frowzy

frowzy \FROW-zee\, adjective:

1. dirty and untidy; slovenly
2. smelling bad; musty

"Lady," said a frowzy, spiritless panhandler, "c'n ya lemmee have a quarter to buy my little boy some milk?"
-- The Bleatniks, Time, August 10, 1957

Based on an old apartment building in Spokane, Wash., it is complete with frowzy lobby and stains on the wall that you wouldn't want to analyze too closely.
-- Jerry V. Haines, Minneapolis mind expansion, Los Angeles Times, August 13, 2001

The chief of staff's normally impeccable office had become a frowsy litter of coffee cups, cigarette butts, carbines and musette bags.
-- Frank Gibney, Help Seemed Far Away, Time, July 9, 1946

The cold wet shelterless midnight streets of London; the foul and frowsy dens, where vice is closely packed and lacks the room to turn; the haunts of hunger and disease; the shabby rags that scarcely hold together; where are the attractions of these things?
-- Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist

by 1681, possibly related to dialect form frowsty "smelly," of uncertain origin, perhaps related to Old English þroh "rancid"

ensconced

ensconced \en-SKONST\, adjective:

1. sheltered comfortably and firmly
2. sheltered safely; hidden

Determined to make the continental crossing in style, Reed ensconced his wife and four children in an enormous, custom-built, two-story wagon, complete with sleeping bunks, upholstered seats and a built-in stove.
-- Bruce Barcott, Meals on Wheels: A novel of the Donner Party," review of Snow Mountain Passage, by James D. Houston, New York Times, April 7, 1997

Hamish is our puppet millionaire: an aged plant-tub tycoon, ensconced in a country house of sprawling vulgarity, he remains the befuddled pawn of his wife Gemma.
-- Martin Amis, Prose Is the Leading Lady," review of Words of Advice, by Fay Weldon, New York Times, October 1, 1973

Only when he was firmly ensconced in the prime minister's office, with the reins of power in his hands, did Atsuko Abe began to discuss his true agenda with his closest allies.
-- Stephen Coonts, Fortunes of War

by 1590, "to cover with a fort," from en- "make, put in" + sconce "small fortification, shelter," probably from Dutch schans "earthwork"

obsequies

obsequies \OB-sih-kweez\, noun:

funeral rites or ceremonies

The controversy that is to mark his obsequies surfaces soon after when two priests object that Pavarotti, a remarried divorcee, should be allowed to lie in state in the cathedral, "the highest symbol of Christianity in Modena".
-- Elizabeth Grice, Pavarotti's last great tragic role, Daily Telegraph, October 25, 2003

Similarly, when Elizabethan audiences watched Laertes protest the brief obsequies given his sister Ophelia, they knew that Catholics were furtively burying their loved ones with the old rites, while publicly holding fake burials with the "maimed rites."
-- Cynthia L. Haven, Papist Plots," review of Shadowplay: The Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare, by Clare Asquith,, New York Times, August 13, 2001

c 1385 from Middle English obseque from Middle French, from Late Latin obsequiae, an alteration of Latin obsequia "compliance, dutiful service" and influenced by exsequiae "funeral rites"

soiree

soiree \swah-RAY\, noun:

an evening party or social gathering

Rose was reminiscing at a soiree I hosted on a recent sultry evening on Chicago's North Side.
-- Laura Washington, World still watching -- but now it's a love fest, Chicago Sun-Times, August 10, 2004

The couple will be honoured guests at this week's soiree and the evening's success will matter more to them than anyone.
-- Someone is saving your bacon, Daily Telegraph, April 5, 1998

by 1793, from French soirée, from soir "evening," from Old French soir, from Latin sero (adv.) "late, at a late hour," from serum "late hour," neuter of serus "late"

sidereal

sidereal \sy-DEER-ee-uhl\, adjective:

measured or determined by the daily motion of the stars; of or having to do with the stars or constellations

And everything flying away from everything else for fifteen or so billion years, affinities are established, sidereal liaisons, and the stars slowly drift around one another into rotating star groups or galaxies, and in great monumental motions the galaxies even more slowly convene in clusters, which clusters in turn distribute themselves in linear fashion, a great chain or string of superclusters billions of light-years on end.
-- E. L. Doctorow, City of God

Her description of the calendars that prefaced Books of Hours applies equally to her own book: they make up "a cycle of multiple resonances, spiritual and secular, terrestrial and sidereal, liturgical and agricultural, pagan and Christian, breathtaking in its richness and antiquity and in the geographical spread of its references, but also grounded in the here and now, the everyday".
-- Peter Parker, A remarkable English garden," review of The Morville Hours, by Katherine Swift,, Daily Telegraph, May 2, 2004

by 1634, "of or pertaining to the stars," earlier sideral (1594), from French sidereal (16th century), from Latin sidereus "starry, astral," from sidus "star, constellation," probably from Proto Indo-European base *sweid- "to shine"

horripilation

horripilation \haw-rip-uh-LAY-shuhn; ho-\, noun:

the act or process of the hair bristling on the skin, as from cold or fear; goose flesh

There are a few things capable of sending an icy horripilation through even the bravest man.
-- Who Will Provide Social Security?, Washington Times, June 11, 1996

This is not to say that the horripilation Iran's nuclear programme inspires is unjustified; nor is it to claim that no other state would seek to develop or maintain nuclear weapons if the official nuclear powers gave theirs up.
-- George Monbiot, Guardian, January 23, 2002

Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, Celebrity Paranormal Project is fascinating as a demonstration of physiological fear: dilated pupils, nausea, shallow breathing, horripilation, the mind-twisting power of expectation.
-- Vinay Menon, Out of body with Busey, Toronto Star, July 3, 2003

by 1623, from Latin horripilatio, from horripilare "to bristle" + pilus "hair"

intimation

intimation \in-tuh-MAY-shuhn\, noun:

an indirect or slight suggestion; hint

She had always had an intimation of her destiny: all her senses would go on the alert, as if bracing her for a blow-a terrible, crushing, powerful blow-of luck, whether good or bad.
-- Nina Berberova, Cape of Storms (translated by Marian Schwartz)

As it drew nearer he recognized it as a police car and some intimation of drama touched him, the prelude to some story, and he seated himself to watch.
-- William Gay, The Long Home

Jake Hersh, like Mordecai Richler himself a Canadian, is a television and film director living in London and struggling against that awful time in life when possibilities suddenly close and a dire intimation of finality sets in.
-- Jonathan Yardley, review of St. Urbain's Horseman, by Mordecai Richler, New York Times, June 26, 1967

A frightened, inarticulate maid weeping in the hall was their first intimation that something was wrong.
-- Annabel Davis-Goff, The Dower House

by 1442, from Late Latin intimationem "action of intimating," from intimare "to impress (upon), make known"