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 \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 \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.
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 \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 \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."
orrery \AWR-uh-ree, OR-\, noun:
1. an apparatus for representing the positions, motions, and phases of the planets, satellites, etc., in the solar system.
2. any of certain similar machines, as a planetarium.
For part of the clock was an orrery: a mechanical model of the solar system that displayed the current positions of the planets and many of their moons.
-- Neal Stephenson, Anathem, 2010
But now he lies in hospital, mortally ill; and while his orrery still rests on the grand cherrywood desk, his photograph still hangs on the office wall (smiling mirthlessly, like a king who has wearied of his crown) and his iridescent fish still shimmer through the gloom of the aquarium on the dresser, his many bookcases are empty, save for dust and a single stress-busting executive toy like a hastily planted flag.
-- Paul Murray, Skippy Dies, 2010
Orrery is an eponym named after Charles Boyle, Earl of Orrery. Orrery was the patron of George Graham who created a mechanical model of solar system. It entered English in the early 1700s.
