SubfuscAdjective, chiefly British.
Drab, Dusky.
[Origin: Latin subfuscus brownish, dusky, from sub– + fuscus dark brown.]
(1710)
“Phelan straightened in the pew, then relaxed his spine against the seat’s backrest. He noticed that the church was growing darker around him, the shadows more subfusc. – The Ghosts of Sleath, James Herbert.
BenightedAdjective.
1: overtaken by darkness or night.
2: existing in a state of intellectual, moral, or social darkness: unenlightened.
-benightedly, adverb.
-benightedness, noun.
(15th Century).
“Yes, she did sing,” he said, “but only as a stand-in, an understudy, a second-best, and she couldn’t bear it, she needed her big break. She was mortally jealous of Sophia. So she pushed her luck, she got her poor benighted brother to attack Sophia, so that she would be able to take her place on stage, a simple idea.” – The Three Evangelists, Fred Vargas.
Vivandière¹ Noun.
A woman who is a sutler.*
[Origin: French, feminine of vivandier sutler, from Old French, hospitable man, alteration of viandier, from viande, viaunde item of food.]
(1844)
*Sutler, noun: a civilian provisioner to an army post often with a shop on the post.
[Origin: obsolete Dutch soeteler, from Low German suteler sloppy worker, camp cook.]
(1599)
“Agnes turned to the gray-haired woman who was limping toward her. Despite her fifty years, and her slightly stooped gait, Mother Barbara still cut an impressive figure. Her eyes were bright as those of a girl of twenty, and she combed her ample, should-length hair every morning. She had once been the most beautiful whore in the baggage train, but then an intoxicated landsknecht had broken both her legs in a fight, and now she earned her living as a vivandière.” The Castle of Kings, Oliver Pötzsch.
¹ You can read more about vivandières and Cantinières here, and it’s fascinating reading.
Vixen / Gambol / BlitheVixen, noun.
1: a shrewish ill-tempered woman.
2: a female fox.
3: a sexually attractive woman.
-vixenish, adjective.
[Origin: Middle English (Southern dialect) *vixen, alteration of Middle English fixen, from Old English fyxe, feminine of fox.]
(1590)
“The Fox was just that, a monstrous fox: five hundredweight or more of tense power, quick as an arrow, straight as a javelin, bright as a new-polished sword-blade, and female as Eve; Hob could see immediately that it was a vixen. Tall and deadly and graceful: the Goddess of the Foxes.”
Gambol, intransitive verb -boled or -bolled; -boling or -bolling. To skip about in play, to frisk, frolic.
Gambol, noun: a skipping or leaping about in play.
[Origin: modification of Middle French gambade spring of a horse, gambol, probably from Old Occitan camba leg, from Late Latin.]
(1508-10)
“Through Hob’s frozen terror a thought came faintly to him: it was gamboling, it was playing at slaughter.”
Blithe, adjective.
1: of a happy lighthearted character or disposition.
2: lacking due thought or consideration: casual, heedless: blithe unconcern.
-blithely, adverb.
[Origin: Middle English, from Old English blīthe; akin to Old High German Blīdi joyous.]
(Before 12th Century)
“The Fox sprang from place to place, blithe as a new lamb, and each leap left a mortally wounded man behind. Now and again it would pause to survey its accomplishments, and then the crimson tongue would loll out over serried teeth, and Hob felt that it was laughing.”
All from Something Red, by Douglas Nicholas.
Scapegrace / Lucubrations / Odium
Scapegrace, noun: an incorrigible rascal; a habitually unscrupulous person; a complete rogue.
(1763)
“In 1890 and 1891, the scapegrace Walter James Chadwick lived in Hulme, Manchester.”
Lucubration, noun: laborious or intensive study; also: the product of such study, usually used in the plural.
[Origin: Latin lucubration-, lucubratio study by night, work produced at night, from lucubrare to work by lamplight; akin to Latin luc-, lux.]
“There were some initial police lucubrations that it might not be a case of murder at all, since the drunk Annie Yates might have slipped and struck her head against the furniture; when she wanted to bandage her wound with the towel, she had passed out, and been suffocated by the towel slipping over her nose and mouth.”
(1595)
Odium, noun.
1: the state or fact of being subjected to hatred and contempt as a result of a despicable act or blameworthy circumstance.
2: hatred and condemnation accompanied by loathing or contempt: detestation.
3: disrepute or infamy attached to something: opprobrium.
[Origin: Latin, hatred, from odisse to hate; akin to Old English atol terrible, Greek odyssasthai to be angry.]
(1602)
“Two professional translators were employed to prepare French and German versions of the police placard, for insertion in the main newspapers of those countries; there was odium when the German version was found to contain a long list of linguistic lapses, and Dr. Althschul, the professional translator, had to submit a ten-page memorandum in his defence, saying that it was all just jealousy from colleagues who envied his position.”
All from Rivals of the Ripper: Unsolved Murders of Women in Late Victorian London, Jan Bondeson.
We have two words today, because they are both from the same book, and I did not wish to choose between them.
Salubrious, adjective: favourable to or promoting health or well-being.
-salubriously, adverb.
-salubriousness, noun.
-salubrity, noun.
[Origin: Latin salubris; akin to salvus safe, healthy.]
(1547)
“Bloomsbury to the north and Soho to the west were far from salubrious parts of London, but St. Giles’s remained one of the worst blackspots on the London map until the 1890s.” – Rivals of the Ripper: Unsolved Murders of Women in Late Victorian London, Jan Bondeson.
Obliquity, noun, plural -ties.
1: deviation from moral rectitude or sound thinking.
2a: deviation from parallelism or perpendicularity; also: the amount of such a deviation. b: the angle between the planes of the earth’s equator and orbit having a value of about 23°27′.
3a: indirectness or deliberate obscurity of speech or conduct. b: an obscure or confusing statement.
[Origin: Middle French obliquité from Latin obliquitatem slanting direction, obliquity.]
(15th Century)
“The Era newspaper blamed the police for their hounding of Smith and insisted that ‘the mental obliquity and professional incapacity displayed by the police in getting up the case against Smith, for the Cannon Street murder, shows more than ever the absolute necessity that exists for the establishment of a public prosecutor’. – Rivals of the Ripper: Unsolved Murders of Women in Late Victorian London, Jan Bondeson.
These two words definitely do not belong together, but I love the way they sound together: Salubrious Obliquity.
DeadpanAdjective.
Marked by an impassive matter-of-fact manner, style, or expression.
-deadpan, adverb.
(C 1928)
Noun.
1: a completely expressionless face.
2: a deadpan manner of behaviour or presentation.
(C 1930)
Transitive Verb.
To express in a deadpan manner.
-deadpanner, noun.
(C 1942)
“Cold enough,” Tristan hazarded, “to form a Bose-Einstein condensate?” “I love it when you talk dirty,” Oda said, so perfectly deadpan that I did a double take.” – The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland.
HeterodoxAdjective.
1: contrary to or different from an acknowledged standard, a traditional form, or an established religion: Unorthodox, Unconventional <heterodox ideas>
2: holding unorthodox opinions or doctrines.
[Origin: Late Latin heterodoxus, from Greek heterodoxos, from heter– + doxa opinion.]
(1650)
“A verifiable fallen academic (from the American University and Tufts, among others), Marston had a gift for dressing sensationally vulgar ideas in pseudo-intellectual jargon, and he exploited it for a few years in Hollywood, advising the studios on how to maneuver around the Hays Office censors and sneak sex in films through symbolism and coded language. Relocated to New York and the publishing industry, he hustled pseudoscience and heterodox titillation through comics and popular magazines (in bylined articles, interviews, and the advertisements for Gillette Razor Blades). – The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, David Hadju.
LineamentNoun.
1 a: an outline, feature, or contour of a body or figure and especially of a face – usually used in plural. b: a linear topographic feature (as of the earth) that reveals a characteristic (as a fault or the subsurface structure).
2: a distinguishing or characteristic feature – usually used in plural.
– lineamental, adjective.
[Origin: Middle English, from Latin lineamentum, from lineare to draw a line, from linea.]
(15th C.)
“To open the female body was not just to embark upon a voyage of scientific discovery, but it was also to trace the lineaments of the rebellious nature of womankind. That rebellious nature could undermine the smooth transfer of material goods from one generation to the next, just as, in the garden of Eden, it had seemed to undermine the divine plan itself. Every female body which found its way into the anatomy theatre was, therefore, a potential second Eve, just as every male body was a potential second Adam. To be an Eve, however, was very different from being an Adam within the patriarchal structure of early-modern culture. If the Renaissance anatomy theatre, in its modes of ritual and representation, offered the suggestion of redemption to the male cadaver, what it offered to the female was the reverse: a demonstration of Eve’s sin, a reinforcement of those structures of patriarchal control which, so the argument ran, were necessary to avoid a repetition of that first act of rebellion in the garden of Paradise.” – The Body Emblazoned, Dissection and the Human Body in Renaissance Culture, Jonathan Sawday.
Note: This book is still available, and considerably less expensive than back when it was first published. Recommended, it’s a fascinating read all the way through.
RuseNoun.
1: a wily subterfuge.
2: an action intended to mislead, deceive, or trick; stratagem.
[Origin: French, from Old French, roundabout path taken by fleeing game, trickery, from reuser. Early 15c., “dodging movements of a hunted animal; 1620s, a trick, from Old French ruse, reuse diversion, switch in flight; trick, jest (14c.), back-formed noun from reuser to dodge, repel, retreat; deceive, cheat,” from Latin recusare deny, reject, oppose, from re– + causari plead as a reason, object, allege, from causa reason, cause]
(1375-1425)
“She was already thinking of how she may use the astrologer to negotiate a better fee with the Village Chief. The stars and their confluence could at first be hard to read, leaving some uncertainty about whether the two prospective spouses were well suited to each other. Then, if the groom was steadfast on getting the bride that he had his eyes on, for an additional fee the matchmaker could be convinced to get a second astrologer’s interpretation, one more auspicious and conforming to the will of heaven. She had been doing her trade throughout several provinces for years, and that ruse had yet to fail her. – Village Teacher, by Neihtn.
Note: Village Teacher is an excellent story, recommended.
In an unprecedented move to bolster innovation in learning, a new course centered around a video game was launched this fall at Texas A&M University. The course uses the video game ARTé: Mecenas, developed by Triseum. It includes faculty-led lectures and immersive game play whereby students are transported to the 15th and 16th centuries to commission works of art as a Medici banker. Students can earn one credit hour for achieving 100 percent mastery in the game.
[…]
André Thomas, CEO of Triseum and a professor at Texas A&M University, spoke about the development of the game and its applications:
“ARTé: Mecenas was created out of necessity. I was approached by a faculty member at Texas A&M, Dr. Spurgeon, who was teaching Art History Survey to non-art students. In just two semesters she had to cover 5,000 years of human art history on a global scale, which is like trying to see Europe in a speed train in a week. She wanted to provide more context and deeper meaning for her students, and thought this could be accomplished through a game. Since 97% of students play games for four hours or more every week, it seemed to be an ideal way to engage students with the course content. She came to me to help design and develop an art history game that not only would teach students about the art and its relevance, but one that also would be engaging.
You can read more at Medievalists and Triseum.
TermagantNoun.
1: Capitalized: a deity erroneously ascribed to Islam by medieval European Christians and represented in early English drama as a violent character.
2: an overbearing or nagging woman: shrew.
[Origin: Middle English Termagaunt, Tervagaunt, Old French Tervagan the imaginary deity: c.1500, “violent, overbearing person” (especially of women), from Teruagant, Teruagaunt (c.1200), name of fictitious Muslim deity appearing in medieval morality plays, from Old French Tervagant, a proper name in “Chanson de Roland” (c.1100), of uncertain origin.
Termagant, adjective: overbearing, shrewish. (C 1598)
“The Englishman hardly knew whether to put him down as a man haunted by a fixed delusion, or as one oppressed by a guilty conscience, or as an unbearably henpecked husband. The probabilities, when reckoned up, certainly pointed to the last idea; but, still, the impression conveyed was that of a more formidable persecutor even than a termagant wife.” – Canon Alberic’s Scrap-Book, M.R. James.
MonstranceNoun.
A vessel in which the consecrated host is exposed for the adoration of the faithful. Example.
[Origin: Middle English mustraunce, monstrans demonstration, monstrance from Anglo-French mustrance show, sign, from Medieval Latin monstrantia, from Latin monstrare to show, from monstrum.]
(15th Century)
There’s also a monstrance clock: The monstrance clock, or mirror clock, developed during the Renaissance. The monstrance was a cross-shaped gold or silver vessel which played an important part in church ritual and often incorporated sacred figures as part of the design. The clock made use of a rotating ball at the top or in the base to indicate the time of day.
“Two years ago, the clock tower had collapsed, almost completely destroying the choir loft and the vestry at a time when more than hundred people were in the church. An elderly widow, Regina Reichart, was crushed in the rubble, and took three days and three nights of digging to find the buried monstrance.” – The Play of Death, Oliver Pötzsch.
Given that monstrance means to demonstrate or show, I think it would a fine word for those who insist on demonstrating their assholism.
And…
Ghost – Monstrance Clock. If you don’t know:
In the last tour, Papa Emeritus III had a monologue about this song, that was usually said before it: in the end and summing it up, he says it’s a song that” paints a picture of how the female orgasm can be achievied”, as it is deemed as “a craft of the devil”. In the monologue, Papa also talks about sexual encounters and the synchrony and affinity between a two people, reaching orgasm together.
