ingratiate

ingratiate \in-GREY-shee-eyt\, verb:

to establish (oneself) in the favor or good graces of others, especially by deliberate effort (usually followed by with): He ingratiated himself with all the guests.

The highest society then consisted, and I think always consist, of four sorts of people: rich people who are received at Court, people not wealthy but born and brought up in Court circles, rich people who ingratiatethemselves into the Court set, and people neither rich nor belonging to the Court but who ingratiatethemselves into the first and second sets.

-- Leo Tolstoy, translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude, Father Sergius, 1898

Cadurcis himself, good humered because he was happy, doubly exerted himself to ingratiate himself with Lady Annabel, and felt every day that he was advancing. Venetia always smiled upon him, and praised him delightfully for his delightful conduct.

-- Benjamin Disraeli, Venetia, 1871

Derived from the Latin in gratiam literally meaning "into favor," ingratiate entered English in the first half of the seventeenth century.

aperture

aperture \AP-er-cher\, noun:

1. an opening, as a hole, slit, crack, gap, etc.
2. Also called aperture stop. Optics. an opening, usually circular, that limits the quantity of light that can enter an optical instrument.

He remained motionless and pensive, his eyes fixed on the gloomy aperture that was open at his feet.

-- Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo, 1844

He made for it a large aperture with a cover pierced with numerous holes, and, taking forth some new nails, said to the young lion, Enter... The young lion therefore rejoiced at this, and advanced to the aperture; but he saw that it was narrow.

-- Edward William Lane and Edward Stanley Poole, The Thousand and One Nights, 1865

Aperture entered English in the mid-1600s from the Latin aperīre meaning "to open."

splenetic

splenetic \spli-NET-ik\, adjective:

1. irritable; peevish; spiteful.
2. of the spleen; splenic.
3. Obsolete. affected with, characterized by, or tending to produce melancholy.

noun:
1. a splenetic person.

You see, she stoutly maintained the belief that beneath this splenetic and ogreish exterior there beat a heart of gold, though this I imagine was something she had to do, the idea that her father was splenetic and ogreish all the way through being just too grim to contemplate.

-- Patrick McGrath, The Grotesque, 1989

It is true, when the wind is easterly, or the gout gives him a gentle twinge, or he hears of any new successes of the French, he will become a little splenetic; and heaven help the man...that crosses his humor.

-- Washington Irving, Samalagundi, 1807

Sharing its root with spleen, splenetic entered English at the turn of the fourteenth century, and comes from the Proto-Indo-European splegh-.

ha-ha

ha-ha \HAH-hah\, noun:

sunk fence.

After sitting a little while Miss Crawford was up again. "I must move," said she; "resting fatigues me. I have looked across the ha-ha till I am weary. I must go and look through that iron gate at the same view, without being able to see it so well."

-- Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, 1851

He wondered from which window Hamilton Rowan had thrown his hat on the ha-ha and had there been flowerbeds at that time under the windows.

-- James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man, 1916

A ha-ha is a boundary wall concealed in a ditch so that it does not intrude upon the view... The name ha-haderives from the exclamation that a stranger might make upon coming upon such a ditch unexpectedly from the top of the wall. An experience of this kind could, of course, be highly dangerous to the unwary.

-- Dave King, The Ha-Ha, 2005

But the peril is an illusion, because the main surfaces are separated from the edges by a ha-ha, a sunken walkway that functions as a barrier.

-- David Owen, "The Psychology of Space," The New Yorker, January 21, 2013

Ha-ha comes from the French ha!, a common exclamation of surprise. Because ha-has are designed to be difficult to see, people would shout in surprise upon stumbling into them.

impawn

impawn \im-PAWN\, verb:

1. to put in pawn; pledge.
2. to put in pawn; pledge.

Go to the king; and let there be impawn'd Some surety for a safe return again

-- William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, 1591

A wise man will never impawn his future being and action, and decide beforehand what he shall do in a given extreme event.

-- Elizabeth P. Peabody, Aesthetic Papers, 2005

And yet, God knows, I dare and I will boldly impawn his temper, that he dares meet and cooperate until we are assayed and proven.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1838

Impawn entered English in the late 1500s from the Old French pan meaning "pledge" or "security."

gaumless

gaumless \GAWM-lis\, adjective:

lacking in vitality or intelligence; stupid, dull, or clumsy.

A little chuckle shook the Major, but he said regretfully: "Nay, I'm too gaumless."

-- Georgette Heyer, The Unknown Ajax, 1959

"Did I ever look so stupid: so 'gaumless,' as Joseph calls it?" "Worse," I replied, "because more sullen with it."

-- Emily Brontė, Wuthering Heights, 1847

Gaumless, I reckon he was. When I saw I wasn't getting any of his gasper I left him there.

-- Jeremy Gavron, The Book of Israel, 2002

A variant spelling of gormless, gaumless first appeared in English in the mid-1700s from the now-outdated British term gome. When combined with the suffice -less the word literally means "devoid of understanding."