Word of the day tuesday

novation noh-VEY-shuhn, noun:

Everything seems to suggest that his discourse proceeds according to a two-term dialectic: popular opinion and its contrary, Doxa and paradox, the stereotype and the novation, fatigue and freshness, relish and disgust: I like/I don’t like.
— Roland Barthes, Roland Barthes

The Text is a little like a score of this new kind: it solicits from the reader a practical collaboration. A great novation this, for who executes the work?
— Edited by Dorothy Hale, The Novel: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory 1900-2000

truss truhs, verb:

She showed me how to bone a fish with one pass of the knife, how to truss a turkey, change the oil in a car, do taxes. Instruction seemed to be her only method of communication as far as I was concerned.
— Ann Patchett, The Patron Saint of Liars

A dress like this does not require a maid to truss me and my hair requires only a brush.
— Madeline Hunter, The Sinner

1. To tie, bind, or fasten.
2. To make fast with skewers, thread, or the like, as the wings or legs of a fowl in preparation for cooking.
3. To furnish or support with a truss or trusses.
4. To tie or secure (the body) closely or tightly; bind (often followed by up).
5. Falconry. (Of a hawk, falcon, etc.) To grasp (prey) firmly.

noun:
1. Civil Engineering, Building Trades. A. Any of various structural frames based on the geometric rigidity of the triangle and composed of straight members subject only to longitudinal compression, tension, or both: functions as a beam or cantilever to support bridges, roofs, etc. Compare complete (def. 8), incomplete (def. 3), redundant (def. 5c). B. Any of various structural frames constructed on principles other than the geometric rigidity of the triangle or deriving stability from other factors, as the rigidity of joints, the abutment of masonry, or the stiffness of beams.
2. Medicine/Medical. An apparatus consisting of a pad usually supported by a belt for maintaining a hernia in a reduced state.
3. Horticulture. A compact terminal cluster or head of flowers growing upon one stalk.
4. Nautical. A device for supporting a standing yard, having a pivot permitting the yard to swing horizontally when braced.
5. A collection of things tied together or packed in a receptacle; bundle; pack.
6. Chiefly British. A bundle of hay or straw, especially one containing about 56 pounds (25.4 kg) of old hay, 60 pounds (27.2 kg) of new hay, or 36 pounds (16.3 kg) of straw.

solecism SOL-uh-siz-uhm, noun:

To pick a fight with a visiting lord is a solecism, but being caught that way would have put the solecism squarely on Minch’s head…
— Joel Rosenburg, Hour of the Octopus

The idea of having committed the slightest solecism in politeness, whether real or imaginary, was agony to him; for perhaps even guilt itself does not impose upon some minds so keen a sense of shame and remorse, as a modest, sensitive, and inexperienced youth feels from the consciousness of having neglected etiquette, or excited ridicule.
— Sir Walter Scott, Waverly

fetial FEE-shuhl, adjective:

When a just and rightful war was declared upon a foreign enemy—and were there any other kinds of wars?—a special fetial priest was called upon to hurl a spear from the steps of the temple over the exact top of the ancient stone pillar into the earth of Enemy Territory.
— Colleen McCullough, The First Man in Rome

He struck his treaties with foreign princes in the Forum, sacrificing a pig and reciting the ancient formula of the fetial priests.
— Edited by John Carew Rolfe, Suetonius

gasconade gas-kuh-NEYD, 

The British officers laugh, because they are well armed and many, and Kemal’s men are pitifully few, but they enjoy and admire Kemal’s swashbuckling gasconade, and they let his party pass.
— Louis de Bernières, Birds Without Wings

The papers, barely days old, were full of boastful malarkey and gasconade, but of much more evident value when it came to information about the state of things in France, and in the local area.
— Dewey Lambdin, Troubled Waters

noun:

1. Extravagant boasting; boastful talk.

verb:
1. To boast extravagantly; bluster.

sprat sprat, noun:

How’d you get yourself into this, sprat, Bustard wanted to know.
— Gene Wolfe, Epiphany of the Long Sun

Edgerton was cursing, but Mr. Bullock just shook his head. «No, sir, don’t say such things in front of the little sprat…»
— Catherine Coulter, Deception

Cimmerian si-MEER-ee-uhn, adjective:

I was ripe for death, and along a road full of dangers, weakness led me to the boundaries of the world and the Cimmerian land of darkness and whirlwinds.
— Arthur Rimbaud, A Season in Hell

Once beneath the over-arching trees all was again Cimmerian darkness, nor was the gloom relieved until the sun finally arose beyond the eastern cliffs, when she saw that they were following what appeared to be a broad and well-beaten game trail through a forest of great trees.
— Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan the Untamed

bonny BON-ee, adjective:

Mayhap ’tis time to speak of more than how fine the weather is or how bonny she looks. — Hannah Howell, Highland Honor

As he was about to fix the last nail in the last of the shoes, the man in green said, «Would you be knowing what ails the bonny young lady?» — Ethel Johnston Phelps and Pamela Baldwin-Ford, Tatterhood and Other Tales

1. Pleasing to the eye. 2. British Dialect. A. (Of people) Healthy, sweet, and lively. B. (Of places) Placid; tranquil. C. Pleasing; agreeable; good.

adverb: 1. British Dialect. Pleasingly; agreeably; very well. noun: 1. Scot. and North England Archaic. A pretty girl or young woman.

perspicacious pur-spi-KEY-shuhs,

You are perspicacious, know the ways of the world, and are more tactful than most men of your age. — Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

More perspicacious neighbors, the Paulsens among them, suspected that Joey also enjoyed being the smartest person in the house. — Jonathan Franzen, Freedom

alate EY-leyt, adjective:

Vainly a few diehard physicists pointed out that wings are of no propulsive help in airless void, that alate flight is possible only where there are wind currents to lift and carry.
— Robert Silverberg, Earth is the Strangest Planet

There are no words branded into this gate, only the shape of a large bird with its wings stretched out over the width of the road like an alate protector.
— Jenny Siler, Easy Money

1. Having wings; winged.
2. Having membranous expansions like wings.

noun:
1. The winged form of an insect when both winged and wingless forms occur in the species.

persnickety per-SNIK-i-tee, adjective:

These critics can take some consolation by looking at the recent rehabilitation of Hamilton Grange, the upper Manhattan house built by founding father Alexander Hamilton. It shows just how persnickety a preservation project can be.
— Robbie Whelan, «Historic Home on the Grange,» The Wall Street Journal, December 11, 2011

The point here is to make your animal understand that its upstairs neighbour is exceptionally persnickety about territory.
— Yann Martel, Life of Pi

shiv shiv, noun:

Then this one cop, the guy, he pulls out a picture, shows me a photograph, see, of my shiv. Now, I gotta tell ya, this shiv of mine’s no ordinary blade.
— Ashok Mathur, Once Upon an Elephant

“Why would he wipe the shiv?” Decker said. “Supposedly it was his shiv, not hers. Of course it would have his prints on it. Seems to me he’d just stick it back in its sheath and leave.”
— Faye Kellerman, Milk and Honey

deucedly DOO-sid-lee, adverb:

When I went in I had seen that there was a deucedly pretty girl sitting in that particular seat, so I had taken the next one.
— P. G. Wodehouse, Man With Two Left Feet and Other Stories

It’s most important. You will put me in a deucedly awkward position if you don’t.
— C. S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew

remora REM-er-uh, noun:

Notwithstanding the extreme unpopularity of the Duke of Kent as a soldier, there was no remora to his employment.
— Robert Huish, The History of the Life and Reign of William the Fourth

They all coexist today in diachronic contradictions, and what coexists is the colonial remora of Bolivian history, the different articulations of colonizing forces and colonized victims.
— Walter D. Mignolo, Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking

natheless NEYTH-lis, adverb:

Natheless, it was I who did educate Miss Lucy in all useful learning.
— Sir Walter Scott, Guy Mannering

Natheless, God send you good success, and to that end will we pray.
— Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

slimsy SLIM-zee, adjective:

«Nice girl . . .» he mused, «but sort of thin and slimsy and delicate, not robust and hearty like the kind of girl you ought to have on a farm.»
— Bess Streeter Aldrich, A White Flying Bird

The coat was a slimsy bit of dark silk, with a glister in it; and the hat was the thinnest straw, the brim curling a little in the wind.
— Max Brand, Storm on the Range

hotchpot HOCH-pot, noun: 

She continued, «This is what I can give into the hotchpot.» I could not but note the quaint legal phrase which she used in such a place, and with all seriousness? «What will each of you give?…» — Bram Stoker, Dracula

These amounts are to be deducted from my boys only in the event that their shares may be large enough to permit and are not to be brought into hotchpot, and shall be paid to my two daughters Elizabeth and Katharine in equal shares. — Wallace Stevens, The Letters of Wallace Stevens

neoterism nee-OT-uh-riz-uhm, noun:

These impressions were not merely of things physical—the contrast, for instance, between the overwhelming antiquity of the western deserts and the neoterism of humanity; or the fabulous nature of the Grand Canyon.
— Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier

In his gesture of breaking with the canon of great national literature, Catullus had opened the way to the ambition of future poets to provide Rome with a new canon of works, which would combine the new requirements of neoterism on the levels of research into subjectivity, and stylistic elegance, with the breadth and the depth of a literature intended to represent the cultural patrimony of a nation.
— Peter E. Knox, A Companion to Ovid

idoneous ahy-DOH-nee-uhs, adjective:

As far as benefices are concerned no one could be more idoneous, fitting or suitable than Martin, since he is an Anglican clergyman.
— Patrick O’Brian, The Truelove

It would hardly be possible to apply less idoneous adjectives to it than Watson’s reiterated «wailing» and «haunting.»
— Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone

doyenne doi-EN, noun:

Inspector Neele propounded to himself three separate highly coloured reasons why the faithful doyenne of the typists’ room should have poisoned her employer’s mid-morning cup of tea, and rejected them as unlikely.
— Agatha Christie, A Pocket Full of Rye

Her physical characteristics had shifted over time, from soft to hard, from blond to gray, and tight to slack and swollen. This doyenne of crochet and pregnancy was to me one woman and all women, because everything about her was variable, including her temperament.
— Darin Strauss, Chang and Eng

idoneous ahy-DOH-nee-uhs, adjective: 

As far as benefices are concerned no one could be more idoneous, fitting or suitable than Martin, since he is an Anglican clergyman. — Patrick O’Brian, The Truelove

It would hardly be possible to apply less idoneous adjectives to it than Watson’s reiterated «wailing» and «haunting.» — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone

doyenne doi-EN, noun:

Inspector Neele propounded to himself three separate highly coloured reasons why the faithful doyenne of the typists’ room should have poisoned her employer’s mid-morning cup of tea, and rejected them as unlikely.
— Agatha Christie, A Pocket Full of Rye

Her physical characteristics had shifted over time, from soft to hard, from blond to gray, and tight to slack and swollen. This doyenne of crochet and pregnancy was to me one woman and all women, because everything about her was variable, including her temperament.
— Darin Strauss, Chang and Eng

peroration per-uh-REY-shuhn, noun:

Thus he apostrophised his house and race in terms of the most moving eloquence; but when it came to the peroration—and what is eloquence that lacks a peroration?—he fumbled. He would have liked to have ended with a flourish to the effect that he would follow in their footsteps and add another stone to their building.
— Virginia Woolf, Orlando: A Biography

This person always provides a dramatic peroration; it is expected of him and he seldom disappoints. Tamsour is the theme; and the substance is usually personal aggrandizement, sometimes a bit of self-pity, but never apologies for past misdeeds, real or imaginary.
— Jack Vance, Night Lamp

excogitate eks-KOJ-i-teyt, verb:

But observe the singular phenomenon — on approximately the same date several thousand men and women of letters retire to secluded corners to excogitate a thing described as «charm»; each cudgeling his or her head for some variety which can possibly be regarded as original…
— Upton Sinclair, Money Writes!

I preferred to relate aloud, to excogitate in a lively, external manner, with a flow of invention as useless as was my declamation of it, a whole novel crammed with adventure, in which the Duchess, fallen upon misfortune…
— Marcel Proust, Swann’s Way

caprice kuh-PREES, noun:

Does she turn, thought he, thus, from one to the other, with no preference but of accident or caprice? Is her favour thus light of circulation?
— Fanny Burney, Camilla, or a Picture of Youth

You lose, you gain—it’s all caprice. The omnipotence of caprice. The likelihood of reversal. Yes, the unpredictable reversal and its power.
— Philip Roth, The Humbling

pied pahyd, adjective:

«Lashing his tail, he followed the pied mare reluctantly into the cave. Its upper walls and ceiling clustered with glowing lichens and fungi in rose, ghost blue, saffron, and plum.»
— Meredith Ann Pierce, Dark Moon

The fact of the pied birds being pursued and persecuted with much clamour by the other ravens of the island was the chief cause which led Brünnich to conclude that they were specifically distinct.
— Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man

filiopietistic fil-ee-oh-pahy-i-TIS-tik, adjective:

The popular historical narratives of the many immigrant groups may indeed be filiopietistic in the exaggerated and often shrilly made claims for their important contributions to the making of the country of their choice. — Orm Øverland, immigrant Minds, American Identities

In a filiopietistic age it would be difficult to find a more filiopietistic man — toward his own father, the founders, and the past generally — than Edward Everett. — Paul A. Varg, Edward Evertt: The Intellectual in the Turmoil of Politics

crib krib, verb:

An otherwise dense early college roommate used to prate that «reality is mankind’s greatest illusion,» something he cribbed from a psych professor who got it from Erik Erikson.
— Jim Harrison, The Road Home

Radford’s a lazy bastard, you know, and apparently he cribbed a bunch of his lecture notes from somewhere — some old tome he thought nobody had ever read or ever would read — but Archy spotted it instantly, of course, and is making a hell of a stink.
— Edith Taylor, The Serpent Under It

1. To pilfer or steal, especially to plagiarize.
2. To confine in or as if in a crib.
3. To provide with a crib or cribs.
4. To line with timber or planking.
5. Informal. A. To use a crib in examinations, homework, translating, etc. B. To steal; plagiarize.
6. (Of a horse) to practice cribbing.

noun:
1. A child’s bed with enclosed sides.
2. A stall or pen for cattle.
3. A rack or manger for fodder, as in a stable or barn.
4. A bin for storing grain, salt, etc.
5. Informal. A. A translation, list of correct answers, or other illicit aid used by students while reciting, taking exams, or the like; pony. B. Plagiarism. C. A petty theft.
6. A room, closet, etc., in a factory or the like, in which tools are kept and issued to workers.
7. A shallow, separate section of a bathing area, reserved for small children.
8. Any confined space.
9. Slang. A house, shop, etc., frequented by thieves or regarded by thieves as a likely place for burglarizing.
10. Building Trades, Civil Engineering. Any of various cellular frameworks of logs, squared timbers, or steel or concrete objects of similar form assembled in layers at right angles, often filled with earth and stones and used in the construction of foundations, dams, retaining walls, etc.
11. A barrier projecting part of the way into a river and then upward, acting to reduce the flow of water and as a storage place for logs being floated downstream.
12. A lining for a well or other shaft.
13. Slang. One’s home; pad.
14. Cribbage. A set of cards made up by equal contributions from each player’s hand, and belonging to the dealer.
15. A cheap, ill-kept brothel.
16. A wicker basket.
17. British, Australian. Lunch, especially a cold lunch carried from home to work and eaten by a laborer on the job; snack.

piacular pahy-AK-yuh-ler, adjective:

The journey to obtain scriptures in the Western Heaven is, for Tripitaka and his disciples, also the piacular journey of return to Buddha, and like the Odysseus of the Homeric poem, the scripture pilgrim must pass through appalling obstacles for past offenses against the gods.
— Anthony C. Yu, Journey to the West

…and this high-ranking Greek guy actually came around to 1009 after Saturday’s supper to apologize on behalf of practically the entire Chandris shipping line and to assure me that ragged-necked Lebanese heads were even at that moment rolling down various corridors in piacular recompense for my having had to carry my own bag.
— David Foster Wallace, A Supposedly Fun Things I’ll Never Do Again

exoteric ek-suh-TER-ik, adjective:

Every religion under the heavens has a set of exoteric beliefs for the common man and a secret set of esoteric beliefs known only to a privileged inner circle.
— C. M. Palov, The Templar’s Code

The exoteric explanation is the one that conforms to the level of the simple thought patterns and understanding of the majority.
— Kate H. Winter, The Woman in the Mountain

cordate KAWR-deyt, adjective:

Despite their strong and interlinked root structure, the actual flowers were of a lowly order, though, canted towards the sun, they attracted the cordate butterflies.
— Brian Wilson Aldiss, Hothouse

Without any wind blowing, the sheer weight of a raindrop, shining in parasitic luxury on a cordate leaf, caused its tip to dip, and what looked like a globule of quicksilver performed a sudden glissando down the center vein, and then, having shed its bright load, the relieved leaf unbent.
— Vladimir Nabakov, Speak, Memory

fulcrum FOOL-kruhm, noun:

An equal partnership is like a see-saw that sits on a fulcrum. There is a balance of power when one partner gives in and then the other does likewise.
— Shirley Gunstream Poland, Hearing the Silent Cries

A storm of plans, each one trying to make me into a fulcrum.
— Steven Erikson, Memories of Ice

1. The support, or point of rest, on which a lever turns.
2. Any prop or support.
3. Zoology. Any of various structures in an animal serving as a hinge or support.

verb:
1. To fit with a fulcrum; put a fulcrum on.

numen NOO-min, noun:

This “liquid” flowing up his arm and out of the other was numen, the divine substance, the sacred spirit that lives in a certain place in the body and sustains us all.
— Jonathan Carroll, White Apples

He was now fairly confident that a shrine, unlike a temple, would contain no resident numen.
— Dave Duncan, Present Tense (Round Two of the Great Game)

sudorific soo-duh-RIF-ik, adjective:

Having thrown him into a cold sweat by his spiritual sudorific, he attacks him with his material remedies, which are often quite as unpalatable.
— Oliver Wendell Holmes, Medical Essays, 1842-1882

Wracked by such sudorific thoughts, he tossed noisily about, maddened, aching.
— Angela Huth, South of the Lights

Every sudorific hitherto employed had failed to produce this result upon a skin which horrible diseases had left impervious.
— Honoré de Balzac, Cousin Pons

1. Causing sweat.
2. Sudoriparous.

noun:
1. A sudorific agent.

outrance oo-TRAHNS, noun:

«Its prevailing features are equability, ease, perfect accuracy and purity of style, a manner never at outrance with the subject matter, pathos, and verisimilitude.»
— Edgar Allen Poe, The Linwoods

I pretend not to be a champion of that same naked virtue called truth, to the very outrance. I can consent that her charms be hidden with a veil, were it but for decency’s sake.
— Sir Walter Scott, Kenilworth

besot bih-SOT, verb:

We mustn’t besot ourselves with big words like independence and sovereignty. We must begin with small concrete tasks.
— Piotr Rawicz and Peter Wiles, Blood from the Sky

He tried to appear as besot with her as he was with her father’s power and money.
— Judith Pella and Tracie Peterson, A Hope Beyond

pother POTH-er, noun:

«An’ why all the pother?» Mrs. Rickards emitted a series of sniffs and returned his scowl with a frosty glare.
— Colin Arthur Roderick, The Lady and the Lawyer

I don’t know what’s so extraordinary about it, or why there should be such a pother.
— William Dean Howells, Novels 1886-1888, Volume 2

1. A heated discussion, debate, or argument; fuss; to-do.
2. Commotion; uproar.
3. A choking or suffocating cloud, as of smoke or dust.

verb:
1. To worry; bother.

cicatrix SIK-uh-triks, noun:

A new relationship can develop. But the cicatrix of the old one remains. And nothing grows on a cicatrix. Nothing grows through it.
— Elizabeth George, Playing for the Ashes

He discriminates also very properly between the cicatrix, which is produced by the healing of wounds which have penetrated the cutis, and those in which the surface only is affected.
— James Moore, «Differtation on Healing of Wounds,» The Analytical Review, Volume 5

obtest ob-TEST, verb:

I constrain, adjure, obtest and strongly command you.
— Sir Walter Scott, Guy Mannering

And whosoever she be, even with the form of words which to miserable wretches is granted most exaudible, I pray, and do with those prayers most heartily obtest, which are in the ears of the hearers of them most effectual, that she may never taste of such bitter miseries.
— Giovanni Boccaccio, Amorous Fiametta

sibilant SIB-uh-luhnt, adjective:

This is the way the presence of a ghost was detected: Some sound would be heard, such as a sibilant noise, a soft whistle, or something like murmurs, or some sensation in a part of the body might be felt.
— George H. Ellis, Legends of Gods and Ghosts: Hawaiian Mythology

He just drank his coffee, making a little sibilant sound, and watched the earth mover lumber back and forth, back and forth, its shovel going up and down and over and up and down and over again.
— Anna Quindlen, Object Lessons

The wind in the patch of pine woods off there—how sibilant.
— Walt Whitman, Prose Works 1892: Specimen Days

1. Hissing.
2. Phonetics. Characterized by a hissing sound; noting sounds like those spelled with s in this.

noun:
1. Phonetics. A sibilant consonant.