quidam
n. an unknown person
oppidan
n. an inhabitant of a town
obrute
v. to overwhelm, bury; to cover over
recumbentibus
n. a knockdown blow
The “sitting man” is numbered among the victims of Vesuvius in 79 CE.
He died crouching in a corner of his house, holding a scarf over his mouth.
intendiment
n. intention or purpose
auspicate
v. to begin an undertaking
mercation
n. the act of purchasing something
Alnaschar
n. a person given to unrealistic dreams, expectations, or plans
In the summer of 1967, the Beatles briefly considered buying a set of Greek islands where they could live and work together.
“We were all going to live together now, in a huge estate,” Derek Taylor says in Anthology. “The four Beatles and Brian [Epstein] would have their network at the centre of the compound: a dome of glass and iron tracery (not unlike the old Crystal Palace) above the mutual creative/play area, from which arbours and avenues would lead off like spokes from a wheel to the four vast and incredibly beautiful separate living units. In the outer grounds, the houses of the inner clique: Neil [Aspinall], Mal [Evans], Terry [Doran] and Derek, complete with partners, families and friends.”
John, Paul, and George got as far as touring the islands south of Athens and visiting one they considered buying. But indulging the idea for an afternoon seemed to be enough for them. George said, “We got back on the boat and sailed away, and never thought about the island again.”
“It’s a good job we didn’t do it,” Paul said later, “because anyone who tried those ideas realised eventually there would always be arguments, there would always be who has to do the washing-up and whose turn it is to clean out the latrines. I don’t think any of us were thinking of that.”
locodescriptive
adj. describing a particular place or places
hippocrepiform
adj. shaped like a horseshoe
elsewhither
adv. in a different direction
mirific
adj. working wonders; wonderful
The Rochester Institute of Technology contains a portal to another dimension. In 2013, student Michael Lacanilao deliberately set out to create a record of an “Escherian stairwell” on campus that forms a perpetual downward loop.
Lacanilao has long since graduated, but the stairwell is still commemorated on the school’s website.
(Thanks, Colin.)
ladrone
n. a thief; robber; highwayman; rogue
depeculation
n. a robbing or embezzling
desponsate
adj. married
adhorn
v. to make a cuckold of
According to legend, French highwayman Claude Duval agreed not to rob one gentleman if his wife would dance the courante with him by the wayside.
He was hanged at Tyburn in 1670 “to the great grief of the women.” A memorial in Covent Garden reads, “Here lies DuVall: Reder, if male thou art, Look to thy purse; if female, to thy heart.”
balneal
adj. pertaining to a warm bath
contubernal
adj. living in the same tent
stillicide
n. the dropping of rainwater from the eaves of a house upon another’s land or roof
sub tegmine fagi
adv. under the cover of a beech tree
tenson
n. a contest in verse between rival troubadours
anfractuous
adj. having many windings and turnings
loof
n. the palm of the hand
penetralia
n. the innermost recesses of a building
swither
n. a state of perplexity
It’s commonly said that you can defeat a hedge maze by placing one hand on a wall and carefully maintaining that contact as you advance. If the hedges are all connected, this method will reliably lead you to the center of the maze (and, indeed, to every other part of it before you return to the entrance).
The maze at Chevening House, in Kent, was designed deliberately to thwart this technique. Its center is concealed in an “island” of hedges distinct from the outer wall, so following either a left- or a right-hand rule will return you to the entrance without ever passing the goal. It was designed by mathematician Earl Stanhope, one of at least three hedge mazes he produced in the 1820s in the first serious application of mathematics to maze design.
chartaceous
adj. made of paper
admarginate
v. to add or note in the margin
subdititious
adj. fraudulently substituted for a person or thing
prepense
n. malice aforethought
Alexander Pope made use of every scrap of paper that offered a clean surface — nearly the entire first draft of his translation of the Iliad was written on the backs of envelopes, bills, miscellaneous letters, and stray bits of paper. Jonathan Swift suggested that other writers might turn this to their advantage: They could print their own works in editions with wide margins, lend these to “paper-sparing Pope,” wait for him to fill in the spaces with poetry — and then sell this as their own.
tesserarian
adj. pertaining to play
aspernate
v. to scorn
absit
n. a student’s temporary leave of absence
denegate
v. to deny or refuse
In 1873, when the University of Michigan challenged Cornell to the new game of football, Cornell president Andrew D. White declined. He said, “I will not permit thirty men to travel four hundred miles to agitate a bag of wind.”