3 Paws Saloon Attic

grouse \grous\, verb:

1. To grumble; complain.

noun:
1. A complaint.

Today, he went on to grouse about some "pipsqueak" new arrival at Claverack who was only thirteen.
-- Lionel Shriver, We Need To Talk About Kevin

He continued to grouse as they headed toward the taxi line.
-- James Rollins, The Doomsday Key

Grouse originally referred to a type of bird. It is uncertain why it began to mean "to complain," though it bears a resemblance to the word grouch.

sylph \silf\, noun:

1. A slender, graceful woman or girl.
2. (In folklore) one of a race of supernatural beings supposed to inhabit the air.

The sylph had been as slender as a willow, with long silver hair and eyes like the dark between the stars.
-- Jenna Reynolds, Kiss of Honor

Ben was frantic. He lifted the stricken sylph in his arms and held her close against him
-- Terry Brooks, Magic Kingdom for Sale – Sold!

The girl's slender and sylph-like figure, tinged with radiance from the sunset clouds, and overhung with the rich drapery of the silken curtains, and set within the deep frame of the window, was a perfect picture.
-- Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Snow-Image, and Other Tales

Sylph was coined by Paracelsus. It is a blend of sylva, which meant "forest" in Latin, and the Greek word nymph.

cumshaw \KUHM-shaw\, noun:

A present; gratuity; tip.

Many had nothing to give, but the younger wives always brought a modest cumshaw—a gift—for whatever mysterious service Dr. Ransome provided.
-- J.G. Ballard, Empire of the Sun

No one in the filthy streets (but for the blessed sea breezes San Francisco would enjoy cholera every season) interfered with my movements, though many asked for cumshaw.
-- Rudyard Kipling, From Sea to Sea

You know, cumshaw is not really understood by Westerners. It is not a bribe in the Western sense. More accurately, it is like a tip that is given in advance.
-- David Desauld, Twilight in Tientsin

Cumshaw stems from the Chinese word gân xiè meaning "grateful thanks."

adenoidal \ad-n-OID-l\, adjective:

1. Being characteristically pinched and nasal in tone quality.
2. Of or pertaining to the adenoids; adenoid.
3. Having the adenoids enlarged, especially to a degree that interferes with normal breathing.

"Quite the good, old-fashioned type of servant," as Miss Marple explained afterward, and with the proper, inaudible, respectful voice, so different from the loud but adenoidal accents of Gladys.
-- Agatha Christie, Three Blind Mice

Then just as suddenly the sensation was gone and I heard a shrill, adenoidal voice that swallowed most of its soft consonants…
-- Charles Johnson, Middle Passage

Adenoidal only entered English in the 1910s, referring to the glands near the nasal passage.

haimish \HEY-mish\, adjective:

Homey; cozy and unpretentious.

Now separated from Gisela Liner's home cooking and haimish evenings playing living-room soccer with Kisch, Billie consoled himself by going to the finest spots in Berlin.
-- Ed Sikov, On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder

By late afternoon the house looked at least haimish, with the season's last roses cut and opening in jelly jars.
-- Sally Koslow, With Friends Like These

There were other homey touches: a mizrakh plaque on the eastern wall, a silver menorah and a sewing kit containing a color wheel of spools on the sideboard—all made the more haimish by the savory aromas wafting in through the kitchen door.
-- Steve Stern, The Frozen Rabbi

Haimish stems from the Yiddish word of the same spelling, which comes from the German word heimisc that literally means "pertaining to the home."

volant \VOH-luhnt\, adjective:

1. Moving lightly; nimble.
2. Engaged in or having the power of flight.

noun:
1. Also called volant piece. Armor. A reinforcing piece for the brow of a helmet.

But here in the present case, to carry on the volant metaphor, (for I must either be merry or mad) is a pretty little Miss, just, come out of her hanging-sleeve coat, brought to buy a pretty little fairing; for the world, Jack, is but a great fair thou knowest; and, to give thee serious reflection for serious, all its toys but tinselled hobby horses, gilt gingerbread, squeaking trumpets, painted drums, and so forth.
-- Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, Or, The History of a Young Lady

With Rube winging it that spring, the band blared, and the volant baseball team was unbeatable.
-- Alan Howard Levy, Rube Waddell

Volant stems from the Latin word volāre which meant "to fly". In English, it acquired the sense of moving nimbly in the early 1600s.

noctilucent \nok-tuh-LOO-suhnt\, adjective:

Visible during the short night of the summer.

So Sax would sit on the Western sea cliff, rapt through the setting of the sun, then stay through the hour of twilight, watching the sky colors change as the sun's shadow rose up, until all the sky was black; and then sometimes there would appear noctilucent clouds, thirty kilometers above the planet, broad streaks gleaming like abalone shells.
-- Kim Stanley Robinson, Blue Mars

The shells of 155-mm howitzers whistled away through the dark air, orange flashes popped like noctilucent flowers on the western ridge of Hon Heo Mountain and disappeared shortly after, and then the sound of explosions rumbled through the ground.
-- Junghyo Ahn, White Badge

Noctilucent entered English in the late 1800s. It is a combination of the prefix nocti- (which means "night") and lucent (which means "shining").

instauration \in-staw-REY-shuhn\, noun:

1. Renewal; restoration; renovation; repair.
2. Obsolete. An act of instituting something; establishment.

Warm friendship, indeed, he felt for her; but whatever that might have done towards the instauration of a former dream was now hopelessly barred by the rivalry of the thing itself in the guise of a lineal successor.
-- Thomas Hardy, The Well-Beloved

For the first time since the instauration of the Republic of Cuba, the military caste was going to have to manage on its own.
-- Norberto Fuentes and Anna Kushner, The Autobiography of Fidel Castro

Instauration is derived from the Latin word instaurātiōn- which meant "a renewing" or "repeating".

glutch \gluhch\, verb:

1. to swallow.

noun:
1. a mouthful.

And now Robert Creedle will be nailed up in parish boards 'a b'lieve; and nobody will glutch down a sigh for he!"
-- Thomas Hardy, The Woodlanders

I was, at the time, standing near Uncle Ral and I distinctly heard him gasp, swallow what must have been an overdue expectoration, glutch, and at last emit a long, slow exhalation.
-- David George Pitt, Tales from the Outer Fringe

Glutch is of unknown origin. It was first used in southwestern England in the early 1800s.

agemate \EYJ-meyt\, noun:

A person of about the same age as another.

She tolerates the family, especially an agemate named Isabelle, although they kid her about getting letters from a mysterious swain every day.
-- Faye Moskowitz, Her face in the Mirror

She had no agemate in that house, no one she could think of as an ally.
-- Julie Orringer, The Invisible Bridge

Agemate entered English in the late 1500s when the word mate meant "guest" in Old English.

sumpsimus \SUHMP-suh-muhs\, noun:

1. Adherence to or persistence in using a strictly correct term, holding to a precise practice, etc., as a rejection of an erroneous but more common form (opposed to mumpsimus).
2. A person who is obstinate or zealous about such strict correctness (opposed to mumpsimus).

And now let all defenders of present institutions, however bad they may be — let all violent supporters of their old mumpsimus against any new sumpsimus whatever, listen to a conversation among some undergraduates.
-- Frederic William Farrar , Julian Home

She is a master of sumpsimus, more anal in language usage than Doc in his rigid professionalism. She insists on saying It is I, or He gave the book to John and me.
-- Ann Burrus, Astride the Pineapple Couch

Like its counterpart mumpsimus, sumpsimus comes from to a story about an illiterate priest. In this case, sumpsimus refers to the opposite practice as mumpsimus.

gallant \GAL-uhnt\, adjective:

1. Brave, spirited, noble-minded, or chivalrous: a gallant knight; a gallant rescue attempt.
2. Exceptionally polite and attentive to women; courtly.
3. Stately; grand: a gallant pageant.

noun:
1. A brave, noble-minded, or chivalrous man.
2. A man exceptionally attentive to women.
3. A stylish and dashing man.

He praised the owl's wisdom and his courage, his gallantry and his generosity; though every one knew that however wise old Master Owl might be, he was neither brave nor gallant.
-- Frances Jenkins Olcott, Good Stories For Holidays

Oh, those were days of power, gallant days, bustling days, worth the bravest days of chivalry at least.
-- George Borrow, Lavengro: The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest

Related to the word gala, gallant stems from the Old French word galer meaning "to amuse oneself, to make merry."

A treatise; essay.

Divide up all the tractates and commit yourselves to learn them during the coming year.
-- Yair Weinstock, Holiday Tales for the Soul

Jean-Pierre Mahé has rightly insisted that we should explore possible explanations other than mere haphazard collection, not only for the presence of the Hermetic tractates within Codex VI…
-- Michael Allen Williams, Rethinking "Gnosticism"

Tractate comes from the Medieval Latin word tractātus meaning "a handling, treatment."

vamp \vamp\, verb:

1. To patch up; repair.
2. To give (something) a new appearance by adding a patch or piece.
3. To concoct or invent (often followed by up): He vamped up a few ugly rumors to discredit his enemies.
4. To furnish with a vamp, especially to repair (a shoe or boot) with a new vamp.

noun:
1. The portion of a shoe or boot upper that covers the instep and toes.
2. Something patched up or pieced together.

...plod and plow, vamp your old coats and hats, weave a shoestring; great affairs and the best wine by and by.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Illusions," Essays and Poems

To lay false claim to an invention or discovery which has an immediate market value; to vamp up a professedly new book of reference by stealing from the pages of one already produced at the cost of much labour and material…
-- George Eliot, Impressions of Theophrastus Such

Vamp is a shortening of the Middle French word avant-pie literally meaning "fore-foot." This sense of the word is embedded in the more common word revamp.

ectopic \ek-TOP-ik\, adjective:

Occurring in an abnormal position or place; displaced.

It does not appear that any modern author, or any of our large numbers of "systems" of surgery, has taken up this important aspect of "ectopic tumors."
-- Dr. Thomas H. Manley, The Medical Times and Register, Vol. 33 - 34

Diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy was made and immediate operation decided upon.
-- Dr. J. Henry Barbat, Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 32

Ectopic is from the invented Greek word ectopia meaning "out of place." It was coined in 1873.

paronymous \puh-RON-uh-muhs\, adjective:

Containing the same root or stem, as the words wise and wisdom.

The sentence seems to reverberate with echoes of assonance—another distinctive trait of Haweke's writing often enriched with alliterative patterns or even rhymes—on both sides of the two central words: "pale petal," whose juxtaposition involves an anagramatical and paronymous variation.
-- Heide Ziegler, Facing Texts

This in itself is a significant achievement in a language so flowery and paronymous to the extent that exaggeration, especially at that time of its literary history, is widely considered to be one of its inherent characteristics.
-- Sabry Hafez, The Quest for Identities

Paronymous stems from the Greek roots para- meaning "beside" and onoma meaning "a name."

requisition
ek-wuh-ZISH-uhn\, noun:

1. A demand made.
2. The act of requiring or demanding.
3. An authoritative or formal demand for something to be done, given, supplied, etc.: The general issued a requisition to the townspeople for eight trucks.
4. A written request or order for something, as supplies.

verb:
1. To require or take for use; press into service.
2. To demand or take, as by authority, for military purposes, public needs, etc.: to requisition supplies.

But I have a friend of my own kidney who has often served me before, and I am going to make a requisition on him for this especial business.
-- Timothy Shay Arthur, Bell Martin

Do you have the requisition for the special lecturer?
-- Ayn Rand, We the Living

Requisition comes from the Latin word requīsītiōn meaning "a searching."

beguile \bih-GAHYL\, verb:

1. To influence by trickery, flattery, etc.; mislead; delude.
2. To take away from by cheating or deceiving (usually followed by of): to be beguiled of money.
3. To charm or divert: a multitude of attractions to beguile the tourist.
4. To pass (time) pleasantly: beguiling the long afternoon with a good book.

Donovan was going to have to beguile Peter, but he hoped he wouldn't have to beguile Alex as well. It was a bad precedent to set, and he liked the honesty between the two of them.
-- Deborah Cooke, Kiss of Fury

Sentences and sententiae alike charm and beguile even jaded undergraduates. Who but can marvel at such craftsmanship as these words incarnate…
-- George Douglas Atkins, Reading Essays

Beguile is derived from the Middle English word bigilen, from the root guile meaning "insidious cunning."

qualia \KWAH-lee-uh\, noun:

1. A quality, as bitterness, regarded as an independent object.
2. A sense-datum or feeling having a distinctive quality.

He points out that our subjective experiences — our qualia — are the only thing each of us is really sure of, that all else is speculation.
-- Jenny McPhee, The Center of Things

Which in itself is quite strange, the idea that one could have an identical experience, down to the last detail, down to the internal qualia, the exact interior frame of mind, emotions, a frame of consciousness duplicated with startling exactitude, that would be unsettling enough.
-- Charles Yu, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

Qualia comes from the Latin word quālis meaning "of what sort."

integument \in-TEG-yuh-muhnt\, noun:

1. A natural covering, as a skin, shell, or rind.
2. Any covering, coating, enclosure, etc.

It seems to me that the process of adding an extra integument is unique to our species and easily understandable—we all want extra protection for our soft and vulnerable bodies.
-- William Boyd, Armadillo

The integuments which he wore in daytime were discarded and others were donned, of a kind which would serve but poorly to keep out the cold and to shed rain, sleet, or snow.
-- Frederick Philip Grove, Consider Her Ways

Integument stems from the Latin root tegumentum meaning "a covering." It is also the root of the dinosaur name stegosaurus.

Bildungsroman \BIL-doongz-roh-mahn\, noun:

A type of novel concerned with the education, development, and maturing of a young protagonist.

Unlike David Copperfield, The Catcher in the Rye is no Bildungsroman, because the narrator/protagonist doesn't want to grow up.
-- John Sutherland and Stephen Fender, Love, Sex, Death & Words

With its emphasis squarely on the diversity and latitude of lived experiences, Night Travellers unambiguously demonstrates its unease with the rigid providential scenario that pervades this kind of political Bildungsroman.
-- Yunzhong Shu, Buglers on the Home Front

Bildungsroman stems from the German word of the same spelling. The word bildung means "formation," and the word roman means "book."

traject \truh-JEKT\, verb:

To transport, transmit, or transpose.

A sign said “loose rocks and soil on the edges” I decided to drive close to the edge and see when using the front end of my car, then swinging out the back wheels, would it cause the rocks to traject in front of his car?
-- Robert A. Williams, The Fall Mission

The Roman vocabulary did not tend to traject the "aesthetic" with "manliness," "glory," or "wealth."
-- Brian A. Krostenko, Cicero, Catullus, and the Language of Social Performance

Traject stems from the Latin word jacere meaning "to throw" and the prefix trā- which is a variation of the prefix trans- meaning "across" or "beyond."

incondite \in-KON-dit\, adjective:

1. Ill-constructed; unpolished: incondite prose.
2. Crude; rough; unmannerly.

He is no such honest chronicler as R.N., and would have done better perhaps to have consulted that gentleman, before he sent these incondite reminiscences to press.
-- Charles Lamb, Charles Lamb: Selected Writings

I wish I might digress and tell you more of the pavor nocturnus that would rack me at night hideously after a chance term had struck me in the random readings of my boyhood, such as peine forte et dure (what a Genius of Pain must have invented that!), or the dreadful, mysterious, insidious words "trauma," "traumatic event," and "transom." But my tale is sufficiently incondite already.
-- Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

To me, the Venetians whom I have met, seem to be merely inadequate, incondite, banausic , and perfectly complacent about it.
-- Frederick Rolfe, The Armed Hands

Incondite stems from the Latin root condere meaning "to put in, restore." The prefix in- also corresponds to the prefix un-, as in the word indefensible.

foible \FOI-buhl\, noun:

1. A minor weakness or failing of character; slight flaw or defect: an all-too-human foible.
2. The weaker part of a sword blade, between the middle and the point (opposed to forte).

Irascibility was his sole foible; for in fact the obstinacy of which men accused him was anything but his foible, since he justly considered it his forte.
-- Edgar Allan Poe, "X-ing a Paragrab", Poetry and Tales

I fear, on the contrary, if they came under your examination, there is not one in whom you would not discern some foible!
-- Fanny Burney, Camilla

Related to the word feeble, foible is derived from the Latin word flēbilis which meant "lamentable."