• affiance = to promise somebody or yourself in marriage to somebody else
• apotheosis = the highest point of glory, power, or importance; the best or most glorious example of something; the supposed transformation of a human being into a deity
• bucolic = relating to or characteristic of the countryside or country life; relating to or characteristic of shepherds, herdsmen, or flocks
• castigate = severely criticize or rebuke someone or someone’s behavior
• celerity = quickness in movement or in doing something
• comity = a harmonious state of things in general and of their properties (as of colors and sounds); congruity of parts with one another and with the whole; an atmosphere of social harmony; mutual civility; courtesy; in law: The principle by which a court in one jurisdiction defers to a court in another jurisdiction where either would have legal power to decide the case, or gives effect to the laws, executive acts, or legal decisions of another jurisdiction.
• dalliance = a flirtation or flirtatious episode, or an affair; the frivolous or idle wasting of time
• entourage = a group of special employees who go with a high-ranking or famous person on visits and engagements
• genre = category of artistic work, one of the categories, based on form, style, or subject matter, into which artistic works of all kinds can be divided. For example, the detective novel is a genre of fiction.
• gimp = difficulty in walking, caused by injury or stiffness
• hap = NOUN a happening or occurrence; VERB to happen or occur
• hoosegow = slang for jail; from Mexican Spanish jusgado prison, from Spanish: court of justice, from juzgar to judge, from Latin judicāre, from judex a judge
• imprimatur = approval, authority to do, say, or especially print something
• indigent = extremely poor, lacking the necessities of life, e.g. food, clothing, and shelter; NOUN: an impoverished, destitute person
• litany = a long and repetitious list of things such as complaints or problems; in a Christian service, a series of sung or spoken liturgical prayers or requests for the blessing of God, including invocations from a priest or minister and responses from a congregation
• Lysenkoism = the tendency to silence scientists with inconvenient opinions, named after Trofim Denisovich Lysenko who maintained that environmental characteristics acquired by an organism during its lifetime can be inherited by its offspring, whose views were politically enforced – and opposing views suppressed – in the Soviet Union in the 1930s.
• mendicant = ADJ: begging for and living on money given by strangers; NOUN: a beggar, especially somebody who begs in the street
• opprobrious = scurrilous, deserving opprobrium
• opprobrium = scorn, contempt, or severe criticism; shame or disgrace that stems from disreputable behavior
• parley = VERB: confer, to talk or negotiate, especially with an enemy; NOUN: discussion, a round of talks or negotiations, especially between opposing military forces
• parochial = relating or belonging to a parish or parishes; concerned only with narrow local concerns without any regard for more general or wider issues
• perspicacity = acuteness of discernment or perception
• qualm = feeling of unease, uncertainty or apprehension, especially a misgiving about an action or conduct
• reconnoiter = to explore an area in order to gather information, especially about the strength and positioning of enemy forces
• retinue = a group of people who travel with and attend an important person
• (crossing the) Rubicon = a phrase referring to any individual or group committing itself to a dangerous, decisive, and irrevocable course of action, comparable to “passing the point of no return” – Julius Caesar is reported to have uttered the famous phrase ālea iacta est “The die has been cast” (referring to a roll of dice), as he crossed the river Rubicon in northern Italy with his army, in violation of the orders of the leaders in Rome, who feared his power. A civil war followed, in which Caesar emerged as ruler of Rome.
• snallygaster = a mythical dragon-like beast said to inhabit Central Maryland, the Washington, DC metro area, and particularly Frederick County, Maryland.