what did you look up? (best, human, prose)

[Firehorse66]

New words I learned from "Eyrie" by Tim Winton. Firstly, I had to look up the actual name of the book!

eyrie...a bird's nest built high on a mountain or cliff.
bunging...to plug with a cork or stopper
naff...lacking taste or style
bebop...a type of jazz
brio...liveliness
gyres...to move in a circle or spiral
welter...to roll about
fatuous...smugly stupid
furze...a spiny shrub
salvo...to discharge firearms simultaneously
bitumen...an asphalt
derrick...a hoisting apparatus
sloughy...swampy
querulous...inclined to find fault
sedge...a marsh plant
malevolent...wishing evil or harm to others
bilious...pertaining to bile
bulwark...to fortify with a defensive wall
skint...having no money
maudlin...excessively emotional
frisson...a shudder
chook...a chicken
torpid...a racing boat
histrionic...overacted or overacting
jape...to mock
aggro...a rivalry or grievance
chary...cautious
architrave...in a classical building: the beam resting directly on the tops of the columns
jarrah...an evergreen tree
pleb...a commoner
epicene...one having both male and female characteristics
faffing...to make a fuss
traduced...defamed
skeins...to wind into long, loose coils
miasma...a noxious vapor
faunal...the animal life of a particular region
febrile...feverish
macula...a spot
brollies...umbrellas
comestibles...food
chanteuse...a woman singer
claque...a group of hired applauders
transom...a small window above a door or another window
swarf...material removed by a cutting tool
scrofulous...a tuberculosis of the lymphatic glands, especially of the neck
midden...a dunghill
groyne...a structure built to protect a shore from erosion
purulent...secreting pus
ordure...manure
malodorous...having a bad odor
penumbra...a partial shadow
bauxite...an ore of aluminum
pantheon...a temple dedicated to all the gods
phalanx...a formation of infantry in ancient Greece
busker...a roaming entertainer
manky...inferior, defective
nabob...one who becomes rich and prominent
hawser...a mooring rope
huzzah...to cheer
trevally...an Australian food fish
pollard...to cut the top branches of a tree back to the trunk
bollard...a thick post on a ship or wharf
foetid...having an offensive odor
muzzy...confused
dragooned...to harass by the use of troops
gormless...stupid
numbat...a small Australian animal

[Firehorse66]

Words I looked up from "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern.

gnomon...a part of a sundial
onomatopoeia...the formulation of words by imitating sounds
tractable...easily managed; docile; complacent
bardic...poetic
incendiary...having to do with the willful destruction of property by fire
fretwork...ornamental work consisting of interlacing parts
sarcophagus...a stone coffin, esp. one exposed to view, as in a tomb
lascivious...characterized by or expressing lust
courtesan...a prostitute
hilt...the handle of a sword, dagger or tool
clandestine...secret or hidden
diaphanous...transparent or translucent
labyrinth...a structure containing winding passages hard to follow without losing one's way
carmine...a vivid red color
mercurial...quick, changeable, fickle
juxtaposition...to put side by side or matched
inimitable...that cannot be imitated
cacophony...harsh, jarring sound
eiswein...a sweet German wine
gryphon...a mythological creature
wyverns...two-legged dragons
pontificating...to be pompous or dogmatic
proscenium...in a theater, the plane separating the stage proper from the audience and including the arch and the
curtain within it
penultimate...next to the last
amalgam...an alloy of mercury with another metal
antimony...a metallic element
ankh...an Egyptian symbol of enduring life

[oeccscclhjhn]

cirque .. an amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion

Sorrel is a reddish coat color in a horse lacking any black

gewgaws..a showy thing, especially one that is useless or worthless

.

[oeccscclhjhn]

posse comitatus - a body of men, typically armed, summoned by a sheriff to enforce the law.

swathers and balers - hay makers

prehensile .. (chiefly of an animal's limb or tail) capable of grasping.

[jbgusa]

Originally Posted by oeccscclhjhn

posse comitatus - a body of men, typically armed, summoned by a sheriff to enforce the law.

swathers and balers - hay makers

prehensile .. (chiefly of an animal's limb or tail) capable of grasping.

I knew #1 and #3. Thank you for teaching me swathers and balers. It saved me from (having to) look (it) up.

[GoldenHair]

What did I look up?

I looked up the hyperbolic cosine of 1.55 which turns out to be 2.46186.

[GearHeadDave]

Originally Posted by GoldenHair

What did I look up?

I looked up the hyperbolic cosine of 1.55 which turns out to be 2.46186.

Last time I had to do anything like that was back in undergraduate Calculus class. What book were you reading that required that?

[GoldenHair]

Originally Posted by GearHeadDave

Last time I had to do anything like that was back in undergraduate Calculus class. What book were you reading that required that?

None. I was just curious and wanted to contribute to the discussion.

[oeccscclhjhn]

tautology ... the saying of the same thing twice in different word

Pittman's stenographic system

pemmican ... a mixture of tallow, dried meat and dried berries used as a nutritious food

.

[GoldenHair]

Originally Posted by oeccscclhjhn

pemmican ... a mixture of tallow, dried meat and dried berries used as a nutritious food.

Used extensively in the game RimWorld if you want to keep your colony alive.