urbane \ur-BAYN\ (adjective) - Polished and smooth in manner; polite, refined, and elegant.

"The grey-haired man was obviously the woman's inferior; he sat on the ground at a distance, and although what he said was urbane enough, in the Malayan way, it was nothing like so urbane nor nearly as copious as her conversation, a steady, lively flow, ...Read more

alpenglow \AL-puhn-gloh\ (noun) - A reddish glow seen near sunset or sunrise on the summits of mountains.

"I sit down by the Hermit's Creek and eat chocolate bars and listen to the water, and then, when it is four hours till sundown, four hours till alpenglow, after the last of the buffalo have filed past with wan and weary smiles, I start up ...Read more

diadem \DY-uh-dem\ (noun) - 1 : A crown. 2 : An ornamental headband worn (as by Eastern monarchs) as a badge of royalty. 3 : Regal power; sovereignty; empire; -- considered as symbolized by the crown.

(transitive verb) - To adorn with a diadem; to crown.

"From somewhere -- he had not been carrying it before -- he produced a diadem made of gold...Read more

kobold \KOH-bold\ (noun) - In German folklore, a haunting spirit, gnome, or goblin.

"The kobold wore the simple garments of his race: a long patchwork coat over practical leather clothes, his close-cropped black hair covered by a rough green hat, topped by a set of battered miner's goggles. He stood about average height for a kobold at four-...Read more

prestidigitation \pres-tuh-dij-uh-TAY-shuhn\ (noun) - Skill in or performance of tricks; sleight of hand.

"So, by virtue of such mental prestidigitation and tergiversation, inspired and animated as it was by his desire for Sondra, his inability to face the facts in connection with Roberty, he achieved the much-coveted privilege of again seeing ...Read more

ingenue \AN-zhuh-noo\ (noun) - 1 : A naive girl or young woman. 2 : An actress playing such a person; also: the stage role of an ingenue.

"She complained about always being cast as the ingenue. She tried to act cynical, but she really was the ingenue type." -- Robin Hemley, 'The Big Ear

Ingenue comes from the French, from Latin ingenuus, "...Read more

winsome \WIN-suhm\ (adjective) - 1 : Cheerful; merry; gay; light-hearted. 2 : Causing joy or pleasure; agreeable; pleasant.

"Colton had trouble curtailing a grin as he witnessed this innocuous confrontation, but when he found himself the recipient of an icy glance from the winsome brunette, he grew a bit perplexed until it suddenly dawned on ...Read more

swan song \SWAHN-SONG\ (noun) - 1 : A beautiful legendary song said to be sung by a dying swan. 2 : A final or farewell appearance, action, or pronouncement.

"This state dinner, perhaps the most important one we would ever experience, was Henry's swan song, his crowning glory..." -- Julie Hyzy, 'State of the Onion'

Swan song is from the belief...Read more

bloviate \BLOH-vee-ayt\ (intransitive verb) - To speak or write at length in a pompous or boastful manner.

"It was one of the reasons that they had remained friends, despite Mather's inclinations to bloviate and exasperate." -- William Martin, 'Harvard Yard'

Bloviate is from blow + a mock-Latinate suffix -viate. Compare blowhard, "a boaster or...Read more

tutelary \TOO-tuh-lair-ee; TYOO-\ (adjective) - Having the guardianship or charge of protecting a person or a thing; guardian; protecting; as, "tutelary goddesses."

"Thereupon, forty stripes were ordered for each of us, that the tutelary genius of the ship might be propitiated." -- Petronius, 'The Satyricon'

Tutelary derives from Latin ...Read more

concinnity \kuhn-SIN-uh-tee\ (noun) - 1 : Internal harmony or fitness in the adaptation of parts to a whole or to each other. 2 : Studied elegance of design or arrangement -- used chiefly of literary style. 3 : An instance of concinnity.

"His theme, culled from a Latin hymn, is, ' Take away the perfidious people from the territory of the ...Read more

contemporaneous \kuhn-tem-puh-RAY-nee-uhs\ (adjective) - Originating, existing, or occurring at the same time.

"As we have reason to believe that large areas are affected by the same movement, it is probable that strictly contemporaneous formations have often been accumularted over very wide spaces in the same quarter of the world; but we are ...Read more

exemplar \ig-ZEM-plar; -pluhr\ (noun) - 1 : A model or pattern to be copied or imitated. 2 : A typical or standard specimen. 3 : An ideal model or type. 4 : A copy of a book or text.

"The first step in dirt analysis is to check known soil from the scene -- an exemplar -- against the sample the criminalist believes came from the perp." -- ...Read more

palimpsest \PAL-imp-sest\ (noun) - 1 : A manuscript, usually of papyrus or parchment, on which more than one text has been written with the earlier writing incompletely erased and still visible. 2 : An object or place whose older layers or aspects are apparent beneath its surface.

"A palimpsest obscures what lies beneath. To build Pakistan it ...Read more

multifarious \muhl-tuh-FAIR-ee-uhs\ (adjective) - Having great diversity or variety; of various kinds; diversified.

"Others will follow, others will outstrip me on the same lines; and I hazard the guess that man will be ultimately known for a mere polity of multifarious, incongruous and independent denizens." -- Robert Louis Stevenson, 'The ...Read more

variegated \VAIR-ee-uh-gay-tid\ (adjective) - 1 : Having marks or patches of different colors; as, "variegated leaves or flowers." 2 : Varied; distinguished or characterized by variety; diversified.

"They also attempt to appraise its color, which can vary from a bluish-gray variegated with black and white to a tawny cream variegated with brown....Read more

Why is a clam happy? Why is someone who stops drinking alcohol said to be "on the wagon"? Why do people "go to pot"?

We use "old saws" like this every day, but rarely do we "pull out all the stops" to uncover their origins.

The key to "happy as a clam" can be found in the original form of this expression -- "happy as a clam at high tide." ...Read more

incontrovertible \in-kon-truh-VUR-tuh-buhl\ (adjective) - Too clear or certain to admit of dispute; indisputable; unquestionable.

"In bread, You were offered an incontrovertible banner: give man bread and he will worship You, for nothing is more incontrovertible than bread..." -- Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 'The Karamazov Brothers'

ncontrovertible is...Read more

equable \EK-wuh-buhl; EE-kwuh-\ (adjective) - 1 : Equal and uniform; not varying. 2 : Not easily disturbed; not variable or changing -- said of the feelings, temper, etc.

"Jean, as fair as his brother was dark, as calm as his brother was hasty, as equable as his brother was irritable, had serenely read law and passed his diploma at the same ...Read more

appurtenance \uh-PUR-tn-un(t)s\, noun) - 1 : An adjunct; an accessory; something added to another, more important thing. 2 : [Plural]. Accessory objects; gear; apparatus. 3 : [Law]. An incidental right attached to a principal property right for purposes such as passage of title, conveyance, or inheritance.

"Close against the white blind hung a...Read more