These are in chronological order by my reading.

• borborygmi = stomach rumblings caused by the movement of fluid and gas in the intestines
• crapula = sickness caused by excessive eating and drinking
• olm = a cave-dwelling aquatic salamander

~The Year of the Hare, Arto Paasilinna

• befurbelowed = ornamented with frills (the use seems to be peculiar to this book, as it is the example in every online dictionary!)

~The Awakening, Kate Chopin

• roding = the sound produced during the mating display of snipe and woodcock, also known as drumming
• peat hag = eroded ground from which peat has been cut

~Deep Country, Neil Ansell

• rallentando = a gradual decrease in speed

~Sight, Jessie Greengrass

• piceous = resembling pitch

~March, Geraldine Brooks

• soffit = the underside of eaves or an arch, balcony, etc.

~The Only Story, Julian Barnes

• lemniscate = the infinity symbol, here used as a metaphor for the pattern of pipe smoke

~The Invisible Bridge, Julie Orringer

• purfling = a decorative border
• lamingtons = sponge cake squares coated in chocolate and desiccated coconut (sounds yummy!)

~The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt, Tracy Farr

• ocellated = having eye-shaped markings

~Red Clocks, Leni Zumas

• balloonatic (WWI slang) = a ballooning enthusiast
• skinkling = sparkling
• preludial = introductory
• claustral = confining
• baccalà = salted cod

~The Incendiaries, R. O. Kwon

(There were so many words I didn’t immediately recognize in this novel that I thought Kwon must have made them up; preludial and claustral, especially, are words I didn’t know existed but that one might have extrapolated from their noun forms.)

• bronies = middle-aged male fans of My Little Pony (wow, who knew this was a thing?! I feel like I’ve gone down a rabbit hole just by Googling it.)
• callipygian = having well-shaped buttocks

~Gross Anatomy, Mara Altman

• syce = someone who looks after horses; a groom (especially in India; though here it was Kenya)
• riem = a strip of rawhide or leather
• pastern = a horse’s ankle equivalent

~West with the Night, Beryl Markham

• blintering = flickering, glimmering (Scottish)
• sillion = shiny soil turned over by a plow

~The Light in the Dark: A Winter Journal, Horatio Clare

• whiffet = a small, young or unimportant person

~Ladder of Years, Anne Tyler

• trilliant = a triangular gemstone cut
• cabochon = a gemstone that’s polished but not faceted
• blirt = a gust of wind and rain (but here used as a verb: “Coldness blirted over her”)
• contumacious = stubbornly disobedient

~Four Bare Legs in a Bed, Helen Simpson

• xeric = very dry (usually describes a habitat, but used here for a person’s manner)

~Unsheltered, Barbara Kingsolver

• twitten = a narrow passage between two walls or hedges (Sussex dialect – Marshall is based near Brighton)

~The Power of Dog, Andrew Marshall

• swither (Scottish) = to be uncertain as to which course of action to take
• strathspey = a dance tune, a slow reel

~Stargazing, Peter Hill

• citole = a medieval fiddle
• naker = a kettledrum
• amice = a liturgical vestment that resembles a cape

~The Western Wind, Samantha Harvey

• pareidolia = seeing faces in things, an evolutionary adaptation (check out @FacesPics on Twitter!)

~The Overstory, Richard Powers

Have you learned any new vocabulary words recently?

How likely am I to use any of these words in the next year?