New words encountered while reading Woolf’s Orlando:
Dissemblable: A French word for “dissimilar,” here used as a noun:
“What a phantasmagoria the mind is and meeting-place of dissemblables!” (86)
Marl: “A crumbly mixture of clays, calcium and magnesium carbonates, and remnants of shells that is sometimes found under desert sands and used as fertilizer for lime-deficient soils” – here used to mean ‘hot earth?’:
“It is marl we tread and fiery cobbles scorch our feet.” (100)
Sciatica: “Pain along the sciatic nerve usually caused by a herniated disk of the lumbar region of the spine and radiating to the buttocks and to the back of the thigh.”
“…and held itself very upright, though perhaps in pain from sciatica” (9)
Crepuscular: “Of or like twilight; dim.”
“Of our crepuscular half-lights and lingering twilights they knew nothing.” (12)
Assiduity: “1. Persistent application or diligence; unflagging effort. 2. Constant personal attention and often obsequious solicitude. Often used in the plural.”
“…who, by sheer assiduity and the use of her eyes had worked her way up at court” (14)
Orgulous: Proud, haughty.
“…for there was an orgulous credulity about him which was pleasant enough” (22)
Sennight: A week.
“…fixed though it was for this day sennight” (23)
Junket: “1. To hold a party or banquet. 2. To go on a junket. 3. To fete at a party or banquet.”
“The rest of the time was spent in carousings and junketings in taverns and in beer gardens” (44)
Teg: “A sheep in its second year or before its first shearing.”
“That he did not know…a teg from a ewe” (44)
Diuturnity: “Long duration, lastingness.”
“…brevity and diuturnity…” (48)
Peroration: Noun from the verb “perorate” – “1. To conclude a speech with a formal recapitulation. 2. To speak at great length, often in a grandiloquent manner; declaim.”
“…but when it came to the peroration — and what is eloquence that lacks a peroration? — he fumbled.” (52)
Janissary: “1. A member of a group of elite, highly loyal supporters. 2. A soldier in an elite Turkish guard organized in the 14th century and abolished in 1826.”
“…preceded by purple Janissaries running on foot…” (59)
Negus: “A beverage of wine, hot water, lemon juice, sugar, and nutmeg.”
“…fountains of negus…” (62)
Bastinado: “1. A beating with a stick or cudgel, especially on the soles of the feet. 2. A stick or cudgel.”
“…and put every foreigner they could find, either to the sword or to the bastinado.” (65)
Tarn: “A small mountain lake, especially one formed by glaciers.”
“She found the tarn on the mountain-top and almost threw herself in to seek the wisdom she thought lay hid there…” (70)
Withys: “1. A rope or band made of withes. 2. a. A long flexible twig, as that of an osier. b. A tree or shrub having such twigs.”
“They broke their withys…” (71)
Collocation: “An arrangement or juxtaposition of words or other elements, especially those that commonly co-occur, as rancid butter, bosom buddy, or dead serious.”
“…some random collocation of barns and trees or a haystack and a waggon presents us with so perfect a symbol of what is unattainable that we begin the search again.” (106)
Probity: “Complete and confirmed integrity; uprightness.”
“For the probity of breeches she exchanged the seductiveness of petticoats…” (108)
Caracole: “A half turn to right or left performed by a horse and rider,” or, as a verb, performing such a movement.
“…the pen began to curve and caracole with the smoothest possible fluency.” (117)
