TOM-uh-thee\
noun

Back 12

A collection of selected literary passages.

Hint 12

This little chrestomathy preserves almost the only words of Atticus to have survived from antiquity.
-- Peter White, Cicero in Letters

Front 13

demiurge
\DEM-ee-urj\
noun

Back 13

1. Philosophy. A. Platonism. The artificer of the world. B. (In the Gnostic and certain other systems) a supernatural being imagined as creating or fashioning the world in subordination to the Supreme Being, and sometimes regarded as the originator of evil.
2. (In many states of ancient Greece) a public official or magistrate.

Hint 13

The gnostics think this world was created by a bad god—a demiurge—who wandered too far from the True God and somehow got perverted.
-- Derek Swannson, Crash Gordon and the Mysteries of Kingsburg

Front 14

ingeminate
\in-JEM-uh-neyt\
verb

Back 14

to repeat, reiterate

Hint 14

Sitting among his friends, often, after a deep silence and frequent sighs, he would with a shrill and sad accent ingeminate the word Peace, Peace...
-- Christopher Ricks, Essays in Appreciation

Front 15

haimish
adj

Back 15

homey, cozy, unpretentious

Hint 15

Now separated from Gisela Liner's home cooking and haimish evenings playing living-room soccer with Kisch, Billie consoled himself by going to the finest spots in Berlin.
-- Ed Sikov, On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder

Front 16

skirr
\skur\
verb
noun

Back 16

1. To go rapidly; fly; scurry.
2. To go rapidly over.
noun:
1. A grating or whirring sound.

Hint 16

Looking up, he perceived, to his horror, the figure of a man which seemed to skirr along the surface of the water...
-- Ambrose Marten, The Stanley Tales

Front 17

varlet
\VAHR-lit\
noun

Back 17

1. A knavish person; rascal.
2. A. An attendant or servant. B. A page who serves a knight.

Hint 17

Is he not a lying, stinking, contemptible varlet?
-- Jude Morgan, Indiscretion

Front 18

ventose
\VEN-tohs\
adjective

Back 18

Given to empty talk; windy.

Hint 18

Anyhow, it is better to wind up that way than to go growling out one's existence as a ventose hypochondriac.
-- Thomas Henry Huxley, Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley

Front 19

betide \bih-TAHYD\, verb:

Back 19

1. To happen to; come to; befall.
2. To happen; come to pass.

Hint 19

"Ill luck betide thee, poor damsel," said Sancho, "ill luck betide thee!"
-- Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote

Front 20

levigate \LEV-i-geyt\, verb/adj

Back 20

1. To rub, grind, or reduce to a fine powder.
2. Chemistry. To make a homogeneous mixture of, as gels.
adjective:
1. Botany. Having a smooth, glossy surface; glabrous.

Hint 20

It is sufficient to levigate them with water to obtain them very white.
-- M. Richter, Philosophical Magazine, Volume 23

Front 21

bosh \bosh\, noun

Back 21

Absurd or foolish talk; nonsense.

Hint 21

You know perfectly well — and it is all bosh, too. Come, now, how do they proceed?
-- Mark Twain, The Gilded Age

Front 22

apoplectic \ap-uh-plek-tik\, adjective/noun

Back 22

1. Intense enough to threaten or cause a stroke.
2. Of or pertaining to apoplexy.
3. Having or inclined to apoplexy.
noun:
1. A person having or predisposed to apoplexy.

Hint 22

When Abie used to shout, Rebecca always used to make a joke that he was having one of his apoplectic fits.
-- Alan Grayson, Mile End

Front 23

fantast
noun

Back 23

a visionary or dreamer

Hint 23

I wouldn't allow the unwashed fantast in my house, but, I have to remind myself, it isn't my house he is being admitted to.
-- Wallace Earle Stegner, All the Little Live Things

Front 24

ravelment
noun

Back 24

entanglement, confusion

Hint 24

What I could see clearly, though, was the lower course of the burn: this bisected the small valley and appeared to loop around the far side of the dwelling, partly enfolding it before it broadened out and spread thence through arable to a ravelment of stone and incoming sea.
-- Clifford Geddes, Edge of the Glen

Front 25

mignon \min-YON\, adjective

Back 25

Small and pretty; delicately pretty.

Hint 25

And here Jasmin caressed his own arm, and made as if it were a baby's, smiling and speaking in a mignon voice, wagging his head roguishly.
-- William Chambers and Robert Chambers, Chambers's Edinburgh Journal

Front 26

pochismo \poh-CHEEZ-moh\, noun

Back 26

1. An English word or expression borrowed into Spanish.
2. A form of speech employing many such words.
3. An adopted U.S. custom, attitude, etc.

Hint 26

Along the Texas border, in the towns on both sides of the Rio Grande, they call a similar blending of languages pochismo.
-- Robert Wilder, Plough the Sea

Front 27

natch
adv

Back 27

Of course, naturally

Hint 27

She was even more delighted to hear that you were planning to invest in her health club, and hopes to see you there as a patron as well as an investor. At reduced rates, natch?
-- Evelyn E. Smith, Miss Melville Returns

Front 28

larrup
verb

Back 28

to beat or thrash

Hint 28

A fast white boat comes larruping around the point from the direction of Mercer Island and banks towards him.
-- Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon

Front 29

volant \VOH-luhnt\, adjective/noun

Back 29

1. Moving lightly; nimble.
2. Engaged in or having the power of flight.
noun:
1. Also called volant piece. Armor. A reinforcing piece for the brow of a helmet.

Hint 29

With Rube winging it that spring, the band blared, and the volant baseball team was unbeatable.
-- Alan Howard Levy, Rube Waddell

Front 30

agnate \ag-neyt\, noun/adj

Back 30

1. A relative whose connection is traceable exclusively through males.
2. Any male relation on the father's side.
adjective:
1. Related or akin through males or on the father's side.
2. Allied or akin.

Hint 30

It was considered abomination; no agnate gives up its infant kin in Igboland, no matter the crime.
-- M. O. Ené, Blighted Blues

Front 31

Sardanapalian \sahr-dn-uh-PEYL-yuhn\, adjective

Back 31

Excessively luxurious. First used in English in the 1860s, Sardanapalian is an eponym that comes from the legendary Assyrian king Sardanapal who was famous for his decadence.

Hint 31

Here, in this half-destroyed Tartar town, surrounded by steppes, he indulged himself in a Sardanapalian effulgence that beggared even his jassy Court.
-- Simon Sebag Montefiore, Potemkin

Front 32

cunctation \kuhngk-TEY-shuhn\, noun

Back 32

Delay; tardiness.

Hint 32

"What it's about," Goldman said, with tantalizing cunctation, "is a whole lot of things, as a matter of fact."
-- Philip Kerr, The Shot

Front 33

mewl \myool\, verb

Back 33

To cry, as a baby, young child, or the like; whimper.

Hint 33

They have mouths that twitch, and eyes that stare, and they babble and they mewl and they whimper.
-- Neil Gaiman, Smoke and Mirrors

Front 34

glutch
verb/noun

Back 34

1. to swallow.
noun:
1. a mouthful.

Hint 34

And now Robert Creedle will be nailed up in parish boards 'a b'lieve; and nobody will glutch down a sigh for he!"
-- Thomas Hardy, The Woodlanders

Front 35

makebate \MEYK-beyt\, noun

Back 35

A person who causes contention or discord.

Hint 35

The man was a hater of the great Governor and his life-work, the Erie; a makebate, a dawplucker, a malcontent politicaster.
-- Samuel Hopkins Adams, Grandfather Stories

Front 36

instauration \in-staw-REY-shuhn\, noun

Back 36

1. Renewal; restoration; renovation; repair.
2. Obsolete. An act of instituting something; establishment.

Hint 36

For the first time since the instauration of the Republic of Cuba, the military caste was going to have to manage on its own.
-- Norberto Fuentes and Anna Kushner, The Autobiography of Fidel Castro

Front 37

chockablock \CHOK-uh-BLOK\, adjective

Back 37

1. Extremely full; crowded; jammed.
2. Nautical. Having the blocks drawn close together, as when the tackle is hauled to the utmost.
adverb:
1. In a crowded manner: books piled chockablock on the narrow shelf.

Hint 37

This town is chockablock with restaurants that are just clones of the same old themes.
-- Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club

Front 38

subitize \SOO-bi-tahyz\, verb:

Back 38

To perceive at a glance the number of items presented.

Hint 38

Below seven the subjects were said to subitize; above seven they were said to estimate.
-- H. Gutfreund and G. Toulouse, Biology and Computation: A Physicist's Choice

Front 39

enchiridion \en-kahy-RID-ee-uhn\, noun

Back 39

A handbook; manual.

Hint 39

For you offer us the postulation that we can, in the shadow, or rather the radiance, of your own enchiridion, go and do likewise.
-- Marcel Proust, Swann's Way

Front 40

noctilucent \nok-tuh-LOO-suhnt\, adjective

Back 40

Visible during the short night of the summer.

Hint 40

The shells of 155-mm howitzers whistled away through the dark air, orange flashes popped like noctilucent flowers on the western ridge of Hon Heo Mountain and disappeared shortly after, and then the sound of explosions rumbled through the ground.
-- Junghyo Ahn, White Badge

Front 41

pensée \pahn-SEY\, noun

Back 41

A reflection or thought.

Hint 41

He rose from his deep chair and at his desk entered on the first page of a new notebook a pensee: The penalty of sloth is longevity.
-- Evelyn Waugh, Unconditional Surrender
In a pensee that could have been cribbed from Mae West's daybook, she also said, “If you want to sacrifice the admiration of many men for the criticism of one, go ahead, get married!”
-- Karen Karbo, How to Hepburn

Front 42

sumpsimus \SUHMP-suh-muhs\, noun

Back 42

1. Adherence to or persistence in using a strictly correct term, holding to a precise practice, etc., as a rejection of an erroneous but more common form (opposed to mumpsimus).
2. A person who is obstinate or zealous about such strict correctness (opposed to mumpsimus).

Hint 42

And now let all defenders of present institutions, however bad they may be — let all violent supporters of their old mumpsimus against any new sumpsimus whatever, listen to a conversation among some undergraduates.
-- Frederic William Farrar , Julian Home

Front 43

mumpsimus \MUHMP-suh-muhs\, noun

Back 43

1. Adherence to or persistence in an erroneous use of language, memorization, practice, belief, etc., out of habit or obstinacy.
2. A person who persists in a mistaken expression or practice.

Hint 43

"I profess, my good lady," replied I, "that had any one but you made such a declaration, I should have thought it as capricious as that of the clergyman, who, without vindicating his false reading, preferred, from habit's sake, his old Mumpsimus...
-- Sir Walter Scott, The Talisman

Front 44

pilikia \pee-lee-KEE-ah\, noun

Back 44

Trouble

Hint 44

After a while this older man spoke: “Remember, we never asked you to cause pilikia. We only asked that you help set things right.”
-- Rodney Morales, When the Shark Bites

Front 45

agemate \EYJ-meyt\, noun

Back 45

A person of about the same age as another.

Hint 45

She had no agemate in that house, no one she could think of as an ally.
-- Julie Orringer, The Invisible Bridge

Front 46

syndic, noun

Back 46

1. A person chosen to represent and transact business for a corporation.
2. A civil magistrate having different powers in different countries.

Hint 46

For instance, Sillem, the most junior, the "fourth," syndic, the one normally responsible for criminal investigations, had supposedly been "promoted" to the position of third, the one most directly responsible for foreign affairs.
-- Mary Lindemann, Liaisons Dangereuses

Front 47

abstergent, adj

Back 47

1. Cleansing.
2. Purgative.

noun:
1. A cleansing agent, as detergent or soap.

Hint 47

Those of them which are of an abstergent nature, and purge the whole surface of the tongue, if they do it in excess, and so encroach as to consume some part of the flesh itself, like potash and soda, are all termed bitter.
-- Plato, Timaeus

Front 48

surfeit
noun/verb

Back 48

1. Excess; an excessive amount: a surfeit of speechmaking.
2. Excess or overindulgence in eating or drinking.
3. An uncomfortably full or crapulous feeling due to excessive eating or drinking.
4. General disgust caused by excess or satiety.

verb:
1. To bring to a state of surfeit by excess of food or drink.
2. To supply with anything to excess or satiety; satiate.

Hint 48

She peered at the parents, imagining their hearts like machines, manufacturing surfeit upon surfeit of love for their children, and then wondered how something could be so awesome and so utterly powerless.
-- Chris Adrian, The Great Night

Front 49

tractate
noun

Back 49

a treatise, essay

Hint 49

Divide up all the tractates and commit yourselves to learn them during the coming year.
-- Yair Weinstock, Holiday Tales for the Soul

Front 50

scherzando \skert-SAHN-doh\, adjective

Back 50

Playful, sportive

Hint 50

A short coda recalls the scherzando music, and the piece concludes with the jazzy harmony.
-- Howard Pollack, John Alden Carpenter

Front 51

vamp, verb

Back 51

1. To patch up; repair.
2. To give (something) a new appearance by adding a patch or piece.
3. To concoct or invent (often followed by up): He vamped up a few ugly rumors to discredit his enemies.
4. To furnish with a vamp, especially to repair (a shoe or boot) with a new vamp.

noun:
1. The portion of a shoe or boot upper that covers the instep and toes.
2. Something patched up or pieced together.

Hint 51

...plod and plow, vamp your old coats and hats, weave a shoestring; great affairs and the best wine by and by.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Illusions," Essays and Poems

Front 52

aliquant, adv

Back 52

Contained in a number or quantity, but not dividing it evenly: An aliquant part of 16 is 5.

Hint 52

Cunning is the aliquant of talent; as hypocrisy is of religion; all the threes in the universe cannot make ten.
-- Thomas Hall, The Fortunes and Adventures of Raby Rattler and His Man Floss

Front 53

ectopic
adj

Back 53

Occurring in an abnormal position or place, displaced.

Front 54

paronymous \puh-RON-uh-muhs\, adjective

Back 54

Containing the same root or stem, as the words wise and wisdom.

Front 55

hypethral \hi-PEE-thruhl\, adjective

Back 55

(Of a classical building) wholly or partly open to the sky.

Front 56

qualia
noun

Back 56

1. A quality, as bitterness, regarded as an independent object.
2. A sense-datum or feeling having a distinctive quality.

Front 57

mote
noun

Back 57

1. A small particle or speck, especially of dust.
2. Moit.

Front 58

baccate \BAK-eyt\, adjective

Back 58

1. Berrylike.
2. Bearing berries.

Front 59

tawpie \TAW-pee\, noun

Back 59

A foolish or thoughtless young person.

Front 60

nubilous \NOO-buh-luhs\, adjective

Back 60

1. Cloudy or foggy.
2. Obscure or vague; indefinite.

Front 61

Bildungsroman \BIL-doongz-roh-mahn\, noun

Back 61

A type of novel concerned with the education, development, and maturing of a young protagonist.

Hint 61

Unlike David Copperfield, The Catcher in the Rye is no Bildungsroman, because the narrator/protagonist doesn't want to grow up.
-- John Sutherland and Stephen Fender, Love, Sex, Death & Words

Front 62

precipitancy
noun

Back 62

1. Headlong or rash haste.
2. The quality or state of being precipitant.
3. Precipitancies, hasty or rash acts.

Front 63

usageaster \YOO-sij-as-ter\, noun

Back 63

A self-styled authority on language usage.

Hint 63

Newman went on to voice sentiments held by other usageasters: I think that slang adds richness and originality to English.
-- Charlton Grant Laird and Phillip C. Boardman, The Legacy of Language

Front 64

traject
verb

Back 64

To transport, transmit, or transpose.

Front 65

banausic \buh-NAW-sik\, adjective

Back 65

Serving utilitarian purposes only; mechanical; practical: architecture that was more banausic than inspired.

Front 66

intrapreneur \in-truh-pruh-NUR\, noun

Back 66

An employee of a large corporation who is given freedom and financial support to create new products, services, systems, etc., and does not have to follow the corporation's usual routines or protocols.

Front 67

incondite \in-KON-dit\, adjective

Back 67

1. Ill-constructed; unpolished: incondite prose.
2. Crude; rough; unmannerly.

Front 68

hew
verb

Back 68

1. To uphold, follow closely, or conform (usually followed by to): to hew to the tenets of one's political party.
2. To strike with cutting blows; cut: He hewed more vigorously each time.
3. To strike forcibly with an ax, sword, or other cutting instrument; chop; hack.
4. To make, shape, smooth, etc., with cutting blows: to hew a passage through the crowd; to hew a statue from marble.

Front 69

compeer \kuhm-PEER\, noun/verb

Back 69

1. Close friend; comrade.
2. An equal in rank, ability, accomplishment, etc.; peer; colleague.

verb:
1. Archaic. To be the equal of; match.

Front 70

billet-doux \BIL-ey-DOO\, noun;
plural billets-doux \bil-ay-DOO(Z)

Back 70

a love letter

Front 71

cathect \kuh-THEKT\, verb

Back 71

To invest emotion or feeling in an idea, object, or another person.

Front 72

concatenate
verb/adj

Back 72

1. To link together; unite in a series or chain.

adjective:
1. Linked together, as in a chain.