one flesh, one end

words i learned from tamsyn muir:

from Gideon:

  • uncanorous: unpleasant to the ear (coined by Muir; uncanny + clamorous?)
  • orison: a prayer; mystical contemplation or communion
  • postulant: a person seeking admission to a religious order; a petitioner
  • scaphoid: (n) a wrist bone; (adj) shaped like a boat
  • chevets: small chapels radiating from an apse
  • cozen: to become cozy; to cheat or defraud in a pitiful way
  • timbrel: an ancient percussion instrument similar to a tambourine
  • overweening: unduly confident, arrogant; exaggerated
  • po-faced: with a stern and disapproving expression
  • moue: a pout
  • bockety: unsteady, rickety (Irish)
  • prolix: tediously lengthy
  • seneschal: a steward, particularly one in charge of a medieval nobleman's estate
  • voile: a light, translucent cotton fabric
  • coruscating: reflecting light in flashes; sparkling
  • missish: prim and prudish
  • missal: a prayer book
  • hypovolemia: a state of decreased blood plasma volume
  • sarcotesta: a fleshy seed coat, as in the pomegranate
  • cambric: a finely woven fabric made from linen or cotton
  • cavil: to criticise for petty or frivolous reasons
  • numinous: of or relating to a divinity; evoking a sense of the mystical, sublime, or transcendent
  • stultifying: stunting or inhibiting; making useless or worthless
  • mens rea: "guilty mind," a legal term to do with the intention to commit a crime
  • ricasso: the base of a blade, where it joins the tang
  • inapposite: inappropriate
  • villein: a feudal tenant or serf
  • serried: crowded together in rows
  • mountebank: a con artist
  • vitiated: spoiled, debased
  • bounden: archaic variant of 'binding'; made obligatory
  • lambent: glowing or luminous
  • scabrous: covered with scales or scabs; rough

from Harrow:

  • acetabula: the sockets of the hipbone, where the femur fits
  • corse: corpse (archaic)
  • mawkish: exaggeratedly sentimental
  • ureal: consisting of urea
  • jejune: naive, simplistic
  • physeal: having to do with growth plates of bones
  • charnel: from "charnel house," a place where remains are stored
  • peristalsis: an involuntary, wavelike contraction, as in the digestive system
  • mollience: softness
  • chancel: the part of a church near the altar
  • synizesis: contracting two syllables into one by shortening a vowel, e.g. Non-ee-us vs. Non-yus
  • apodemes: the internal ridges of an exoskeleton where muscles attach
  • lazaret: a quarantine station
  • whilom: formerly
  • linctus: a thick, syrupy medicine for the throat
  • fimbriae: fingerlike projections, especially at the end of the fallopian tubes
  • labile: easily changed
  • bikkie: short for 'biscuit' (Kiwi)
  • osier: a type of willow
  • narthex: an architectural element of early Christian churches
  • cosh: a weighted weapon like a baton

from Nona:

  • bruited: to have spread widely
  • cachet: prestige
  • guerdon: a reward or recompense
  • cosset: to overprotect
  • rouĂ©: a hedonist; a rake
  • harridan: a bossy old woman

semi-coherent thoughts

i love this series, dude.

i love the tonal shifts from one book to the next. i love the banter because these characters feel so real to me. i love the complete absence of a single reliable narrator in the entire enterprise. and i love the community, particularly the Ninth House subreddit where the most intriguing and batshit insane theories get discussed and the collective yearning for the release of Alecto the Ninth threatens to implode the cosmos. i love Camilla and Palamedes as much, if not more, than Gideon and Harrow themselves. i love Pyrrha - holy shit do i love Pyrrha and pretty much everything that comes out of her mouth. i love Noodle and the fact that we are all looking at him Very Closely. i love the vocabulary and the references and allusions. i love that it makes me feel like i should be taking notes. i love, always, the macabre as a vessel for devotion.