Words I’ve had to learn to read the first few chapters of “Tristram Shandy”

  • vaticination – prophecy or foreknowledge (not what it sounds like)
  • heteroclite – irregular or deviant (I should have guessed)
  • declension – a decline or downward slope (literal or abstract)
  • cervantic – (not in any dictionary, but its meaning is clear if subtle)
  • panegyric – elaborate oration or praise ( I knew that)