indigent

indigent \IN-dih-juhnt\, adjective:

Extremely poor; not having the necessities of life, such as food, clothing and shelter.

That which goes under the general Name of Charity... consists in relieving the Indigent.
-- Joseph Addison, The Spectator

Long-term reliance on Government benefits is corrupting for the well-to-do and the indigent alike, Mr. Longman argues.
-- Nicholas Eberstadt, "The Great Chain Letter", review of The Return Of Thrift, by Phillip Longman, New York Times, August 4, 1996

In a landmark case 35 years ago, Gideon v Wainwright, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled that indigent defendants must be provided with a lawyer at state expense because there could be no fair trial in a serious criminal case without one.
-- "Too poor to be defended", The Economist, April 9, 1998

Indigent derives from Latin indigens, indigent-, present participle of indigere, "to need."

interpolate

interpolate \in-TUR-puh-layt\, transitive verb:

1. To alter or corrupt (as a book or text) by the insertion of new or foreign matter.
2. To insert (material) into a text or conversation.
3. To insert between other elements or parts.
4. [Mathematics] to estimate a value of (a function) between two known values.
5. To make insertions.

Twenty years earlier, Rodgers was not so pleased when, at the request of the star Belle Baker, Berlin had written a song for her to interpolate into an otherwise all-Rodgers-and-Hart score for the Broadway musical "Betsy."
-- Richard Corliss, "That Old Feeling: A Berlin Bio-pic", Time, December 30, 2001

The staging is by Peter Konwitschny, one of Germany's most progressive directors, and the controversy derives from his decision to interpolate an on-stage disruption that breaks the score at a crucial moment and leads to an additional scene of dialogue.
-- Tim Ashley, "Wagner interrupted", The Guardian, November 23, 2002

A new cover might be designed to replace the original one if a song sold well enough to warrant further printings, however, particularly if the piece had been taken up by a popular performer or interpolated into a show.
-- Charles Hamm, Irving Berlin: Songs from the Melting Pot

To that end, contends Judis, echoing the Progressive-era founder of the New Republic Herbert Croly, we need strong, multifaceted federal institutions that set rules, impose limits, and interpolate themselves into nearly every sphere of society.
-- Chester E. Finn Jr., "The Paradox of American Democracy", Commentary, March 2000

Interpolate comes from the past participle of Latin interpolare, "to polish up, to furbish, to vamp up; hence to falsify," from inter-, "between" + polire, "to polish."

mazy

mazy \MAY-zee\, adjective:

Resembling a maze in form or complexity; winding; intricate; confusing; perplexing.

All day and all night, the waves threw themselves dementedly against their rocky barricade, sending an endless roar like heavy traffic through the glacial rooms and mazy, echoing corridors of the old house.
-- Jonathan Coe, The House of Sleep

By now some 20 characters are caught in the turns and baffles of Mr. Dunne's mazy plot.
-- George Stade, "A Fisherman of Guilt", New York Times, March 28, 1982

Unfortunately, the result is a dense, mazy book, a book that instead of illuminating the artist's work only succeeds in erecting a pretentious literary scrim between it and the average reader.
-- Michiko Kakutani, review of About Rothko, by Dore Ashton, New York Times, November 7, 1983

Mazy is the adjective form of maze, which comes from Middle English mase, from masen, "to confuse, to daze," from Old English amasian, "to confound." It is related to amaze, which originally meant "to bewilder."

harbinger

harbinger \HAR-bin-juhr\, noun:

1. (Archaic) One who provides lodgings; especially, the officer of the English royal household who formerly preceded the court when traveling, to provide and prepare lodgings.
2. A forerunner; a precursor; one that presages or foreshadows what is to come.
3. To signal the approach of; to presage; to be a harbinger of.

Comets have been mistakenly interpreted by humans in times past as harbingers of doom, foretelling famine, plague, and destruction.
-- Walter Alvarez, T. Rex and the Crater of Doom

More than the steamboat, more than anything else, the railroads were the harbinger of the future, and the future was the Industrial Revolution.
-- Stephen E. Ambrose, Nothing Like It In the World

The airy draughts felt to him like the undoing of everything, the unfastening of ties, a harbinger of chaos.
-- Pauline Melville, The Ventriloquist's Tale

Harbinger, which originally signified a person sent ahead to arrange lodgings, derives from Middle English herbergeour, "one who supplies lodgings," from Old French herbergeor, from herbergier, "to provide lodging for," from herberge, "a lodging, an inn" (cp. modern French auberge), ultimately of Germanic origin.

Cockaigne

Cockaigne \kah-KAYN\, noun:

An imaginary land of ease and luxury.

Outside, in the dark, a wobbly patch of life upon the blue snow, the deer perhaps browsed, her soft blob of a nose rapturously sunk in the chilly winter greenery, her modest brain-stem steeped in some dream of a Cockaigne for herbivores.
-- John Updike, Toward the End of Time

Everyone was seeking renewal, a golden century, a Cockaigne of the spirit.
-- Umberto Eco, Foucault's Pendulum

Cockaigne comes from Middle English cokaygne, from Middle French (pais de) cocaigne "(land of) plenty," ultimately adapted or derived from a word meaning "cake."

forlorn

forlorn \fur-LORN; for-\, adjective:

1. Sad and lonely because deserted, abandoned, or lost.
2. Bereft; forsaken.
3. Wretched or pitiful in appearance or condition.
4. Almost hopeless; desperate.

Henry had felt guilty at abandoning his sister; he had married not once but twice, leaving Rose forlorn.
-- Anita Brookner, Visitors

In these forlorn regions of unknowable dreary space, this reservoir of frost and snow, where firm fields of ice, the accumulation of centuries of winters, glazed in Alpine heights above heights, surround the pole, and concentre the multiplied rigours of extreme cold.
-- Francis Spufford, I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination

Bloch remembers that Stephen was a member of the Milk Squad, comprised of children who were considered to need extra nutrition, and early photographs do show him as one of the smaller boys, in the front row, looking forlorn.
-- Meryle Secrest, Stephen Sondheim: A Life

Forlorn comes from Old English forleosan, "to abandon," from for- + leosan, "to lose."

glutinous

glutinous \GLOOT-nuhs\, adjective:

Of the nature of glue; resembling glue; sticky.

What do you mean? I said, my mouth glutinous with melted marshmallow and caramel.
-- T. Coraghessan Boyle, T. C. Boyle Stories

At this point Leonardo wakes, decides the sensation is extraordinary but not death, and gazing up through the glutinous film of boiled carrot drippings, says: No, Salai will be riding a horse.
-- R. M. Berry, Leonardo's Horse

Besides, the sensation of glutinous raw egg-yolk sliding down my throat like a plump mollusc would not necessarily be helpful in my current state.
-- Victoria Moore, "Dog daze - young alcoholics' way of life", New Statesman, January 1, 1999

Glutinous derives from Latin glutinosus, from gluten, glutin-, "glue."