Word Tasting Notes

succour, secure Jacques's job came with a certain security, but it was no sinecure. He worked at

figment “I wonder what that fig meant,” Maury said, as we walked through the art gallery. “What that

philtre Kendy looked at her phone and wrinkled her nose. “Ugh, no.” She swiped left on the photo in

tatterdemalion Little Italian tatterdemalion fluttered a scallion at an Australian, sat at a mullion,

Pronunciation tip: Modern artists from the Albright-Knox I love the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in

Scaramouche, skirmish, scrimmage, scrum “Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?” Well,

scrutatious Are you scrutatious? You know what scrutatious means, of course. I just used it in my

harrumphery Another week, another eructation of harrumphery about the parlous state of today's

sequacious Lead is the most sequacious metal. I'll prove it. What metal is quite ductile, and yet

flibbertigibbet “Daddy told me to tell you that I don't know what he hired you for and not to

hobbledehoy What does a ragamuffin become when he hits that awkward age? A hobbledehoy. Strictly

ragamuffin Oh, that Oliver Twist! What a perfect ragamuffin. Making mistakes like any little boy, but

bathos Drop down, ye heavens, from above, And drench with tears of broken love This sad grey world,

carminative Fabæ fructus musicales Canitis tubas ventrales Plenas flatus divinorum Fabæ cibi

scruple We all walk with little rocks in our shoes that twinge our soles and stop us short, cause us

chumming “Looks like some friends are joining us!” That's the sound of someone who's been

hopscotch Hopscotch, as you can tell by the name, is a kind of whisky made with beer. You doubt me?

rigmarole Ugh, those friggin' regulations. Whatever you do, it's not enough. It's like

draconian Some people's attitudes towards minor transgressions of grammar, spelling, punctuation,

demur I was going to taste a different word, but I couldn't find a way not to make it

skulduggery Skulduggery! What kind of clandestine outrage is that? Is it some fiddling, diddling, or

pandiculation Ah, to wake as a cat might: purr, pandiculate, approach the perpendicular, expand, open

vertex, vortex I like watching the kind of extreme skiing videos where a pair or trio of skilled

swidden I was editing a book, and I saw a word I didn't recognize: swidden. MS Word recognized it

quagmire For peat's sake, give us a fair shake. We know the topic is mired in uncertainty; we

facetious Some people have fun embellishing the truth: they start with facts, but they take A and

myrrh After I was so frank about the last word, some of you were incensed and started to myrrhmyrrh.

frankincense Wise guys like this – it's so frank, it's censered! Happy Epiphany! Twelve days

clobber Is clobbering a thing to take passively? I only ask because it seems (by my corpus searches)

soon How soon is soon? When you say “It's going to happen soon,” when exactly do you mean? How