Billingsgate (BIL ingz gate)
noun
Billingsgate is foul and abusive language, coarse invective. The word comes from Billingsgate, London, for hundreds of years the site and name of a fish market where fish sellers and porters were notorious for their foul, coarse language. The market was near a gate in the old city wall named after [...]
Abjure
(ab JOOHR) verb
To abjure something is to renounce it, retract, repudiate, forswear it. Abjure comes from the Latin verb abjurare (to deny under oath); abjuration from Late Latin abjuratio (recantation); both are based on ab- (away) plus jurare (to swear). Reformed sinners abjure the errors of their ways. A number of American communists [...]
Haruspex
(huh RUS peks, HAIR uh speks) noun
This was the title, in ancient Rome, of a lower order of priests who prophesied by examining the entrails of animals killed in sacrifice. The custom was handed down by the Etruscans. The practice is known as haruspication (hair us puh KAY shun) or haruspicy (huh RUS puh see). [...]
Pecksniffian
(pek SNIF ee un) adjective
This wonderfully expressive word is applicable to any hypocrite endeavoring to impress upon his fellows that he is a person of great benevolence or high moral standards. It comes from a character named Seth Pecksniff, in Martin Chuzzlewit (another great name) by English novelist Charles Dickens (1812-1870), who described Pecksniff as [...]
Umbrageous
(um BRAY just) adj.
Umbrageous has two entirely distinct meanings. Its principal meaning is “shady,” in the sense of creating or providing shade, like the famus “…spreading chestnut tree…” (in the poem by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807-1882) under which “…the village smithy stands…” An umbrageous tree, then, is a shade tree. But an [...]
Numinous
(NOOH muh nus, NYOOH-) n. adj.
Anything described as numinous is spiritual, has a sacred quality, is mysterious and awe-inspiring. Numen (NOOH mun) is literally, “nod” in Latin, related to the verb nutare (to nod, or keep nodding), and by extension came to mean “divine will” (as indicated by the nod of a god). Numen [...]
Foofaraw
(FOOH fuh raw) n.
This bit of informal American, as well as its variant fofarraw (FOH fuh raw), has two distinct meanings; a big fuss about very little, i.e., much ado about nothing; or flashy finery, too many frills. Literary policeman’s question: “What’s going on here? What’s all the foofaraw about?” Or, in the second [...]
Defenestration
(dee fen ih STRAY shun) n.
Defenestration is the act of throwing someone (yes, someone!) or something out of a window. To defenestrate a person or a thing is to engage in that activity — a strange one indeed, since these words are more commonly applied to situations where what is thrown out of the [...]
Fustian
(FUS chun) n., adj.
A strange word, fustian, in the diversity and apparent dissociation of its several meanings. First of all, fustian is the name of a thick twilled cotton fabric, or a blend of cotton and flax or low grade wool with a short nap, usually dyed a dark color, and as an adjective, [...]
freebooter
(FREE booh tur) noun
A freebooter is a pirate or buccaneer, one who roves about freely in search of booty; an anglicization of the Dutch noun vrijbuiter, based on vriji (free) plus buit (booty). Vrijbuiter gave rise to another word, filibuster, first applied to the pirates of the West Indies in the 17th century, and later [...]
