nosocomial \nah-suh-KOH-mee-ul\ adjective
Meaning: acquired or occurring in a hospital

The truth of the matter is that none of us will live forever, but most of us will die outside of a hospital. Perhaps a nursing home, or ground up in a car. What killed Susan was certainly nosocomial, but she wasn't a patient, or stay long enough to actually be killed by it within those antiseptic painted walls. She met him while she was visiting a friend, and he picked up the infection that would kill her while he was getting stitches. She was just unlucky, they said. He was lucky he'd not caught it too. Jack didn't feel lucky.

spelunker \spih-LUNK-er\ noun
Meaning : one who makes a hobby of exploring and studying caves

"What's that?"
"I said, I'm going to have to climb back round the other way."
"Okay, so, should I wait here?"
"Sure. I'll only be a few minutes."
Jenny had never wanted to be here. It was wet and dark. Her socks were sticking to her feet, and she could feel mud in the bottom of her shoes. That's what she got for dating a spelunker, she thought.

pianistic \pee-uh-NISS-tik\ adjective
Meaning
*1 : of, relating to, or characteristic of the piano
2 : skilled in or well adapted to piano playing

The rhythmic motion he possessed sent me into exquisite ecstasies. Every part of him seemed to beat up and down my body in a pianistic pattern, so that the complex orgasmic feelings became arousing symphonies in my head. He conducted with his baton so that every element of my orchestra was unable to resist. Climax after climax came, with only slight moments to breath in between them. I gasped.

artifice \AHR-tuh-fus\ noun
Meaning
1 a : clever or artful skill : ingenuity b : an ingenious device or expedient
*2 a : an artful stratagem : trick b : false or insincere behavior

The clip fell, brushing the side of the table, and lodging itself firmly in the pile of the carpet. No one would see it again for forty years. The artifice of the clever slip was that now it would be impossible for anyone to understand what had happened here, so important was the evidence to the crime. Whether she had done it by accident, or an unconscious decision, was not clear. But it would keep her out of jail.

sarcasm \SAHR-kaz-um\ noun
Meaning
1 : a sharp and often satirical or ironic utterance designed to cut or give pain
2 *a : a mode of satirical wit depending for its effect on bitter, caustic, and often ironic language that is usually directed against an individual b : the use or language of sarcasm

"What can one say of the death of love, other than that its presence will be sorely missed. We will however move on from this, and achieve greater things in the days ahead." The President's voice rang out from the loud speaker with a rustling.
Since June 24th, several hundred human emotions and means of interaction had been eradicated. Some had disappeared through specific government interventions, but most had disappeared simply through a lack of use. On Monday tolerance had been lost, on Tuesday it had been sarcasm. And today went love.

repine \rih-PYNE\ verb
Meaning
1 : to feel or express dejection or discontent : complain
*2 : to long for something

My face burned. I hated being there, and wanted to be out of it. But there I sat, going through every motion, trapped into it, like a ball rolling down a hill. I repined for my freedom, but persisted, a conscious prisoner to my own belief that I must stay. Somehow that motion was what made it bearable, the continual changes, moment to moment, consistently creating fresh air within the hot, hostile environment I found myself in. Errors were made, corrected, forgotten. Fresh tasks always coming up, never letting up. I felt like I was struggling through a waterpipe, struggling on, desperately waiting the release of fresh air. To stop would mean to drown.

omnium-gatherum \ahm-nee-um-GA-thuh-rum\ noun
Meaning: a miscellaneous collection (as of things or persons)

Mr Mayhew's bag was full of nothing, a huge omnium-gatherum of useless objects and ephemera, the likes of which you could pick up in a charity shop for ten pence a piece. He had never meant to have so much, but couldn't stop himself buying things. Everything individually was a beauty to him, though together he saw they were a confusing mess. The truth was that ever since his wife had died, Mr Mayhew was not entirely sure how he was getting from one moment to the next. Everything seemed to be an impulse, and each impulse seemed irreconcilable the moment after it had happened.

tousle \TOW-zul\ verb
Meaning: dishevel, rumple

You lay in the small cot he'd put you in. Your eyes glared out into the dark room, hoping that if they opened wider they might be able to discern something. Your nostrils smelt various cleaning fluids, which were giving you a head ache. Your wrists felt the sticky tape he'd twisted around them.

You close your eyes, and try to think about something, anything but this, this room. You struggle to ignore everything your senses are telling you.

The door clicks. You open your eyes slightly. You don't want him to know you are watching. You hear his feet tread across the floor. You see the glint of his boot, caught by the sliver of light from the door. He leans over you.

"Better now?" He tousles your hair. You begin to throw up, but can't, because your mouth is taped shut. The vomit sits in your mouth, and the stomach acids burn at your tongue and gums.

frowsy \FROW-zee\ adjective
Meaning
1 : musty, stale
*2 : having a slovenly or uncared-for appearance

My husband stepped into the room, his feet dragging over the parquet. I could tell he didn't want to be here, but here he was. Ever since I'd caught him with his best friend, he'd been like this. It was as though he expected me to end it - though he'd clearly already done that little task - but I had to be the one to say the words. The selfish cunt wanted me to be the villain of the piece, the one who hammered the final nail in the coffin.
"Harry's coming over later."
"Fuck Harry. I forgot, you already did. Do you want more sprouts than that?" He hates sprouts, but I'd put them on his plate anyway.
Normally when I got home from work I slumped. Chucked on my pajama bottoms, and enjoyed every last comfort. But ever since I'd found them, I'd been making a huge effort not to look frowsy. I wasn't going to be the villain, or the victim here.

hawthorn \HAW-thorn\ noun
Meaning: any of a genus (Crataegus) of spring-flowering spiny shrubs or smalltrees of the rose family with glossy and often lobed leaves, white orpink fragrant flowers, and small red fruits

The finger slipped and went hurtly downwards, falling like a jumper from a plane. The air was no match for the crushing weight of it, parting like cars allowing an ambulance through. The sharp red cross of the ambulance, the lively red of the hawthorn berry, the succulent red of the blood, which came out of the hole pierced by the thorn. It came out like hostages from a terrorist assault: at first nervous, tentative, before spilling over and over, so glad of its escape.

alacrity \uh-LAK-ruh-tee\ noun
Meaning: promptness in response : cheerful readiness

Jessica's hand flew with such alacrity, Mike wondered whether she'd truthfully never acted before. Certainly the slap was perfectly timed, and hit the mark with such precision the sound seemed to resonate for some seconds afterward. Could it be possible that this was her first porn video?

paean \PEE-un\ noun
Meaning
1 : a joyous song or hymn of praise, tribute, thanksgiving, or triumph
*2 : a work that praises or honors its subject : encomium, tribute

'Was this it?' she wondered. The knarled object in front of her bore a striking resemblance a crushed frisbee, yet they called it art, and they called her a genius for it. But she could think of far better paeans than this. Children perhaps, or a foundation. Then she wondered, 'What does any of us really leave behind?' It's certainly impossible to leave something that can't be destroyed the moment we're no longer here to protect it.

oneiric: pertaining to or suggestive of dreams

She slinked off behind the sofa, the whole ordeal had been too much for her. Barely had she rested her eyes for just a second before she heard it. The sound was almost oneiric, so unlike anything of this world was it. With a pounding in her heart, she emerged back into the living room, eyes and ears on the alert.
"GRAARRR."
There it was again. Her ears pricked up like tiny satellites, trying to pinpoint the exact location. Upstairs certainly. She set off, up the stairs, and stopping just before the landing; the final step offered some cover should it decide to attack. She saw legs dangling around in the small room on the left. From this vantage point she could see right up their skirts, and the blue, pink, and flowery knickers they were wearing.
"Awwww, he's such a good talker, isn't he?" one of them cooed.

cap-a-pie \kap-uh-PEE\ adverb
Meaning: from head to foot

He was every inch the cowboy - or so he thought - dressed cap-a-pie in all the gear, which he'd bought from the local store. As he headed over to his horse, though, the truth became clear. Even the horse could tell that this was not a man meant for the saddle, as it whinnied around the corral, looking for a way out of this awkward situation: she didn't want to have to buck him.
Who he was trying to prove himself to was quite clear. A young brunette stood beneath the veranda awning, protected from the bright morning sun. He was careful not to look in her direction, but he knew she was watching.

scour \SKOW-er\ verb
Meaning
1 : to move about quickly especially in search
*2 : to go through or range over in or as if in a search

We scoured the horizon, watching for something to break. The light was barely visible there, just a sliver of gold caressing the hills, but you could hear it breathing. The King's safety rested on us knowing the instant something happened, knowing when the attack would come. We couldn't know that it had already come, come from another quarter, a quarter where steel and quiver were futile. We should have watched there, in men's hearts, a place the morning sun was quite unseen.

vulnerable \VUL-nuh-ruh-bul\ adjective
Meaning
1: capable of being physically or emotionally wounded
*2: open to attack or damage : assailable

Bobby ran down the mountainside, not knowing whether the bear had followed or not. Below in the valley he saw the little house he and his brother had built last fall. Smoke was rising from the stack, and even from this distance, with the breeze in his direction, he could hear Sandy singing. She didn't know that her husband had nearly lost his arm. Or that blood was at this very minute gushing from a place so near his eye he wasn't sure he'd ever see properly again. She didn't know how vulnerable he was right now. All she knew was that the baby was sleeping, and, when the baby slept, she had peace.

waif \WAYF\ noun
Meaning
1 a : a piece of property found (as washed up by the sea) but unclaimed
b plural : stolen goods thrown away by a thief in flight
2 a : something found without an owner and especially by chance
*b : a stray person or animal; especially : a homeless child

Her time at the orphanage was neither happy nor sad, memorable nor forgettable, full of incident nor lifeless. She was exactly like the other girls, and she never fought to change that. She was a waif, a stray, a bundle collected in off the street and cared for, though with no belief that their was purpose nor point in its existence. It wasn't in fact till she was 68 years old that she realised her true potential, as a painter. Her hands were ancient seeds buried deep into the soil, and tilled and tilled, until at last, quite forgotten, they produced shoots more beautiful than any seen before, at least in the town of Michigan.

inkling \INK-ling\ noun
Meaning
1 : a slight indication or suggestion : hint, clue
*2 : a slight knowledge or vague notion

Never before had I felt it; the sensation was quite, quite new. I would not say this was unsettling, only that it was unexpected. To discover something about yourself this late in life is at once surprising, and also reassuring: it's nice to know your race isn't quite yet over. The truth of the matter is that the first inkling went completely unnoticed. Those first few days were just like all the others, and it wasn't until things had progressed beyond a point of return that I was aware of her. She changed everything eventually, but entirely gradually.

eloquent \EL-uh-kwunt\ adjective
Meaning
*1 : marked by forceful and fluent expression
2 : vividly or movingly expressive or revealing

"You were so eloquent, Sidney." Lady Meenfeld was always sucking up to Lord Hord-Felton. She didn't know why, but for some reason she desperately wanted his approval.
"I only spoke for two minutes, Cynthia."
"I know, but they were the best two minutes of the whole afternoon."
"Hmmm."
Unfortunately for Lady Meenfeld, whatever she said seemed to either annoy Lord Hord-Felton, or convince him that she was the silliest woman he'd ever met.

tatterdemalion \tatt-er-dih-MAIL-yun\ adjective
Meaning
1 : ragged or disreputable in appearance
*2 : being in a decayed state or condition : dilapidated

It was amazing how quickly the house had fallen into a state of disrepair. Perhaps it was because Mr Michaels had been so good at papering over the cracks, without actually fixing anything. Instead of replacing the curtains, he kept sewing them back together, so by now they were threadbare. Even the front door was tatterdemalion, with three large cracks so big you could see right into the hall. One was almost big enough to slip your hand through. Since his death the bugs and beetles had broken the besieged house's defences, and were pouring through, devouring what they could, breaking up the rest. It was vanquished.

bravado \bruh-VAH-doh\ noun
Meaning
1 a : blustering swaggering conduct b : a pretense of bravery
*2 : the quality or state of being foolhardy

"You rarely see a kitten attempt to take on anything that much bigger than itself," said Jerry, whilst cleaning up the stray lettuce leaves and milk.
"Well, he certainly has guts," replied Michelle, who was wiping down Greg's shell.
"Bravado is what that kitten has," said Jerry. "I think we raised an alley cat."
"I told you we should have gone for pedigree." She looked down at Greg. "I don't know if he'll come out for a week."
"Perhaps he's hibernating?"
"Not for another three months."
"Well, maybe we'll have him for Christmas this year then. I always wanted a tortoise Father Christmas."

frog-march \FROG-march\ verb
Meaning: to seize from behind roughly and forcefully propel forward

Your face is wet from the rain pouring down on you. You feel like a drowned cat, even your eyebrows are heavy with water, overfilled gutters unable to cope with the flow. You stagger on, wondering whether you'll get there, or just dissolve, like sugar in tea, there but not there. You imagine yourself in a granulated form, in small 1kg sacks, the kind they have on the supermarket shelves.
On the other side of the road a woman is frog-marching her son, a firm hold on the scruff of his coat. He is being pushed and pulled in and out of the crowds, while she tries to keep them both under her enormous umbrella.
You are glad now to be on this side of the street, even if it is more open to the elements.

cordial \KOR-jul\ adjective
Meaning
1 : tending to revive, cheer, or invigorate
2 a : sincerely or deeply felt *b : warmly and genially affable

It was a dark Spring day. The clouds were firmly ensconced, and leaving the Firmins feeling like they were stuck under an enormous duvet. Sue felt it especially, since for a while now she'd been underneath her own dark clouds.
Every action they took felt particularly difficult, whether it was a cordial greeting to the person at the check out, or dodging the latest onslaught of brolly-wielding maniacs bearing down on the street. Time would tell before one of them would break, and it was anyone's bet whether it would come before a break in the weather or not.

tantalize \TAN-tuh-lyze\ verb
Meaning: to tease or torment by or as if by presenting something desirable to the view but continually keeping it out of reach

To be tantalized is not fun. It's like being toyed with. Something out there in the Universe wants to make you feel shit: some power trip where it knows that you want it. It's fucking in control. Self will sidles up in your corner, ready to claim the first KO punch. It'll never win though. That little tantalizing thing will always be there, right up until the day you die. And that kind of shit just makes you want it all the more. It's stupid, but you can't escape it.

land of Nod: sleep

I wanted to go there, but I couldn't. I still had seven hours of driving to do. Something about my eyelids was so inviting, though. I tried to ply them right back into my head, wanted to tack them there, or celotape, like tit tape. My hands clamped themselves to the steering wheel. My body was turning so tense, trying to keep itself awake. Yet while the car was heading to San Diego, my body was heading to the land of nod.

grok: to understand

The whale surfaced beside the canoe. It nudged slightly at the stern. Max couldn't tell whether it was male or female. He didn't even know exactly what kind of whale it was. Yet somehow it's presence was deeply reassuring. He didn't know where he was, or whether he'd get back alive. But this was seemed to grok completely all of his thoughts and fears.
It was nudging the stern further and further, spinning the canoe gently round, whilst making it rock a little worryingly. A small wave splashed up in Max's face. Was the whale trying to give him directions?

sward \SWORD\ noun
Meaning
*1 : a portion of ground covered with grass
2 : the grassy surface of land

My love she ran the gamut here,
Across these swards of avocado green.
Her feet ran long through trails,
And cut at the earth, already lean,
And carried off a century
of earthly chocolate on her soles.
That was all she did, my love.
Those were her only tolls.

irrupt \ih-RUPT\ verb
Meaning
1 : to rush in forcibly or violently
2 of a natural population : to undergo a sudden upsurge in numbers especially when natural ecological balances and checks are disturbed
*3 : to become active or violent especially suddenly : erupt

Flowers irrupt uncontrollably, throwing out streaming tendrils, and sharp bright colours. It is like the centre of a giant magma field, hot streams coming at me from all directions. I daren't touch anything lest it burn me. The sun is crisp, sharp rays beaming down on me, as though a child were directing them right on me with a giant magnifying glass. I think I might explode too, like those flowers, releasing out toxic perfumes into the atmosphere.
On the other side of the street a small lady is forcing her dog to take a shit, hoping it will combat all these intense euphoric pleasures. I duck under an awning hoping for some respite. Three dangling baskets of flowers attack me from the rear. They are insatiable.

dossier \DOSS-yay\ noun
Meaning: a file containing detailed records on a particular person or subject

The room was dense and thick with cloying air, tight and arid and choking the throat with its thinness. Her eyes sweated, and cracked at the sides from dryness. She could feel her fingers growing numb.
In front of her was the dossier they'd built up, of every crime she'd committed against the state. Freedom fighting they called it. Freedom was a dirty word these days. She was one of the biggest criminals they'd captured in the snatches that last week.
Her hair was dry, like hay drying in the field. She wondered if it would combust under the hot light just above her head. Her knickers pinched too. Perhaps they were shrinking in the heat. She felt a draft around her ankles, though. The hot sweat was trickling down her body from the top, and freezing as it reached her lower extremities.

ruthless \ROOTH-lus\ adjective
Meaning: having no pity : merciless, cruel


"Is it my fault you don't like your life?"
"Not exactly."
"Well, if you'd not been so set on becoming a tax attorney..."
"I could have become the Easter Bunny, but then what would I have done with my ruthless edge?"
"Broken the competition. Destroyed the supermarket monopoly."
"Don't be silly. All those cushy endorsement deals. I'd have to be an idiot to give up on those. The work is a little seasonal, though."
"Father Christmas is looking a bit shaky these days. Time to move in?"

slake: to satisfy or quench; also, to cause to lessen

My head hit the ground with a satisfying thud; I was exhausted. Three days to go, and I could feel my ribs again. My suitcase was packed, I had the tickets, passport, money, all the usuals. When I got home I'd shove my running gear in the washing machine, and set it on a spin. I wished I could clamber in with it, get rid of every last bit of grime on me. Industrial wash, not delicates. The fucker was going to pay: in three days he'd be dead, and my indeterminate sense of desperation would be slaked. The grass by my ear was tickling me. It felt good.

hugger-mugger: secret; also, muddled, disorderly.

The truest thing one can say about long words is that they add to the hugger mugger of language. Academics do it all the time: throwing words around to prove how very clever they are. The confounding language can cause, and the coded nature of these lesser known words allows groups to maintain their distinction from everybody else. Another example would be the language of Polari, used by gay men in the twentieth century to talk in public about private matters. The beauty of language is epitomized in Orwell's 1984, where the ruling powers have controlled the populace by restricting their speech to the extent that dissidence isn't in their vocabulary, and thus impossible for them to conceive of in thought. People become like aliens in a new country, where they don't speak the language and are forced to rely on baser, cruder means of communication. Imagine how slow life would be if everything were conveyed by charades.

puerile \PYUR-ul\ adjective
Meaning
1 : juvenile
*2 : childish, silly

The senator sat in her office, fiddling through her filofax. Of course all her contacts, dates, notes...everything, was on her PDA. But for some reason she'd clung onto this anachronistic piece of ephemera. Whenever she opened the leather binder it made a little fart, and she chuckled inside. It was puerile, she knew that, but that was made it all the more fun: this very serious, very important lady being amused by something just one step up from a whoopee cushion. Her secretary popped his head around the door.
"Anything else I can get you?"
"No, you're alright, Jerry. I think we're done for the night."

reprobate \REP-ruh-bayt\ noun
Meaning
1 : a person foreordained to damnation
*2 : a depraved person : scoundrel

He was the filthiest little reprobate one ever would see. His muzzle was covered in mud, and slobber dripped down the longer hairs. You could track his exact path across the carpets of the house, and even one spot where his tail had knocked over a vase, carefully poised on a table edge. The rest of us were so well behaved; he was giving us a bad name. At this precise moment he had his feet up on the piano, apparently trying to plonk out a tune he'd learnt somewhere. Enough was enough, he had to go. Fortunately it's quite easy to get rid of another dog, because humans always assume they've simply run away. The difficulty is when and how to do it.

bedizen: to dress or adorn in gaudy manner.

It was quarter to six. Beneath my bedclothes I felt the distinct frustration of not being able to settle myself back to sleep. I pulled the eiderdown up over my head once more, and curled up into a ball, for one last attempt. Nothing.
Deciding it was a lost cause, I gave the eiderdown a quick kick. My foot slipped out and caught a blast of cold. I retracted it back into the warmth of my cocoon. Rubbing my eyes, I allowed the chinks of light to reach my brain, and waken it, like the fluorescent tubes turning on in an office building. Flicker, flicker, off for a moment, then full on, bright.
With nothing better to do with myself, I trotted off down the hall to my aunt's room. She had not come home last night, and this was one of those rare moments where I got to play dress up. I slipped my hair back into a ponytail, and prepared to open the wardrobe, with a "hmmph". This was a moment mixed with solemnity, excitement, and urgency. The door thwopped to one side, too heavy for me to keep a grip on. My hands plunged into the delicate fabrics, prying through them like jungle vines. I let my fingertips seek out the items I would adorn.
Five minutes later I was bedizened in the oddest concoction you can imagine. Then, on the stairs, I heard a footstep. Shit.

popinjay: a vain and talkative person

"You sound like my mother," he said, laughing at me. Everyone else starting laughing too. Even those who weren't in our little group turned and smiled. Their eyes stared at me, but I could only see his. The scintillating blue was unbearable, witnesses to my soul.
"Why must you be so hateful?" I retorted. "You are the vilest creature in the world."
"You little popinjay. I see you strut about the place, wishing you were just a speck of what I am. But all you could ever be is my mother, my bumbling, moronic mother. Next time I'm in town I'll be sure to give her dressmaker your card."
I loved him so much.

chevron \SHEV-run\ noun
Meaning: a figure, pattern, or object having the shape of a V or an inverted V: as a : a heraldic charge consisting of two diagonal stripes meeting at an angle usually with the point up *b: a sleeve badge that indicates the wearer's rank and service (as in the armed forces)

I ran my hand down the chevrons on my jacket. Ever since I had joined the army in the Spring of 1942, I'd been deeply miserable. Now, with a dishonourable discharge hanging over my head, I can't bear to leave. My mother and father had been killed in the blitz three nights before, my sister is still out in India, and Michael, the only other person I've loved, is dead, hanged. Everyone says he'd killed himself, but I know he'd never have done that. They did that to him. They'd have done it to me too, but they didn't want to bother themselves. They know leaving me alive, alone, will hurt so much more. I tried to get into his room to take something to remember him by, but they wouldn't let me. I still have a handkerchief he gave me, but the smell of him is leaving it like a waterfall. They'll give his clothes to someone new, a fresh recruit into this, some poor young boy. War isn't brutal, humans are, regardless of the time or place.

uxorial \uk-SOR-ee-ul\ adjective
Meaning: of, relating to, or characteristic of a wife

Bernard Fothring was a simple man, of simple needs. He rose at half eight, had his breakfast at half nine, and left the house at half ten. He ran his life by a simple, steady routine, and he remained content. Never enthusiastic, never depressed, but always content. His wife was quite a different matter. She ran a sporadic gamut of events every day, each little drama more dramatic than the last. Even the way she referred to her husband changed daily. Sometimes he would be darling, or pops; at other times he was husband, or Bernard. Even the way she said Bernard changed. This Monday it sounded distinctly like Burn-hard. But on Tuesday it was Ben-urd. Everyone assumed it was because she was French, but even in her little hometown she was known as quite the oddball.
Bernard Fothring put up with these uxorial ramblings and confusions, though, much to the bewilderment of everyone. When asked whether his wife vexed him, he simply replied that he did not mind. It left his family, his friends, his servants, and his neighbours utterly confounded. But, then, they didn't know about Bernard's boyfriend, Marco.

pullulate \PUL-yuh-layt\ verb
Meaning
1 a : germinate, sprout b : to breed or produce freely
*2 : swarm, teem

You sit covered in germs. At every opening they sit and wait, waiting for the moment you're at your weakest, when they can make their attack. Either side of your mouth is a warty growth. At your nostrils sit endless soldiers, in spite of everything you put out to remove them. Each crevice and crack pullulates with them, growing and feeding, splitting off from themselves to spew out more. These villains will rape and ravage you for their own benefit, never realising that the day their happy host perspires will be the day they sign their own death warrant.
You are Earth. They are Humans.

esemplastic \es-em-PLAS-tik\ adjective
Meaning: shaping or having the power to shape disparate things into a unified whole

In the great and mighty cosmos it was up to someone to bring all the disparate particles together. Until that was done, no one could create the important things in life, like mocha, and squeaky dog toys. So God was invented. I say invented; he was actually picked from a list of hopefuls as part of a reality show: Idol Idol. He didn't have the best esemplastic powers, but he was easy on the eye, and then, if not now, looks were considered to be pretty important. The PR department wanted someone to be the face of the new 'Universe' (a name they were bandying about), and, with some careful words in the ear of the judges, they got their way.

shibboleth \SHIB-uh-luth\ noun
Meaning
1 : catchword, slogan
*2 : a widely held belief or truism
3 : a custom or usage regarded as distinctive of a particular group

I have long been of the opinion that women do not necessarily have less intelligence, just that they choose not to use it. I have known a number of very intelligent women, but when their husbands, who were much stupider than them, had an opinion, the women would stick to it, even if they knew it were wrong. Many consider this proof of their shibboleth, and fair cause for shutting up their women. But in all my time as pastor of the parish, I've never known anyone so clever as Mrs Wilson. So it was strange to me to find her standing over the body of her husband, a shotgun in her hands. She looked so calm, I could sense nothing but a great peace in her, a peace she had always been in conflict to reach.

neophyte: a novice.

Susan's hand slipped. Her body lurched forward. And she fell face first into the mud. It was by sheer chance that the cow didn't trample over her little body. Tears mixed with the soil and excrement on her face, as the little boy behind her began to laugh. She was a complete neophyte when it came to milking, doing anything on a farm at all if it came to that, but he didn't care. Billy was still fractious with Susan, because he'd been forced to give up his room for her. She hadn't asked for his room though. Right now she wished a bomb had squashed her flat in that last raid, then she wouldn't have been taken off by that horrible evacuation officer, and brought to this hell.

nefarious \nih-FAIR-ee-us\ adjective
Meaning: flagrantly wicked or impious : evil

The yoghurt was nefarious, wicked in its temptation, evil in its succulence. How could I resist? Fortunately, the man sitting opposite me was deeply easy to turn down. After seven solid evenings of 'first dates', I was ready to return to a life of dinners for one, cats, and slobby pajamas. Without the cats. Damn allergies. Each man had his own charm, his own lack of charm, and his own buzzer that rang out "Not in this lifetime". I hoped they felt the same about me: disappointment seems fairest when it's equally shared. And I feel bad letting people down. I struggled through my dessert, trying desperately to enjoy it without giving the wrong impression. My desire was for the bacteria, not him. Perhaps it was wrong to suck on the black cherry.

lucre: money; profit

Jimmy dreamed of one day becoming a gangster. He'd seen all the big films. Well, at least the bits his mum and dad would let him watch. He knew all the things to say, to women, to men, to your cat. Not many gangsters had cats, but Jimmy did. He called him FatCat. That would make up for him being a cat, and not a violin case, Jimmy thought. Jimmy had wanted a violin case, and his mum had let him borrow a friend's. She was horrified to find Jimmy had taken the violin out and left it in the garden, in the rain. Jimmy didn't understand why she was so upset. There wasn't much lucre to being a violinist; a gangster on the other hand...

hummock \HUM-uk\ noun
Meaning
*1 : a rounded knoll or hillock
2 : a ridge of ice
3 : a fertile area in the southern United States and especially Florida that is usually higher than its surroundings and that is characterized by hardwood vegetation and deep humus-rich soil


The morning sun was barely touching the sky, a sliver of gold creeping across the tiniest cracks of trees, leaving the rest of us in shadow. We were crouched behind a large bush, awaiting the order from our captain to attack the enemy, who were on the other side of the hummock. Gethran and I could see the tops of their helmets. We held our breath, the dewy mist catching at the back of our throats. In the branches near my face, a bird hopped about, trying to grab at the last berry on the bush. I watched it struggle for a moment, before falling down. It stayed still for a moment, having finally noticed me, and our eyes locked. Then it flew off and was gone. I heard one of the enemy soldiers say something about it. Gethran's shoes twisted in the dirt, eager to be on the move: soon the sun would be up, and our cover blown. I pulled at the sleeve of our captain, trying to convey our urgency. He brushed me off. Then his hand slipped to the floor, and he made the signal: three fast slaps on the floor. In a moment we were off, spreading across the hummock like children running from their mothers.
I made a swift blow to one of their heads, and he fell.

defenestrate: to throw out of a window

It's a conundrum: do I defenestrate myself, or slowly defenestrate every other person in the world one by one? A super-human-mind-ray power could get them all to do it in one big go, but what about people on the groundfloor? Or in the basement? Plus I couldn't kill off the babies. I'd keep them and train them as a new super-human army, to take on the squirrels. You just know after I'd killed everyone the squirrels would be in there. In your business suit, riding the elevator to your office. Having meetings in the conference room, getting your PA (now another squirrel) to get them coffee and check the diary. Meeting your wife (another squirrel) and telling her you're (squirrel) too tired for sex. So with super-baby-death-ray power we will have to fight them back.

copacetic \koh-puh-SET-ik\ adjective
Meaning: very satisfactory

It was little wonder Julie lashed out at the airhostess. Her entire life she'd been telling people things were copacetic: her haircuts, her food at restaurants, the way people trod on her feet on the bus. She'd pacified herself right into an aneurysm, for which she was now having to fly one thousand miles for an operation. She wasn't sure if the heavy beating in her head right now was the little clot preparing to explode and kill them then and there, but she did know that the coffee she'd just been given was awful, the cup cracked, and her skirt ruined. Enough was enough.
The air hostess was about to tell her passenger that if she shouted then it would be harassment, but she thought better of it, as she met Julie's steely gaze head on. A silver-dagger torrent was waiting behind those corneas, just waiting for some idiot to unleash its fury.

exiguous: extremely scanty

"I told Mariana, I said to her, 'You can't chuck that exiguous trash down the runway'".
"Jerry, what the fuck are you on? Where do you come up with this? Exiguous?"
"Babydoll, I read it in the freaking Times, a political piece on Dafur. If it's fucking good enough for them, it's good enough for me."
"And what did Mariana say?"
"Well, she's Russian, so she didn't get it. She thought I was saying 'sexy dress trash'."

forte \FORT\ noun
Meaning: something in which one excels : one's strong point

All about the town she was known, and loved, for every day she brought a smile to the faces of each inhabitant of that little hilltop place. Even the people of the valley couldn't help but be charmed by her. She whistled sweetly wherever she walked, with a step so gentle she could have trodden on a snowdrop without damaging its spring. The breeze seemed to follow her like a lost puppy, and the sun shone wherever she was. Yet her real forte was the little crafts she made, gifts for all she knew, made from whatever she found on the hillside.
Now it was Easter, and she spirited the milk from six cows, to make chocolate for the eggs she would make. Each had a little letter carved into it, and was wrapped with a yellow ribbon. They were so beautiful, even little Bobby McGrew found it hard to eat it.

obfuscate \AHB-fuh-skayt\ verb
Meaning
1 a : darken *b : to make obscure
2 : confuse
3 : to be evasive, unclear, or confusing

"I don't understand," she wailed, watching his figure recede into the night. She stood there watching the space he'd recently departed.
"Of course you don't understand," said a voice from behind her. "Explanation obfuscates everything, where the laws of dark-matter trade are concerned."
She didn't turn to see who it was. She knew not to trust the faces of anyone she met here. They were so easily bought on the blackmarket, you might speak to the same person half a dozen times a week, and see them with a different face each time. Whatever he looked like, he was a member of the Ginferdu police.

verdure \VER-jer\ noun
Meaning
*1 : the greenness of growing vegetation; also : such vegetation itself
2 : a condition of health and vigor

Heather piled down the mountainside, resplendent in verdure. I stumbled through it, each trip and stumble pulling me down into the undergrowth like quicksand. Just days before I'd been tackling the sprawling urban jungle, and now the stupefying countryside was swallowing me whole. The sun warmed it, and me, like a fleshy back cooking on the beach. My body lurched forward, half wanting it to swallow me, to die here and have it all done with. In all this air I was struggling to breath, so far away from the clogging smog of London.

cacophony: harsh or discordant sound

I always associate Spring with a cacophony of birds singing out from a great big tree, sprouting out buds of flowers and leaves, and pulsing like a giant heart. But where do you go to get that many birds. Nowadays I feel blessed to hear a thrush, or see a little robin. Mankind cut down the tree, broke the heart, and sent the birds flying. Then it shot them.

"Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie"

wanderlust \WAHN-der-lust\ noun
Meaning: strong longing for or impulse towards wandering

Her heart sat in her throat. At any moment she would meet her idol.
"Is this your first time?" The boy next to her was sneering. She didn't like him. She never would. They'd never met before, but she could tell.
"Yes. I take it it's not yours."
"I've been here dozens of times." An arrogant smile crept across his face, like pee spreading across the floor.
"Well. Maybe you've forgotten how exciting it all is, then. I'm loving the rush."
"Wanderlust, that's what you've got, plain and simple. It's sadly really. I never had it. But then I never had a lot of those useless things little girls have.
He raised the tip of the foot at the end of his dangling leg. Her mother had told her never to trust men who crossed their legs. Her mother was an idiot.

matutinal: relating to or occurring in the morning

You sit at your desk, the soft leather top running beneath your finger tips. Your mood is entirely matutinal: sluggish, expectant, anxious. At any moment the Bishop will arrive, and he will be questioning you. As far as you know you have done nothing wrong. And, yet...
You reach out to grab the letter. It is crumpled, has sat in your pocket for days, then more days beneath this pile of papers, here. You have hidden in from the world, and from yourself. What are you ashamed of?
Mrs McSelwyn is at the door. He is here.

cozen: to deceive or obtain by deceit.

The land was rife, rife with loathsome creatures, each sucking the lifeforce from whatever they could. An apocalypse is a terrible thing to waste. A wasteland is the breeding ground for all sorts of flesh-tearing terror. Old cans are torn open by knives, or even bear hands where the flesh is weak from rust. Everything has its contents gouged out, ready for consumption. "Devoured till death" is the epitaph on the land's tombstone. She was tricked into it, her gifts cozened out of her by her own true love, her babe, her progeny.

magniloquent \mag-NIL-uh-kwunt\ adjective
Meaning: speaking in or characterized by a high-flown often bombastic style or manner

I wanted to kill her. I wanted to take her head and bash and bash and bash it against her stupid fucking laptop. I couldn't possibly focus on my work with her there, talking on the phone in that magniloquent way, raising her voice at the middle of every word. She tossed her hair back. I imagined grabbing hold of it, pulling her backwards on her chair, it crashing to the floor like a fallen horse and rider, and tieing her hideous locks to the arm. There she'd be, ready for a good kicking.

glower \GLOW-er (the OW is as in "cow")\ verb
Meaning: to look or stare with sullen annoyance or anger

The old man's head furrowed, deep lines slipping over one another, downward and downward, like icing slipping off a cake. He glowered at the man, who, in spite of being significantly taller, younger, and fitter, seemed to shrink beneath it. Mr Faulks had always been used to getting his way, and now could win any fight by the simplest of methods.
"I'm very sorry," the young man said. Though he was not sure why he said it, since it was Mr Faulks who had trodden so plainly on his foot.

potable: drinkable; also, a beverage, especially an alcoholic one.

"Shut up, you fat trout," she yelled at her across the bar.
"It's time to leave," the small, bespectacled barmaid replied. "Your husband's waiting."
And so he was. The poor man was clearly useless at dealing with his wife, which was probably the only reason they were still together after thirty years. His face looked like a worn doormat, with a thick bristle across the middle, and curly tufts all the way around its edge.
"Jesus, Sharon, your sweat's potable," he said, veering from her at the same time as grabbing her at the elbow. "How much has she had?" he asked the barmaid.
"I don't know. I only got on at eight, and she was pretty well gone by then."

hirsute: covered with hair or bristles.

I lay back on the pavement, blood clotting around my eyes. A gentle tingle rumbled all over my body, back and forth, up and down, like a million pixies beckoning me into the darkness. The drizzle swelled over me, drenching my clothing milimetre by milimetre. A snuffling sound started at my crotch, pushing in with wisps of air. It traced its way up my limp collection of flesh. A hirsute nose reached my face, jabbering out its sniffs, before one deep sigh. The dog paused.