deliquium: chemically, dissolution into air or liquid. otherwise, a swooning or faint mood
ebullition: boiling up or pouring out, either emotionally, physically, or linguistically
peripety: corruption of peripeteia, a sudden turn of events, usually in literature
bruit: (noun) a din or loud noise. (verb) to voice loudly or spread rumor
trumpery: showy, deceptive, or nonsensical (from tromper, to deceive)
voluptuary: a person devoted to luxury and sensual pleasure
maunder: to talk or move about aimlessly or confusedly
insouciant: carefree, indifferent, or nonchalant
You cannot make a man by standing a sheep on its hind-legs. But by standing a flock of sheep in that position you can make a crowd of men. If man were not a gregarious animal, the world might have achieved, by this time, some real progress towards civilisation. Segregate him, and he is no fool. But set him loose among his fellows, and he is lost — he becomes just a unit in unreason.
Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson
from Martin Chuzzlewit
Be they never so Withered, no Milk-Maiden grieves
to lay herself down among Strawberry Leaves
Album art for Bear in Heaven’s Beast Rest Forth Mouth
Comets On Fire – “Dogwood Rust”
Avatar
What can I say? Simply one of the best tracks of all time, and the standard by which I now measure all medium-length rock songs. Listen to it all the way through; it’ll put hair on your chest. I’m proud to say I saw these guys in a place about the size of my apartment, and they killed it. Too bad the cops came like five minutes later and actually arrested the guy who lived there.
Vocabulary: Golden Cloud of Silver Clangour Edition
dulia: a theological term signifying the honor paid to the saints (as opposed to god)
lazaret: a small ship, room or building used for quarantine (or simply set aside)
disseizin: wrongful dispossession of one in the possession of real property
surplice: a loose-fitting garment with fabric crossing diagonally in front
quillon: one of the two protrusions forming the crossbar of a sword
opetide: early spring, when flowers’ buds are beginning to open
omnisubjugant: one to whom everyone else is subject (clearly)
anchorite: a hermit or one who has otherwise isolated himself
propinquity: nearness or similarity in time, place, or nature
gallimaufry: a medley or jumble (originally a food term)
legerdemain: sleight of hand (French: “light of hand”)
dandiacal: of or pertaining to dandies; foppish
aureate: gold, brilliant, or ornate in style
apposite: relevant, apt, or well-suited
guerdon: a reward or compensation
pleach: to interweave or braid
portreeve: a port warden
…those eyes which hawks, that nose which eagles, had often envied.
Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson
…for so it happens that, in this country, the more hideous the crime, the more intense the curiosity of the upper classes of both sexes to witness the miscreant perpetrator; the more disgusting the details, the greater the avidity with which they are listened to by the distinguished auditors;—the reason being plain, that, as they have exhausted the pleasures and excitements afforded by their own sphere of action and enjoyment, their palled and sated appetites require novel and more powerful stimulants. Hence, at length, we see “fashionables” peopling even the condemned cell—rushing, in excited groups, after the shuddering malefactor, staggering, half palsied, and with horror-laden eye, on his way to the gallows!
Samuel Warren, Ten Thousand A-Year