So, I have a page on this site called “vocabulation”, and a gdrive spreadsheet of the same name. To each I add words (neologisms, foreign, obscure, whatever) that I did not know. No, I am not a bit strange at all. Why do you ask?
Anyhow, here’s the latest list to be added.
Aasvogel – south african vulture
Aigrette a headdress consisting of a white egret’s feather or other decoration such as a spray of gems.
The tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things.[17] The following are types of apophenia:
In all these cases, the goods on which society depends have been privatised in the name of encouraging market competition, but with results that look nothing at all like a ‘free’ market, and with predictable beneficiaries. These goods haven’t just been privatised, but ‘assetised’, in the sense that they have been packaged up, quantified and managed in ways that suit the calculations and interests of financiers
(William Davies, LRB, Vol 46,no 7)
Aster is a genus of perennial flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. Its circumscription has been narrowed, and it now encompasses around 170 species, all but one of which are restricted to Eurasia; many species formerly in Aster are now in other genera of the tribe Astereae. Aster amellus is the type species of the genus and the family Asteraceae.[1]
The name Aster comes from the Ancient Greek word ἀστήρ (astḗr), meaning “star”, referring to the shape of the flower head.
aerospace planners call it “brochuremanship,” the tendency of contractors to make wild claims about the effectiveness of proposed weapons systems.
Hailes or clacken is a Scottish ball game which dates to the 18th century and achieved its widest popularity in the nineteenth. It has now virtually died out, replaced by football, except at The Edinburgh Academy, where an exhibition match is played annually.
Certosina is a decorative art technique of inlaying used widely in the Italian Renaissance period. Similar to marquetry, it uses small pieces of wood, bone, ivory, metal, or mother-of-pearl to create inlaid geometric patterns on a wood base.[1] The term comes from Carthusian monasteries (Certosa in Italian, Charterhouse in English),[2] probably the Certosa di Pavia, where the technique was used in ornamenting an altarpiece by the Embriachi workshop.
Hypnagogia is the transition between wakefulness and sleep. During this state, it’s common to experience visual, audio, or other types of hallucinations. It’s also common to experience muscle jerks and sleep paralysis. Some people purposefully try to induce to hypnagogia to stimulate creativity
Intarsia is a knitting technique used to create patterns with multiple colours. As with the woodworking technique of the same name, fields of different colours and materials appear to be inlaid in one another, fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.
Manticore a legendary animal with the head of a man, the body of a lion, and the tail of a dragon or scorpion.
Omphalos /ˈɒmfəlɒs/ noun
- LITERARY the centre or hub of something.
“this was the omphalos of confusion”
- 2. (in ancient Greece) a conical stone (especially that at Delphi) representing the navel of the earth.
A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the emergence of the book of hours in the Late Middle Ages, psalters were the books most widely owned by wealthy lay persons.
Puncheon 1. : a pointed tool for piercing or for working on stone. 2. a. : a short upright framing timber.
scunnered. chiefly Scottish. as in annoyed. subjected to and reacting with irritation
Sgraffito is also the term for the decoration of the façades of buildings in the canton of Graubünden in south-eastern Switzerland, particularly in the Lower and Upper Engadine valleys, Bergell and Val Müstair. These designs – geometric patterns, rosettes, ribbons and mythological figures – may cover part or the whole of a façade, and surround doors and windows, corners etc. They are etched into the surface plaster by a knife or stylus so that the colour of a deeper layer shows through.
Shim noun a washer or thin strip of material used to align parts, make them fit, or reduce wear.
“an aluminium shim reduces the diameter so that a standard stem will fit”
Verb wedge (something) or fill up (a space) with a shim.
“display monitors were shimmed up on cardboard”
Wealthfare – government policy designed to enrich further the already wealthy. Financial aid, such as a subsidy or tax break, provided by a government to corporations or other businesses, especially when viewed as wasteful or unjust
marchudson.net 
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