diktat

diktat \dik-TAHT\, noun:

1. A harsh settlement unilaterally imposed on a defeated party.
2. An authoritative decree or order.

Whether with the rapid reaction force or with the Bosnian government, the United States should vigorously support efforts to lift the siege of Sarajevo and help to piece back together a contiguous territory so that the Bosnian government can come to the bargaining table free of a Serbian diktat.
-- "Why Bosnia matters", Commonweal, July 14, 1995

And it would begin to encroach on another, more treasured, freedom: the right of the networks to broadcast what they choose independent of government diktat.
-- "Back to the smoke-filled room?", The Economist, February 25, 1995

Other important figures in the game said the problems would be better dealt with voluntarily than by diktat.
-- Denis Campbell, "Fifa back Vieira", The Guardian, September 22, 2002

Diktat comes from German, from Latin dictatum, neuter past participle of dictare, "to dictate." It is related to dictator.

interlocutor

interlocutor \in-ter-LOK-yuh-ter\, noun:

1. Someone who takes part in a conversation, often formally or officially.
2. The performer in a minstrel show who is placed midway between the end men and engages in banter with them.

In the course of an hour, Mukasey cracked jokes, asked an interlocutor not to address him with the honorary title "General" and continued to field questions even after his media director moved to get up from the table.
-- Carrie Johnson, "Highest Lawman Prepares to Meet Highest Court", Washington Post, March 22, 2008

Judge Richard Posner, of the appellate court in Chicago, has been the interlocutor for the contentious negotiations, which were raw with distrust on both sides, the sources said.
-- "Negotiators win time in Microsoft case", Business Report, March 28, 2000

The words promised excitement. I was going to be told something so confidential that my interlocutor not only didn't want to be named, but didn't want the information he was disclosing to be printed at all.
-- David Aaronovitch, "The Media Column: Why 'off the record' has to mean just that", Independent, May 21, 2002

Interlocutor is from Latin interlocutus, variant of interloqui "interrupt," from inter- "between" and loqui "speak."

chary

chary \CHAIR-ee\, adjective:

1. Wary; cautious.
2. Not giving or expending freely; sparing.

What do you suppose the Founding Fathers, so chary of overweening government power, would make of a prosecutor with virtually unlimited reach and a staff the size of a small town?
-- "U.S. trampling rights at home and abroad", Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 17, 1998

Investors should be chary, however, for the returns are far from sizzling.
-- "The Stampede Into Variable Annuities", Fortune, October 13, 1986

Bankers, consulted as to whether or not they believed that the full force of the decline had spent its fury, were chary of predictions.
-- "Leaders See Fear Waning", New York Times, October 30, 1929

Chary comes from Old English cearig, "careful, sorrowful," from cearu, "grief, sorrow, care."

delectation

delectation \dee-lek-TAY-shun\, noun:

Great pleasure; delight, enjoyment.

Example Quotes:

Even after the buffet had evolved into the more functional sideboard in the 18th century, lavish arrangements of silver and porcelain continued to be laid out for the delectation of guests at large dinners.
-- Pilar Viladas, "That's Entertaining!", New York Times, March 24, 2002

At other times she'll get so worked up by some pet poeticism that she forgets she's not writing just for her own delectation.
-- David Klinghoffer, "Black madonna", National Review, February 9, 1998

Example Sentences:

The smooth, quiet ride of his Prius made driving it a source of great delectation.
-- Brought to you by the 3rd Generation Prius

Delectation derives from Latin delectatio, from the past participle of delectare, "to please."

saturnine

saturnine \SAT-uhr-nyn\, adjective:

1. Born under or being under the astrological influence of the planet Saturn.
2. Gloomy or sullen in disposition.
3. Having a sardonic or bitter aspect.

His saturnine spirit appealed to younger bohemians who were anxious to make idols of an earlier generation's tormented souls, but even so, it cannot have been easy for Rothko always to be the pessimist among the optimists.
-- Jed Perl, review of Mark Rothko: A Biography by James E.B. Breslin, New Republic, January 24, 1994

A saturnine prison guard sits and broods -- and every now and then, gets up and shoots an unseen prisoner.
-- John Walsh, review of The Silence Between Two Thoughts, Independent, June 11, 2004

This captures perfectly the tone of his writing: saturnine, droll, with a fascinating, deliberate bureaucratic dowdiness.
-- Andrew Martin, "Class conscious", New Statesman, November 13, 2000

Saturnine comes from Saturn, in Medieval times believed to be the most remote planet from the Sun and thus coldest and slowest in its revolution.

rictus

rictus \RIK-tuhs\, noun:

1. The gape of the mouth, as of birds.
2. A gaping grin or grimace.

A rictus of cruel malignity lit up greyly their old bony faces.
-- James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

His belly swelled grotesquely, his hands curled, his cheeks puffed out, his mouth contorted in a rictus of pain and astonishment.
-- Tony Horwitz, Confederates in the Attic

Then, as the sympathy and praise engulfed him, Hector would invariably roll over onto his back, legs in the air, his mouth twisted into an otherworldly rictus.
-- Bruce McCall, "Writers Who Were Really Dogs", New York Times, June 5, 1994

Rictus is from Latin rictus, "the open mouth," from ringi, "to show the teeth."

truckle

truckle \TRUHK-uhl\, intransitive verb:

1. To yield or bend obsequiously to the will of another; to act in a subservient manner.
2. A small wheel or roller; a caster.

Only where there was a "defiance," a "refusal to truckle," a "distrust of all authority," they believed, would institutions "express human aspirations, not crush them."
-- Pauline Maier, "A More Perfect Union", New York Times, October 31, 1999

The son struggled to be obedient to the conventional, commercial values of the father and, at the same time, to maintain his own playful, creative innocence. This conflict could make him truckle in the face of power.
-- Dr. Margaret Brenman-Gibson, quoted in "Theater Friends Recall Life and Works of Odets," by Herbert Mitgang, New York Times, October 30, 1981

I am convinced that, broadly speaking, the audience must accept the piece on my own terms; that it is fatal to truckle to what one conceives to be popular taste.
-- Sidney Joseph Perelman, quoted in "The Perelman Papers," by Herbert Mitgang, New York Times, March 15, 1981

Truckle is from truckle in truckle bed (a low bed on wheels that may be pushed under another bed; also called a trundle bed), in reference to the fact that the truckle bed on which the pupil slept was rolled under the large bed of the master. The ultimate source of the word is Greek trokhos, "a wheel."

flout

flout \FLOWT\, transitive verb:

1. To treat with contempt and disregard; to show contempt for.
2. To mock, to scoff.
3. Mockery, scoffing.

The thorough training in the fine points of lyric writing that he has received from Hammerstein has made Sondheim highly critical of those lyricists who flout the basic techniques of the craft.
-- "Sondheim: Lyricist and Composer", New York Times, March 6, 1966

Seth and Dorothy were completely mystified by Janis's determination to flout as many social conventions as she could.
-- Alice Echols, Scars of Sweet Paradise

Who put your beauty to this flout and scorn
By dressing it in rags.
-- Tennyson, Idylls of the King

Flout comes from Middle English flouten, "to play the flute."

reticent

reticent \RET-ih-suhnt\, adjective:

1. Inclined to keep silent; reserved; uncommunicative.
2. Restrained or reserved in style.
3. Reluctant; unwilling.

His wispy eyebrows sit above eyes undimmed by more than forty years of serious scholarship; a tight-lipped smile suggests that there are many things he will not say about himself or his accomplishments. Indeed, he is almost painfully reticent about what most scholars now consider to be a monumental achievement in the field.
-- Marc K. Stengel, "The Diffusionists Have Landed", The Atlantic, January 2000

Within a circle of intimate friends, he's a very sociable person, says Russell Banks, another novelist, who has known Auster since 1977. "Outside of that circle, he's fairly shy and reticent."
-- "Case of the Brooklyn Symbolist", New York Times, August 30, 1992

People might be reticent to put a more sizable amount into their 401(k) because they're worried it will affect their lifestyle.
-- Alexandra Zendrian, "Feel The Retirement Burn", Forbes, July 29, 2009

Reticent comes from the present participle of Latin reticere, "to keep silent," from re- + tacere, "to be silent."

vet

vet \VET\, transitive verb:

1. To provide veterinary care for (an animal).
2. To provide (a person) with medical care.
3. To examine carefully; to subject to thorough appraisal; to evaluate.
4. To practice as a veterinarian.

She was the right age (in her fifties), and her personal background had been vetted during the Senate confirmation hearings.
-- Eleanor Clift and Tom Brazaitis, Madam President

The "Stasi files law," as it is popularly known, also made it possible to vet parliamentarians for Stasi connections.
-- John O. Koehler, Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police

Unlike, say, Bob Rubin (the Wall Street investment banker and incoming head of the National Economic Council), who probably needed half a law firm to vet his portfolio, I had no stocks or bonds.
-- George Stephanopoulos, All Too Human

Vet is short for veterinary or veterinarian, which comes from Latin veterinarius, "of or belonging to beasts of burden and draught," from veterinus, "of draught, of beasts of burden." The earlier sense was "to submit to examination or treatment by a veterinary surgeon," hence "to subject to thorough appraisal."

stultify

stultify \STUHL-tuh-fahy\, verb:

1. To render useless or ineffectual; cripple.
2. To cause to appear stupid, inconsistent, or ridiculous.
3. Law To allege or prove insane and so not legally responsible.

The word "civilization" to my mind is coupled with death. When I use the word, I see civilization as a crippling, thwarting thing, a stultifying thing. For me it was always so. I don't believe in the golden ages, you see... civilization is the arteriosclerosis of culture.
-- Henry Miller

It's different play… they're so busy building, they don't realize," says Kling. Although she notes that companies like Lego produce praiseworthy technological games, some technology can "stultify" children, but then, she adds, so can some board games.
-- Mel Bezalel, "Fun and games - and more", Jerusalem Post, July 27, 2009

Stultify is from Late Latin stultific&#257re, "to make foolish."

perorate

perorate \PUR-uh-rayt\, intransitive verb:

1. To conclude or sum up a long discourse.
2. To speak or expound at length; to declaim.

These people don't talk, they perorate, pontificate, bombast.
-- Jean Charbonneau, "Biographer's quest becomes self-searching journey", Denver Post, January 28, 2001

Our mother favored a staccato, stand-up style; if our father could perorate, she could condense.
-- Annie Dillard, "The Leg In The Christmas Stocking: What We Learned From Jokes", New York Times, December 7, 1986

You may perorate endlessly.
-- Richard Elman, "A Rap on Race", New York Times, June 27, 1971

Perorate comes from Latin perorare "to speak at length or to the end," from per-, "through, throughout," + orare, "to speak."

furbelow

furbelow \FUR-buh-low\, noun:

1. A pleated or gathered flounce on a woman's garment; a ruffle.
2. Something showy or superfluous; a bit of showy ornamentation.

In a season of ruffles, frills and furbelows, simple cuts in neutral shades stand out.
-- "Designers Head for Neutral Territory", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 27, 1997

Patience is required to get past some of the director's more baroque cinematic touches, decorating the story's dark center with visual furbelows . . . and aural gimmicks.
-- Lisa Schwarzbaum, "Movies: The Evil That Men Do", Entertainment Weekly, October 23, 1998

It is a story that, for all its hyper-animatedness, all its flips and furbelows of style, is confusing and wearisome.
-- Christine Stansell, "Details, Details", New Republic, December 10, 2001

Furbelow is perhaps an alteration of Italian faldella.

propitious

propitious \pruh-PISH-uhs\, adjective:

1. Presenting favorable circumstances or conditions.
2. Favorably inclined; gracious; benevolent.

Example Quotes:

By the early 1500s rice was being planted on the Cape Verde island most propitious for agriculture, Santiago.
-- Judith A. Carney, Black Rice

It is hard to imagine a less propitious start to a marriage: in a single blow Vincent forfeited the trust of his wife, the respect of her family, and the means of his own support.
-- Matthew Sturgis, Aubrey Beardsley: A Biography

Example Sentences:

Though he didn't believe in luck, he considered the birth of the child propitious for the expedition's success.
-- Brought to you by the 3rd Generation Prius

Propitious derives from Latin propitius, "favorable."

undulation

undulation \uhn-juh-LEY-shuhn, uhn-dyuh-, -duh-\, noun:

1. A regular rising and falling or movement to alternating sides; movement in waves.
2. A wavelike form, outline, or appearance.
3. One of a series of waves or wavelike segments.

Considering the difficulty of the golf course, the severe undulation of the greens, the magnitude of the event and the quality of the competition, Inkster ranked it as her greatest victory, particularly because she turned 42 last month.
-- Clifton Brown, "GOLF; One for the Ages, As Inkster Wins U.S. Open at 42", New York Times, July 8, 2004

Both works suggest depth; "Greenscreen" feels as if you could tumble into it, whereas "Mt. Shasta" depicts it via landscape. Even the hint at undulation achieved with subtle shifts in shadow echoes the mountain's shape.
-- Cate McQuaid, "An artist with breathtaking scope: Painter races from concept to caress", Boston Globe, January 17, 2008

Undulation is from Late Latin undula, "a small wave," diminutive of Latin unda, "wave."

bowdlerize

bowdlerize \BODE-luh-rise; BOWD-\, transitive verb:

1. To remove or modify the parts (of a book, for example) considered offensive.
2. To modify, as by shortening, simplifying, or distorting in style or content.

The president did not call for bowdlerizing all entertainment, but stressed keeping unsuitable material away from the eyes of children.
-- "Conference a start toward loosening grip of violence", Atlanta Journal, May 12, 1999

His tempestuous high school years are touched upon in a delightful scene where the precocious Roy infuriates his English teacher by trying to restore some of Shakespeare's saucier lines to that classroom's bowdlerized study of Hamlet.
-- Herman Goodden, "A Few Scenes in the Life of Roy McDonald", London Free Press, December 7, 2000

Gershwin bowdlerized his original operatic vision of "Porgy," simplifying it for Broadway. In 1976, the Houston Grand Opera, led by David Gockley, revived the original vision.
-- Richard Scheinin, "Gershwin's genius vividly displayed in 'Porgy' at S.F. Opera", Mercury News, June 10, 2009

Bowdlerize derives from the name Thomas Bowdler, an editor in Victorian times who rewrote Shakespeare, removing all profanity and sexual references so as not to offend the sensibilities of the audiences of his day.

dalliance

dalliance \DAL-ee-uhns, DAL-yuhns\, noun:

1. Frivolous spending of time; dawdling.
2. Playful flirtation.

Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven;
Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own rede.
-- William Shakespeare, Hamlet

The acceptance of the role as artistic directors of the company is not a dalliance, she said yesterday. "It is an absolute, firm commitment."
-- Angela Bennie, "Blanchett: theatre job 'no dalliance'", Sydney Morning Herald, November 11, 2006

Dalliance comes from Middle English daliaunce, which is probably from Old French or Anglo-French.

celerity

celerity \suh-LAIR-uh-tee\, noun:

Rapidity of motion or action; quickness; swiftness.

Though not in the best of physical form, he was capable of moving with celerity.
-- Malachy McCourt, A Monk Swimming: A Memoir

Furthermore, as is well known, computer technology grows obsolete with amazing celerity.
-- Alan S. Blinder and Richard E. Quandt, "The Computer and the Economy", The Atlantic, December 1997

The lightning celerity of his thought processes took you on a kind of helter-skelter ride of surreal non-sequiturs, sudden accesses of emotion and ribald asides, made all the more bizarre for being uttered in those honeyed tones by the impeccably elegant gent before you.
-- "A life full of frolics", The Guardian, May 19, 2001

Celerity is from Latin celeritas, from celer, "swift." It is related to accelerate.

furtive

furtive \FUR-tiv\, adjective:

1. Done by stealth; surreptitious; secret; as, a furtive look.
2. Expressive of stealth; sly; shifty; sneaky.
3. Stolen; obtained by stealth.
4. Given to stealing; thievish; pilfering.

He had always been more than willing to show me parts of [his notebook], whenever I asked him to; and naturally I had taken many furtive looks at its innermost pages when he wasn't around.
-- Michael Chabon, Werewolves in Their Youth

Exchanging furtive glances, they oozed a nervousness, perhaps in fear that some prewritten script would go awry.
-- Michael Bloomberg, Bloomberg by Bloomberg

Why did he keep looking around at all the other tables like that? It made him seem furtive, as if he didn't belong here, as if he were an intruder in so fine a place as this.
-- Mary McGarry Morris, Fiona Range

Furtive is from Latin furtivus, from furtum, "theft," from fur, "thief."

luminary

luminary \LOO-muh-nair-ee\, noun:

1. Any body that gives light, especially one of the heavenly bodies.
2. A person of eminence or brilliant achievement.

Example Quotes:

There's something comforting in those occasional lapses when a luminary lurches and trips over the humble stone his powerful torch somehow failed to reveal.
-- Brad Leithauser, "You Haven't Heard the Last of This", New York Times, August 30, 1998

. . .such jazz luminaries as Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford, Louis Armstrong, and Earl Hines.
-- Daniel Mark Epstein, Nat King Cole

Example Sentences:

Before winning the famous prize, she wasn't a luminary outside the scientific community.
-- Brought to you by the 3rd Generation Prius

Luminary derives from Latin luminare, "a window," from lumin-, lumen, "light."

cynosure

cynosure \SY-nuh-shoor; SIN-uh-shoor\, noun:

1. An object that serves as a focal point of attention and admiration.
2. That which serves to guide or direct.
3. [Capitalized]. The northern constellation Ursa Minor, which contains the North Star; also, the North Star itself.

The monarch, at the apex of court power and centre of its ritual, and the greatest patron of the arts, was the cynosure of this culture, standing (or, more usually, sitting) at the centre of a system of artistic practice intended to represent his or her sacred omnipotence and monopoly of power.
-- John Brewer, The Pleasures of the Imagination

Lucy is very pretty and becomes the cynosure not only of the aforementioned characters, but also of several faceless and epicene young men who also loiter about.
-- John Simon, "Stealing Beauty", National Review, July 15, 1996

Then, feeling himself the cynosure of every eye in the library, he extemporized a brief speech on his "lucky day."
-- Peter Schneider, Eduard's Homecoming

Cynosure derives from Latin cynosura, from Greek kunosoura, "dog's tail, the constellation Ursa Minor," from kuon, kun-, "dog" + oura, "tail."

métier

métier \met-YAY; MET-yay\, noun:

1. An occupation; a profession.
2. An area in which one excels; an occupation for which one is especially well suited.

The pairing of Maynard and Salinger -- the writer whose métier is autobiography and the writer who's so private he won't even publish -- was an unlikely one.
-- Larissa MacFarquhar, "The Cult of Joyce Maynard", New York Times Magazine, September 6, 1998

In Congress, I really found my métier. . . . I love to legislate.
-- Charles Schumer, quoted in "Upbeat Schumer Battles Poor Polls and Turnouts and His Own Image", New York Times, May 16, 1998

He is in the position of a good production engineer suddenly shunted into salesmanship. It is not his métier.
-- James R. Mursell, "The Reform of the Schools", The Atlantic, December 1939

Métier is from the French, ultimately from Latin ministerium, "service, ministry, employment," from minister, "a servant, a subordinate."

peradventure

peradventure \puhr-uhd-VEN-chuhr; pehr-\, adverb:

1. [Archaic] Possibly; perhaps.
2. Chance, uncertainty, or doubt.

It establishes beyond any peradventure of doubt that they were all wet and all wrong in their reports about the weapons of mass destruction, the chemical weapons, the biological weapons and the coming nuclear weapons as well.
-- Daniel Schorr, "interview Weekend Edition - Saturday, with Susan Stamberg", National Public Radio, July 10, 2004

The problem with Steve is that he looks like a liar. He is what a liar ought to look like. When he's telling God's own truth, hallelujah, you are certain beyond peradventure that he is lying.
-- "The journal of Lynton Charles", New Statesman, March 4, 2002

And he was, beyond peradventure, the greatest reforming Labour prime minister of the last century.
-- Peter Oborne, "Mr Blair has virtually unlimited power", Spectator, June 30, 2001

Peradventure derives from Old French per aventure, "by chance," from per, "through" (from Latin) + aventure, "chance," ultimately from the past participle of Latin advenire, "to arrive," from ad-, "to; toward" + venire, "to come."

travail

travail \truh-VAYL; TRAV-ayl\, noun:

1. Painful or arduous work; severe toil or exertion.
2. Agony; anguish.
3. The labor of childbirth
4. To work very hard; to toil.
5. To suffer the pangs of childbirth; to be in labor.

For all his travails and tragedy, he remains boyishly delighted with all life has to offer.
-- F. Kathleen Foley, "Kron Returns With Spirited, Touching 'Ride' About Family", Los AngelesTimes, January 20, 2000

Every sport entails physical and mental travail, but the decathlon is a veritable factory of pain.
-- Rafer Johnson with Philip Goldberg, The Best That I Can Be

The author of the Book of Jeremiah, for example, notes the "cry of a woman in travail, the anguish of one bringing forth her first child, gasping for breath, stretching out her hands crying 'Woe is me!'"
-- Donald Caton, What a Blessing She Had Chloroform

Travail is from Old French traveillier, travaillier, from Vulgar Latin tripalium, "a three-staked instrument of torture," from Latin tripalis, "three-staked," from tri-, "three" + palus, "a stake."

insouciant

insouciant \in-SOO-see-uhnt\, adjective:

Marked by lighthearted unconcern or indifference; carefree; nonchalant.

The insouciant gingerbread man skips through the pages with glee, until he meets his . . . demise at the end.
-- Judith Constantinides, "The Gingerbread Man", School Library Journal, April 2002

They don't seem to care whether they become stars or not, and their irony . . . has a scoffing, insouciant feel.
-- Thomas Frank, "Pop music in the shadow of irony", Harper's Magazine, March 1998

There's a Steely Dan-ish wit to the title track ("The truth itself is nothing but a gamble/It might or might not set you free"), but Peyroux tosses off the lines with an insouciant shrug of the shoulders.
-- Geoffrey Himes, "Getting to the Heart of It", Washington Post, June 19, 2009

Insouciant is from the French, from in-, "not" + souciant, "caring," present participle of soucier, "to trouble," from Latin sollicitare, "to disturb," from sollicitus, "anxious." The noun form is insouciance.

hebetude

hebetude \HEB-uh-tood-; -tyood\, noun:

Mental dullness or sluggishness.

William Hazlitt considered Wordsworth's success an accident of history. "Had he lived in any other period ... he would never have been heard of. As it is, he has some difficulty to contend with the hebetude of his intellect."
-- Cristina Nehring, "The Gang: Coleridge, The Hutchinsons & The Wordsworths In 1802." (Review), American Scholar, June 22, 2001

Earlier on, when we merely democratized fame, we defended the right of any mouth-breather to rise from deserved obscurity on the strength of his God-given hebetude.
-- Florence King, "The misanthrope's corner", National Review, May 18, 1998

From that solitude, full of despair and terror, he was torn out brutally, with kicks and blows, passive, sunk in hebetude.
-- Joseph Conrad, Nostromo

Hebetude derives ultimately from Latin hebes, "blunt, dull, mentally dull, sluggish, stupid." The adjective form is hebetudinous.

brio

brio \BREE-oh\, noun:

Enthusiastic vigor; vivacity; liveliness; spirit.

Though my judgment was no doubt affected by all the wine we'd consumed, I remember being elated by our performance that night: our inspired spur-of-the-moment dialogue, the actors fleshing out their roles with such brio.
-- Gail Godwin, Evensong

For him, life must be a party, a ball, an endless carnival. Each person must invent a role for himself and play it with brio.
-- Lydia Flem, Casanova: The Man Who Really Loved Women (translated by Catherine Temerson)

The Internet has always been home to plenty of unvarnished brio.
-- Timothy L. O'Brien, "Corporate Love Letters: Youstink.Com", New York Times, April 4, 1999

Brio is Italian, from Spanish brio or Provençal briu, both of Celtic origin.

equipoise

equipoise \EE-kwuh-poiz; EK-wuh-\, noun:

1. A state of being equally balanced; equilibrium; -- as of moral, political, or social interests or forces.
2. Counterbalance.

Example Quotes:

What matters is the poetry, and the truest readings of it "are those which are sensitive to the strangeness of Marvell's genius: its delicate equipoise, held between the sensual and the abstract, its refusal to treat experience too tidily, the uncanny tremor of implication that makes the poems' lucid surfaces shimmer with a sense of something undefined and undefinable just beneath."
-- James A. Winn, "Tremors of Implication", New York Times, July 9, 2000

I cannot see how the unequal representation which is given to masses on account of wealth becomes the means of preserving the equipoise and the tranquillity of the commonwealth.
-- Edmund Burke, "Reflections on The Revolution In France"

Our little lives are kept in equipoise
By opposite attractions and desires.
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "Haunted Houses"

Example Sentences:

Reducing carbon emissions is one way to help restore the ecosystem's natural equipoise.
-- Brought to you by the 3rd Generation Prius

Equipoise is equi-, "equal" + poise, from Middle English poisen, "to balance, weigh," from Old French peser, pois-, ultimately from Latin pensare, "to weigh."

desultory

desultory \DES-uhl-tor-ee\, adjective:

1. Jumping or passing from one thing or subject to another without order or rational connection; disconnected; aimless.
2. By the way; as a digression; not connected with the subject.
3. Coming disconnectedly or occurring haphazardly; random.
4. Disappointing in performance or progress.

The shadows on the perfect lawn were straight and angular; they were the shadows of an old man sitting in a deep wicker-chair near the low table on which the tea had been served, and of two younger men strolling to and fro, in desultory talk, in front of him.
-- Henry James Jr., "The Portrait of a Lady", The Atlantic Monthly, November 1880

In January 1905 Richard Watson Gilder approached the then-president of the Institute, the genteel poet and Wall Street broker Edmund Clarence Stedman, and urged him to hold a "formal discussion" on the question of women in both the Institute and the newly created Academy -- a formal discussion, he said, rather than the "desultory talk among members" that was all there had been so far.
-- Penelope Lively, The Five Thousand and One Nights

One way or the other, his once voluminous exchanges with Mrs. Swanson dwindled to almost nothing. For a year or two, they consisted of the odd, desultory postcard, then the store-bought Christmas greeting, and then, by 1976, they had stopped altogether.
-- Paul Auster, Timbuktu

Desultory comes from Latin desultorius, from desultor, "a leaper," from the past participle of desilire, "to leap down," from de-, "down from" + salire, "to leap."

lineament

lineament \LIN-ee-uh-muhnt\, noun:

1. A distinctive shape, contour, or line, especially of the face.
2. A distinguishing or characteristic feature; -- usually in the plural.

If she saw herself, even in her memory, she did not see the brightness that had been hers as a wife; she saw the lined and ageing woman she had become, as if these lineaments had been waiting to emerge since her features had first been formed.
-- Anita Brookner, Visitors

Biography -- and, by definition, autobiography -- is the form of the moment. In the shape of a well-lived, well-told life we can discern the lineaments of the day and even, if the life to hand signifies more than itself, the age.
-- Fred Inglis, "No Discouragement: An Autobiography", New Statesman, December 6, 1996

Crazy wooden galleries common to the backs of half a dozen houses, with holes from which to look upon the slime beneath; windows, broken and patched, with poles thrust out, on which to dry the linen that is never there; rooms so small, so filthy, so confined, that the air would seem too tainted even for the dirt and squalor which they shelter; wooden chambers thrusting themselves out above the mud, and threatening to fall into it--as some have done; dirt-besmeared walls and decaying foundations; every repulsive lineament of poverty, every loathsome indication of filth, rot, and garbage; all these ornament the banks of Folly Ditch.
-- Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist

Lineament comes from Latin lineamentum, "feature, lineament," from linea, "line."

arcane

arcane \ar-KAYN\, adjective:

Understood or known by only a few.

There are other arcane traditions that seem like superstitions to us, or, perhaps, are simply lost in translation. Some cyclists, for instance, believe that riders should shower instead of bathe because in some way water weight from baths is absorbed.
-- Allen Barra, "Tour de Lance", Wall Street Journal, July 28, 2009

While addressing a problem in the arcane field of mathematical logic, he imagined a machine that could mimic human reasoning.
-- Paul Gray, "Alan Turing", Time Pacific, March 29, 1999

Practitioners of this arcane art combine highly abstract mathematical deduction with some of the basic behavioral assumptions of micro-economics to produce theories of the behavior of voters, of representative assemblies, of bureaucracies, and even of courts.
-- Jerry L. Mashaw, Greed, Chaos, and Governance

Arcane comes from Latin arcanus, "shut, closed, secret," from arca, "chest, box."