palimpsest \PAL-imp-sest\ (noun) - 1 : A manuscript, usually of papyrus or parchment, on which more than one text has been written with the earlier writing incompletely erased and still visible. 2 : An object or place whose older layers or aspects are apparent beneath its surface.

"A palimpsest obscures what lies beneath. To build Pakistan it ...Read more

multifarious \muhl-tuh-FAIR-ee-uhs\ (adjective) - Having great diversity or variety; of various kinds; diversified.

"Others will follow, others will outstrip me on the same lines; and I hazard the guess that man will be ultimately known for a mere polity of multifarious, incongruous and independent denizens." -- Robert Louis Stevenson, 'The ...Read more

variegated \VAIR-ee-uh-gay-tid\ (adjective) - 1 : Having marks or patches of different colors; as, "variegated leaves or flowers." 2 : Varied; distinguished or characterized by variety; diversified.

"They also attempt to appraise its color, which can vary from a bluish-gray variegated with black and white to a tawny cream variegated with brown....Read more

incontrovertible \in-kon-truh-VUR-tuh-buhl\ (adjective) - Too clear or certain to admit of dispute; indisputable; unquestionable.

"In bread, You were offered an incontrovertible banner: give man bread and he will worship You, for nothing is more incontrovertible than bread..." -- Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 'The Karamazov Brothers'

ncontrovertible is...Read more

equable \EK-wuh-buhl; EE-kwuh-\ (adjective) - 1 : Equal and uniform; not varying. 2 : Not easily disturbed; not variable or changing -- said of the feelings, temper, etc.

"Jean, as fair as his brother was dark, as calm as his brother was hasty, as equable as his brother was irritable, had serenely read law and passed his diploma at the same ...Read more

appurtenance \uh-PUR-tn-un(t)s\, noun) - 1 : An adjunct; an accessory; something added to another, more important thing. 2 : [Plural]. Accessory objects; gear; apparatus. 3 : [Law]. An incidental right attached to a principal property right for purposes such as passage of title, conveyance, or inheritance.

"Close against the white blind hung a...Read more

malleable \MAL-ee-uh-buhl\ (adjective) - 1 : Capable of being extended or shaped by beating with a hammer, or by the pressure of rollers; -- applied to metals. 2 : Capable of being altered or controlled by outside forces; easily influenced. 3 : Capable of adjusting to changing circumstances; adaptable.

"If the heart were always malleable and ...Read more

disparate \DIS-puh-rit; dis-PAIR-it\ (adjective) - 1 : Fundamentally different or distinct in quality or kind. 2 : Composed of or including markedly dissimilar elements.

"Twelve of us, disparate artists with disparate work, had the museum to ourselves except for the docent who hovered around us, guarding permanent works from contagion." -- ...Read more

visage \VIZ-ij\ (noun) - 1 : The face, countenance, or look of a person or an animal; -- chiefly applied to the human face. 2 : Look; appearance; aspect.

"And then he put off his helm, and she saw his visage, she said, 'O sweet Jesu, thee I must love, and never other.' Then show me your visage,' said he." -- Thomas Malory, 'Le Morte D'Arthur'

...Read more

excoriate \ek-SKOR-ee-ayt\ (transitive verb) - 1 : To express strong disapproval of; to denounce. 2 : To tear or wear off the skin of.

"Most women would excoriate me for risking my baby's life this way. In another situation, I might do the same. But I'm not in another situation." -- Greg Iles, 'Blood Memory'

Excoriate comes from Late Latin ...Read more

autodidact \aw-toh-DY-dakt\ (noun) - One who is self-taught.

"It was the abstract, acidulous work of an autodidact who had previously made a series of unusual contributions to various marginal and rarefied branches of quantum physics." -- Stanislaw Lem, 'Solaris'

Autodidact is from Greek autodidaktos, "self-taught," from auto-, "self" + ...Read more

spoony \SPOO-nee\ (adjective) - 1 : Foolish; silly; excessively sentimental. 2 : Foolishly or sentimentally in love.

"They were real spoony on me, but I wasn't spoony on them one bit, Eliza, at least, not in my heart, which having been given to you, remained yours intact..." -- Lily Dougall, 'What Necessity Knows'

Spoony is from the slang term...Read more

temerity \tuh-MER-uh-tee\ (noun) - Unreasonable or foolhardy contempt of danger; rashness.

"Then, he had the temerity, the ivory-tower temerity, if I may be so bold, as to suggest that there are younger, and less well-known writers than I who should be given precedence in the course." -- Gilbert Sorrentino, 'Mulligan Stew'

Temerity comes from ...Read more

rapine \RAP-in\ (noun) - The act of plundering; the seizing and carrying away of another's property by force.

"Let us look again upon mankind: interest is stull the ruling motive, and the world is yet full of fraud and corruption, malevolence and rapine." -- Samuel Johnson, 'The Adventurer'

Rapine derives from Latin rapina, from rapere, "to ...Read more

pablum \PAB-luhm\ (noun) - Something (as writing or speech) that is trite, insipid, or simplistic.

"But even to her, the words sounded condescending, the kind of adult pablum he'd been forced to eat a hundred times." -- John Lescroart, 'The Second Chair'

Pablum comes from Pablum, a trademark used for a bland soft cereal for infants.

turgid \TUR-jid\ (adjective) - 1 : Swollen, bloated, puffed up; as, "a turgid limb." 2 : Swelling in style or language; bombastic, pompous; as, "a turgid style of speaking."

"Here and there among the turgid muddle, out of the impact of unassimilated things, comes a spark of real poetry." -- John Roderigo Dos Passos, 'Rosinante to the Road Again...Read more

virtu \vuhr-TOO; vir-\ (noun) - 1 : love of or taste for fine objects of art. 2 : Productions of art (especially fine antiques). 3 : Artistic quality.

'In the latter case, the new emblem held no personality or virtu until it had participated in noteworthy feats and so acquired status.' -- Jack Vance, 'Planet of Adventure'

Virtu comes from ...Read more

The mail carrier was juggling a passel of parcels.

In a way, that sentence is redundant. For "passel" is a shortening of "parcel." In fact, "passel" is one of a whole passel of English words formed by dropping the "r" from an existing word.

Today, we think of "parcel" as a package or a piece of something, such as land. But an older meaning ...Read more

appurtenance \uh-PUR-tn-un(t)s\ (noun) - 1 : An adjunct; an accessory; something added to another, more important thing. 2 : [Plural]. Accessory objects; gear; apparatus. 3 : [Law]. An incidental right attached to a principal property right for purposes such as passage of title, conveyance, or inheritance.

"Except as an appurtenance of the ...Read more

chicanery \shih-KAY-nuh-ree\ (noun) - 1 : The use of trickery or sophistry to deceive (as in matters of law). 2 : A trick; a subterfuge.

"It was therefore not yet obscured by that deep forest of chicanery and circumlocution which those two lawyers planted in it at the beginning of the sixteenth century." -- Victor Hugo, 'The Hunchback of Notre ...Read more