Words of the Week

A few spells I overheard in recent wanderings through the hinterlands of the written world:

• sepultured: buried. (Alternate spelling of sepulcher.)
• brio: vigor, vivacity, verve. (Thanks, MW, for an alliterative definition.)
• tath: manure, or a field enriched by it.
• condign: deserving or appropriate.
• rhyton: a horn-and-animal-shaped drinking vessel/funnel from antiquity.
• parlous: perilous.
• psaltery: a harp-like stringed instrument.

Stand by for another quiver full of freshly-fletched vocabularrows soon: I’m reading China Miéville’s Kraken right now, and it’s rich with specific diction.

Posted on Friday, December 12th, 2025. Tags: words.