More Fun With Words Quiz, Volume IV

Test your ace wordsmith skills once again with ten new words.

Here are ten more not-so-common words to guess for your linguistic pleasure. As noted before, this is not to make me look smart as I did not know them all, but rather to hone our vocabulary skills. Nor is it meant to convince you to adopt them in your writing. It is for lexical amusement only. Unless otherwise stated, all definitions and examples are from Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary. Here we go.

1. Ablutions: I like the way the word sounds. Once I knew the definition, I still hadn’t used it. The M-W definition is “the washing of one’s body or part of it (as in a religious rite) — usually plural.” I was also unaware of a second accepted British definition, “a building on a military base that houses bathing and toilet facilities.” However, simple is usually better. It does sound pretentious to say or write, “Monica left the room for her daily ablutions,” rather than “to wash up.” Right?
2. Petard: I had never heard this one before. It means “a case containing an explosive to break down a door or gate or breach a wall” or “a firework that explodes with a loud report.” Curiously, “petard is almost always encountered in variations of the phrase “hoist with one’s own petard,” meaning “victimized or hurt by one’s own scheme.” The phrase comes from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. A modern example might be “ The Left’s obsession with defunding the police was the petard that caused them to lose the election.”
3. Mendicant: This sounded familiar, but I could not pin down the exact definition, which briefly means “to beg.” Definition number two is “practicing beggary: engaged in begging.” An example is “ those wretched mendicants on the streets of Calcutta.” It seems pompous to me when you could quickly write or say “beggars” instead. Although in our politically sensitive world, perhaps the word “beggar” is too demeaning; better off using a word few understand.
4. Fen: Interestingly, it sounds close to fern, which should be a give-away. But I had never heard or read it until recently. The definition is “low land that is covered wholly or partly with water unless artificially drained and that usually has peaty alkaline soil and characteristic flora, as of sedges and reeds.” A less well-known secondary definition is “a monetary subunit of the yuan.” This, of course, begs the question, “what is the yuan?” The latter is the monetary unit of China.
5. Polemics: I knew this one, although it is more of a popular term in the academic world. The definition is “an aggressive attack on or refutation of the opinions or principles of another” as “the art or practice of disputation or controversy — usually used in plural but singular or plural in construction.” An example might be “Her book is a fierce polemic against capitalism.”
6. Univocal: This was easy if you look at the two roots within the word. It means “having one meaning only.” The source is Latin, where “uni” is one and “vocal” is voice. An example might be “the 100–0 vote in the Senate was a univocal rejection of the proposed law.”
7. Thrall: I had neither read nor spoken this word. It sounded curious, and I looked it up. It means “a state of servitude or submission.” An example could be, “ After Judy was abducted and locked away for months, she became Nicholas’s thrall.” A less sinister definition is “ a complete state of absorption,” as in “the sea would always hold me in thrall with its massiveness and beauty.”
8. Grok: It would be an excellent word for Scrabble. It is a verb that means “to understand profoundly and intuitively.” The origin is fascinating. Grok was introduced in Robert A. Heinlein’s 1961 science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land. The book’s main character, Valentine Michael Smith, is a Martian-raised human who comes to earth as an adult, bringing words from his native tongue and a unique perspective on the strange ways of earthlings. Grok was quickly adopted by America’s youth culture and has since peppered the vernacular of those who grok it.
9. Odium: The word sounds like “odious” or “foul-smelling.” Close, but not 100% on point. M-W says it is “the state or fact of being subjected to hatred and contempt as a result of a despicable act or blameworthy circumstance.” An example is “ In addition, the odium among the Left is so pernicious and ubiquitous that the surveyors themselves may pollute the very taking of polls. — Victor Davis Hanson, National Review.”
10. Brigand: It means “one who lives by plunder usually as a member of a band.” An example is “Traveling by road even a few dozen miles outside the city can be a dicey proposition because of insurgents and brigands. — David Jolly, New York Times, 17 Feb. 2016.” More familiar synonyms could be bandit, ruffian, outlaw, pirate, or perpetrator. Its use might only impress the reader about how “erudite” you are as a writer. If you don’t know that word, you will have to wait for Volume V.

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