Vocabulary: Words & Phrases
"A paradise for puerility." --Nero Wolfe, from Too Many Women, by Rex Stout
In no particular order...:
malignant: disposed to do evil; highly injurious; pernicious; pathology: cancerous, metastisizing
"acute malignant optimism"
apodictical: necessarily or demonstrably true; incontrovertible
chousing: cheating, swindling
demirep: a person of doubtful reputation or respectability
"...that volitale demirep." --Nero Wolfe, from Too Many Women, by Rex Stout
dysgenic: causing deterioration of hereditary qualities of a stock
exigency: urgency
fatuous: vacuously, smugly, and unconsciously foolish
mahallebi
mahaleb: A small Eurasian ornamental tree of the rose family.
mendacity: lying, deceitful
"Surely you don't credit me with a monopoly on mendacity." --Nero Wolfe, from Too Many Women, by Rex Stout
misogyny: hatred of women
misandry: ?? wrong husband? ?hatred of husband?
morass: an engulfing, overwhelming hindrance
"This morass of futility has given me indigestion." --Nero Wolfe, from Too Many Women, by Rex Stout
obreptitious: ??[ob=prefix meaning inversely]
"What the devil is obreptitious about that?" --Nero Wolfe, from Too Many Women, by Rex Stout
opprobrium: the state of being scornfully reproached; reproach mingled with disdain
paroxysmal: violent outburst of emotion or action
propinquity: nearness in space or time; kinship
purerility: childishness, juvenility
"a paradise for puerility" --Nero Wolfe, from Too Many Women, by Rex Stout
sennight: a week
sitzenlust: opposite of 'wonderlust', according to Archie Goodwin, and of course, Nero Wolfe has it...
temerarious: resumptuously or recklessly daring; bold, rash
" Is that temerarious?" --Nero Wolfe, from Too Many Women, by Rex Stout
choler
"I wouldn't care to stir the choler of a demon." --Nero Wolfe, from Too Many Women, by Rex Stout
dystopia: highly technical, utilitarian
utopia: place of ideal perfection
eutopia: ?? same as utopia?
otopia: ??
imbroglio: a roiled mess; a confused state of affairs
ebullient: full of enthusiasm; exuberant; boiling or bubbling up
zealotry: the act of being overly zealous, as if with religious fervor?
halcyon: peaceful
probative: substantiating
flout: scorn
tenditious: biased
putative: supposed; reputed
prosaic: commonplace, dull, ordinary; of or like prose
tenet: an opinion, principle, dogma believed or maintained as true
rehearse: do it again until you get it right; opp: hearse-do it the first time if it kills you... *snicker*
metonymy: figure of speech
eruct: burp, belch
egregious: outstanding for undesirable qualities; remarkably bad; flagrant
"If I could lie with your aplomb, I would be an ambassador." --Nero Wolfe, from Too Many Women, by Rex Stout
sagacity: wise-ness
"No special sagacity was required." --Nero Wolfe, from Too Many Women, by Rex Stout
peccant: guilty of a moral offense
visus interruptus: turning the head to look behind while heading in a forward direction
fatuous: foolish and silly in a self-satisfied way; inane
churlish: rudeness, surliness; stinginess
onerous: burdonsome or oppresive
truculent: savage, cruel, belligerent; scathing
blatherskate: "Do you take me for a maudlin blatherskate?" --Nero Wolfe, from Too Many Women, by Rex Stout
argent: demanding
turgid: excessively ornate or complex in style or language, grandiloquent; swollen or distended --from Stainless Steel Rat Sings the Blues by Harry Harrison
blenched: comb. of blanched + bleached
"The other man blenched." --from Leonard Tourney's Matthew & Joan Stock series
vitiated: corrupted; reduced in value
beshrew: curse; invoke evil upon
redoubtable: arousing fear, awe; formidable; worthy of respect, honor
"...our redoubtable constable." --from Witness of Bones by Leonard Tourney
quondam: former, erstwhile
"...was a quondam pirate." --from Knaves Templar by Leonard Tourney
caudle; caudel: hot caudle: warm wine or ale mixed with sugar, eggs, bread, and various spices
pusillanimous: lacking courage, cowardly
""...a pusillanimous idiot..." --from Knaves Templar by Leonard Tourney
leaping house: whore house?
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