obsequy

obsequy \OB-si-kwee\, noun:

a funeral rite or ceremony.

From this session interdict / Every fowl of tyrant wing, / Save the eagle, feathered king; / Keep the obsequy so strict.
-- William Shakespeare, "The Phoenix and the Turtle," 1601

Sitting there while the Baptist minister did his glib and rapid office, he (Stevens) looked around at the faces, town faces and country faces, the citizens who represented the town because the town should be represented at this obsequy…
-- William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959

Obsequy comes from the Latin obsequium meaning "compliance, dutiful service." It's been used in English since the late 14th century.

crepuscule

crepuscule \kri-PUHS-kyool, KREP-uh-skyool\, noun:

twilight; dusk.

But when he awoke at length there was a great Phoenix brooding with spread wings above his prostrate form, its white plumage like a ghostly crepuscule and its red eyes glowing close against his own pallid and fervent face.
-- Arthur Edward Waite, The Quest of the Golden Stairs, 1893

For that is Anayat in the crepuscule, purple and mellow, sparkling and warm and effulgent when there is a moon, cool and heady and sensuous when there is no moon.
-- Arturo B. Rotor, "Zita," 1937

Crepuscule entered English around the year 1400 from the Latin meaning "twilight, dusk, darkness."

somnambulism

somnambulism \som-NAM-byuh-liz-uhm, suhm-\, noun:

sleepwalking.

...they shared with him an alert interest in oddities of human behavior, attentive to evidence of madness, delusions, dreams, manias, and somnambulism.
-- Charles Brockden Brown, Edgar Huntly; or, Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker, 1799

Yet there must have been some connection between those episodes of somnambulism and the increasingly frequent, everyday cruelties that Malcolm Kennedy was imposing upon me at exactly that same time...
-- John Burnside, The Devil's Footprints, 2007

Somnambulism came to English in the late 1700s from the Latin somnus + ambulare literally meaning "sleep" + "to walk."

phrenology

phrenology \fri-NOL-uh-jee, fre-\, noun:

a psychological theory or analytical method based on the belief that certain mental faculties and character traits are indicated by the configurations of the skull.

According to Moleschott's celebrated dictum — 'Without phosphorus no thought,' and if there be any truth in physiology andphrenology, you women have been stinted by nature in the supply of phosphorus.
-- Augsta Jane Evans, Augusta Jane Evans, 1866

"Why don't you just put a phrenologist on the case and be done with it?" His reference to phrenology was intended to sting, as it was the touchstone for an ongoing disagreement between the two.
-- Rodney Osborne, Straw Men, 2011

The phren- in phrenology comes from the Greek phreno- referring to the diaphragm and the abdomen. This sense was extended in the writings of Homer to refer to the area around the heart as well as the mind.

yoho

yoho \yoh-HOH\, interjection:

1. (used as a call or shout to attract attention, accompany effort, etc.)

verb:
1. to shout "yo-ho!"

Taking down a wheezy and tattered concertina, the greasy cook sang in a raucous tone a ditty he had composed. "Yoho, me hearties, hark t'me, pay 'eed now whilst I sing…"
-- Brian Jacques, The Rogue Crew: A Tale of Redwall, 2011

"Yo ho," said the Egg. "Yo ho," said the Bean. "Yo ho," said Pongo. "You know my uncle, Lord Ickenham, don't you?" "Oh, rather," said the Egg. "Yo ho, Lord Ickenham."
-- P. G. Wodehouse, Cocktail Time, 1958

Yoho entered English in the 1700s as a transcription of the spoken greeting.

bequeath

bequeath \bih-KWEETH\, verb:

1. to dispose of (personal property, especially money) by last will: She bequeathed her half of the company to her niece.
2. to hand down; pass on.
3. Obsolete. to commit; entrust.

No matter that my father's then intention in making this will could only have been to bequeath virtually all that he had to leave to his firstborn son, one Heathcliff Earnshaw, twenty-one years deceased.
-- John Wheatcroft, Catherine, Her Book, 1983

And because he had nothing to bequeath to them that should survive him but his crutches, and his good wishes, therefore thus he said, These crutches I bequeath to my son, that shall tread in my steps, with a hundred warm wishes that he may do better than I have done.
-- John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress, 1678

Bequeath came to English from the Old English cweðan meaning "to say," ultimately finding its root in the Proto-Indo-European term gwet-.

falderal

falderal \FAL-duh-ral\, noun:

1. mere nonsense; foolish talk or ideas.
2. a trifle; gimcrack; gew-gaw.

"All this political falderal is making me crazy, Pete. I hear cuckoo statements being made by cuckoo politicians..."
-- Irwin Wolfe, Goodbye Beaver Lake, 2001

Jimmy Pendleton told himself that it was not true at all; that it was all falderal, what Sadie Dean had said.
-- Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna Grows Up, 1915

The word falderal imitates the sound of nonsense lyrics in songs. It came to English at the turn of the 18th century.

chattel

chattel \CHAT-l\, noun:

1. Law. a movable article of personal property.
2. any article of tangible property other than land, buildings, and other things annexed to land.
3. a slave.

"Mr. Price has instructed me to visit with you and make arrangements for a transfer of chattel to the bank sufficient to cover the amount of "—he looked down at his clipboard— "one thousand dollars even."
-- Will Weaver, Red Earth White Earth, 1986

But now! Gervase himself had not seemed a very important part of that triumph a little while ago. He had been a chattel of hers, a piece of property as much her own as her parasol.
-- Margaret Oliphant, The Cuckoo in the Nest, 1892

Chattel came to English in the 1400s and shares a root with the word cattle.

analysand

analysand \un-NAL-uh-sand, -zand\, noun:

Psychiatry. a person undergoing psychoanalysis.

Put simply (and to my mind it was a ludicrously simple idea), instead of the analyst listening to the patient and then providing an interpretation, of whatever kind, Alkan would say what he thought the analysand would say.
-- Will Self, The Quantity Theory of Insanity, 1993

I had been an analysand myself for eight years, two or three times a week, with breaks for babies. When puzzled and distraught it is nice to have a hired hand to talk to - though a week's silent reflection might do as well.
-- Fay Weldon, Mantrapped, 2004

Analysand is a combination of analyze + -and. While this term existed in English since the 1850s, it was not until the 1920s that it took on its psychoanalytical sense.

ennoble

ennoble \en-NOH-buhl\, verb:

1. to elevate in degree, excellence, or respect; dignify; exalt: a personality ennobled by true generosity.
2. to confer a title of nobility on.

…sooner than that her child should make ignoble the blood which it had cost her so much to ennoble, she would do deeds which should make even the wickedness of her husband child's play in the world's esteem.
-- Anthony Trollope, Lady Anna, 1871

Her small chiselled nose, her mouth so delicately curved, gave token of taste. In the whole was harmony, and the upper part of the countenance seemed to reign over the lower and to ennoble it, making her usual placid expression thoughtful and earnest...
-- Mary Shelley, Lodore, 1833

Ennoble comes from the Latin nobilis meaning "well-known" or "high born," which in turn came from the Proto-Indo-European root gno-meaning "to know."

shoal

shoal \shohl\, noun:

1. a place where a sea, river, or other body of water is shallow.
2. a sandbank or sand bar in the bed of a body of water, especially one that is exposed above the surface of the water at low tide.

adjective:
1. of little depth, as water; shallow.

verb:
1. to become shallow or more shallow.
2. to cause to become shallow.
3. Nautical. to sail so as to lessen the depth of (the water under a vessel).

A few minutes later Tom was in the shoal water of the bar, wading toward the Illinois shore. Before the depth reached his middle he was half way over; the current would permit no more wading, now, so he struck out confidently to swim the remaining hundred yards.
-- Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 1876

That piece of land is permeated with a perfect shoal of mineral springs.
-- Ada Clare, Only a Woman's Heart, 1886

Shoal comes from the Old English term sceald meaning "shallow." It was spelled with a d up until the 1500s.

aureole

aureole \AWR-ee-ohl\, noun:

1. a radiance surrounding the head or the whole figure in the representation of a sacred personage.
2. any encircling ring of light or color; halo.
3. Astronomy. corona.
4. Geology. a zone of altered country rock around an igneousintrusion.

It illuminated the words on Sir Philip's monument, and then touched the small head below it, till it shone with a living glory, lighting the pale, serene face, so that it seemed to Sir Philip that the aureole of a saint had surrounded her.
-- Emma Marshall, Heights and Valleys, 1871

…her hair was all creped into a filmy golden aureole round her face.
-- Harriet Beecher Stowe, Pink and White Tyranny: A Society Novel, 1871

Aureole comes from the Latin aureus, which is a diminutive term meaning "golden." It came to English in the late 1400s.

blowzy

blowzy \BLOU-zee\, adjective:

1. having a coarse, ruddy complexion.
2. disheveled in appearance; unkempt.

I have seen scattered around the apartment photographs of a Gertrude Stein who wears her hair in a massive topknot, loose,blowzy, somewhat in disarray.
-- Monique Truong, The Book of Salt, 2003

She restores her make-up there: she looks hot and blowzy. Her lipstick has bled into the soft skin round her mouth. Hairpins have sprung out. Her nose and eyelids shine.
-- A.S. Byatt, "Baglady," Elements, 1998

The origin of blowzy is uncertain, though it was perhaps once a cant term. It entered English in the 1700s.

pinion

pinion \PIN-yuhn\, noun:

1. Machinery. A. a gear with a small number of teeth, especially one engaging with a rack or larger gear. B. a shaft or spindle cut with teeth engaging with a gear.
2. Metalworking. a gear driving a roll in a rolling mill.

"Replace the crank pinion," Slade called over his shoulder, "and put it on the USC account."
-- Richard Walter, Escape from Film School, 1999

He was like a wondrous machine, the minister marveled, muscle and bone in place of crank and pinion.
-- Karl Iagnemma, The Expeditions, 2007

Pinion comes from the classical Latin pectin meaning "comb." It came to English in the mid-1600s.

arraign

arraign \uh-REYN\, verb:

1. to call or bring before a court to answer to an indictment.
2. to accuse or charge in general; criticize adversely; censure.

"Don't pin this on the police force; it was the bailiff's mistake. Nobody even told me he was in the courtroom." And where else would he be, if his son's abuser was being arraigned?
-- Jodi Picoult, Perfect Match, 2002

In the same manner we are not to arraign the squire of any want of love for his daughter; for in reality he had a great deal...
-- Henry Fielding, This History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, 1749

Arraign shares its root with the word ratio. It comes from the Latin ad- + rationare literally meaning "to reason."

solipsism

solipsism \SOL-ip-siz-uhm\, noun:

1. Philosophy. the theory that only the self exists, or can be proved to exist.
2. extreme preoccupation with and indulgence of one's feelings, desires, etc.; egoistic self-absorption.

A faint smile twitched the corners of O'Brien's mouth as he looked down at him. "I told you, Winston," he said, "that metaphysics is not your strong point. The word you are trying to think of is solipsism. But you are mistaken. This is not solipsism."
-- George Orwell, 1984, 1949

At quarter to four, his eyelids growing heavy as he read the two-page biography of Socrates, his eye was caught by another entry heading: "Solipsism." James had never realized solipsism was a philosophy. He had thought it was only an insult.
-- Sam Taylor, The Amnesiac, 2003

Solipsism entered English in the late 1800s from the Latin solus + ipse literally meaning "alone" + "self."

trepan

trepan \trih-PAN\, noun:

1. a person who ensnares or entraps others.
2. a stratagem; a trap.

verb:
1. to ensnare or entrap.
2. to entice.
3. to cheat or swindle.

...no one of your appearance and manners would wish to trepan a gentleman under misfortune.
-- Sir Walter Scott, Redgauntlet, 1824

"Who disturb the peace of families, who trepan with wanton arts the heirs of noble houses— who— hah ? what do such deserve ?"
-- Ann Radcliffe, The Italian, 1797

Trepan is of unknown origin, though it might have come from thieves' slang. The noun describing a person entered English in the mid-1600s, followed shortly after by the verb.

promulgate

promulgate \PROM-uhl-geyt, proh-MUHL-geyt\, verb:

1. to make known by open declaration; publish; proclaim formally or put into operation (a law, decree of a court, etc.).
2. to set forth or teach publicly (a creed, doctrine, etc.).

The mathematicians, I grant you, have done their best to promulgate the popular error to which you allude, and which is none the less an error for its promulgation as truth.
-- Edgar Allan Poe, "The Purloined Letter," 1844

I think it means that we promulgate simple and comprehensible laws so that people know where they stand.
-- Tom Clancy, Executive Orders, 1996

Promulgate comes from the Latin promulgare meaning "make publicly known." It entered English in the 1500s.

snollygoster

snollygoster \SNOL-ee-gos-ter\, noun:

Slang. a clever, unscrupulous person.

A snollygoster is a shyster, and not, as President Truman thought, a man born out of wedlock…
-- Anthony Burgess, Homage to Qwert Yuiop, 1986

"...But you wouldn't be advised, would you, you chuckleheaded old snollygoster!"
-- William Kelley, The Tyree, 1979

This American English slang term, which entered English in the mid-1800s, is of unknown origin.

annulate

annulate \AN-yuh-lit, -leyt\, adjective:

1. having rings or ringlike bands.
2. formed of ringlike segments, as an annelid worm.

This may be called, for distinctness' sake, the annulate corpuscle.
-- Thomas Henry Huxley, An Introduction to the Study of Zoology, 2006

A cast-iron stove dragged its annulate pipe along the wall, then folded it into the overhead motley of the flags.
-- Vladimir Nabokov, "The Fight," 1925

Annulate entered English in the 1800s from the Latin annulus meaning "ring."

obverse

obverse \OB-vurs\, noun:

1. the side of a coin, medal, flag, etc., that bears the principal design (opposed to reverse).
2. the front or principal surface of anything.
3. a counterpart.
4. Logic. a proposition obtained from another by obversion.

adjective:
1. facing the observer.
2. corresponding to something else as a counterpart.
3. having the base narrower than the top, as a leaf.

This Lion is distinctly a beautiful coin, admirably made, with its value in fine, clear letters circling the obverse side, and a head thereon -- of Newton, as I live!
-- H. G. Wells, A Modern Utopia, 1905

I see the two of us, a blue shape, a red shape, in the brief glass eye of the mirror as we descend. Myself, my obverse.
-- Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale, 1985

Obverse comes from the Latin ob +vertere literally meaning "to turn toward." It was first used in English in the mid-1600s.

Ftittup

tittup \TIT-uhp\, noun:

1. an exaggerated prancing, bouncing movement or manner of moving.

verb:
1. to move, especially to walk, in an exaggerated prancing or bouncing way, as a spirited horse.

Now and again three donkeys would start, urged from behind, and slowly tittup their burdens along the pond's margin.
-- John Galsworthy, The White Monkey, 1924

She heard him tittup down the stairs, grope for his shoes in the dark, and creep from the house.
-- Daphne du Maurier, Mary Anne, 1954

Tittup came to English in the 1600s from the imitative sound of a horse's feet hitting the ground.

picaro

picaro \PIK-uh-roh, PEE-kuh-\, noun:

a rogue or vagabond.

The prototypical picaro normally finds himself in a cruelly unyielding world where he must simultaneously serve the needs of several masters. So numerous are these competing demands that, in order to survive, he invariably becomes a master of deception, simulation and multiple disguise.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, 1848

He is rich, this picaro, O'Brien. But there is, also, a proverb — that no riches shall avail in the day of vengeance.
-- Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Ford, Romance, 1903

Picaro came to English from Spanish in the 1600s, though the etymology of this term is disputed.

emanate

emanate \EM-uh-neyt\, verb:

1. to flow out, issue, or proceed, as from a source or origin; come forth; originate. Synonyms: arise, spring, flow.
2. to send forth; emit.

"Philosophy and the arts are but a manifestation of the intelligible ideas that move the public mind; and thus they become visible images of the nations whence they emanate…"
-- Lydia Marie Child, Philothea: A Romance, 1836

...but that that intellectual face bespoke the mind at work is certain, and from one so pure and lovely could emanate nothing but what was innocent and good.
-- Frederick Marryat, Snarleyyow, or, the Dog Fiend, 1837

Emanate came to English in the mid-1700s from the Latin emanare literally meaning "to flow out."