The Word -Stravage

He jerked awake as shackles snicked around his wrists. 
He tugged at the metal. "What is the meaning of this!" He demanded. "Unshackle me this instant! I am a nob--"
He groaned, doubling over as a bull of a man punched him hard in the stomach. Another tugging his head painfully back by the hair. "You're a noble no longer, slimezel." The man said with barred teeth. "You is our property now. We do as we please, and it pleases us that we don't have our new recruit stravage away." He stepped back as the bull man again advanced. 
Kolton bared his teeth in return. "I am no recruit!" He snarled. "I will see you all hanged for touching my person in such an ill manner!" 
"Oh? I'd like to see you try." the second said with a slimy smile. 

Stravage - roam

Added Info - A synonym of "roam," "wander," and "ramble," "stravage" (also spelled "stravaig") isn't likely to pop up in your local newspaper--unless you're stravaging in Scotland or one of its neighbors. "Stravage" is not a new word; our earliest evidence of it dates to the late 18th century, when it likely developed by shortening and alteration from the now-archaic word "extravagate," a synonym for "stray" and "roam" that can also mean "to go beyond proper limits." Note that if you use it correctly, you won't be extravagating by using "stravage"--no matter where you call home.

The Word -Dolorous

Kolton banged his head against the door. "Let me out." He called out hoarsely. Hours had passed by. HOURS and these fools had not once even jiggled the handle to release him. He'd issued threats, rewards, pleas, to no avail. They'd mocked him, taunted him in return. His stomach growled in a dolorous manner. He didn't know the last time he'd eaten. There was no food here. No water. It was like he was a prisoner! He was a prisoner. What did these fools want with him?! He didn't even know how they'd managed to get him out of his home! Where had his guards been, where had the servants been? He hoped they'd all been killed trying to defend him. Anything less and they would wish that they had died when he got back. He sank to the floor, his hand brushing the lunette blade in its sheathe. Why make him prisoner, but leave him with a weapon? Fools.

Dolorous - causing, marked by, or expressing misery or grief.

Added Info - "No medicine may prevail ... till the same dolorous tooth be ... plucked up by the roots." When "dolorous" first appeared around 1400, it was linked to physical pain--and appropriately so, since the word is a descendant of the Latin word dolor, meaning "pain" as well as "grief." (Today, "dolor" is also an English word meaning "sorrow.") When the British surgeon John Banister wrote the above quotation in 1578, "dolorous" could mean either "causing pain" or "distressful, sorrowful." "The death of the earl [was] dolorous to all Englishmen," the English historian Edward Hall had written a few decades earlier. The "causing pain" sense of dolorous" coexisted with the sorrowful" sense for centuries before slipping from use in the 19th century.

The Word -Addlepated

"Are you all addlepated?" He demanded as the laughter died down. He banged on the door harder. "I am Noble Kolton Taylor. You will release me at once or face the consequences!"
The men on the other side of the door laughed again. "We don't care about your consequences." One gruff voice said, banging back.
"Nor who you are!" Another voice added.
"You're not leaven there until we say so!"
"Listen you Slimverged Slugs. I will see you all hanged if you do not let me out this instant! My father-"
"Is glad to be rid of you. Shut up or we won't feed you until the morrow."
Kolton Taylor frowned. His father was not glad to be rid of him, had he not just said the night before how great of a son he was? That he was proud to have him as a heir? These guys were addlepated. "How about I don't shut up until you feed me." He demanded back, turning to search the small enclosure. There had to be something in here to help him escape.

Addlepated - 1: being mixed up : confused 2: eccentric

Added Info - In Middle English an "adel eye" was a putrid egg. The stench of such an egg apparently pervaded the minds of some witty thinkers who hatched a comparison between the diminished, unsound quality of an "adel" (or "addle") egg and an empty, confused head--or pate. "Your owne imagination, which was no lesse Idle, then your head was addle all that day," wrote one 17th-century wit, playing on the similarity between "idle" and "addle." Today, "addle" is often found in combination with words referring to one's noggin, as in "addlepated," "addlebrained," and "addle-headed."

The Word -Wend

Had he wended his way to the wrong place last night? He frowned shaking his aching head. He hadn't gotten that drunk during the victory party had he? Certainly not drunk enough to remove all but the barest of clothes from his person! He'd been drunk but not that drunk. What was this place? He staggered to his feet, placing a hand to aching ribs and banged on the door after discovering there was no handle on the inside. "Yo! Let me out!" He called out, licking dried lips. "I say! Get me out of here!"
Laughter met his pleas. And not the friendly type.

Wend - to direct one's course ; travel, proceed

Added Info- "Wend" is related to the verb "wind," which means, among other things, "to follow a series of curves and turns." It is also a distant relative of the verb "wander." "Wend" itself began its journey in Old English as windan, meaning "to twist." "Wend" has twisted itself into various meanings over the years. Most of its senses--including "to come about," "to depart," "to change," and "to betake" --have since wandered off into obscurity, but its current sense of "to direct or to proceed" is holding steady on the path.

The Word - Pomaceous

He stirred as the smell of overripe pomaceous assaulted his nostrils. Rubbing at his nose with a grimace of disgust, he pushed himself up, before his eyes had fully opened, attempting to rub the smell from his nose. He would have to punish the servants for being so idiotic as to feed him something that was not the best of the best. His eyes opened, grainy from sleep, and he paused. Blinking. Moving his hand to rub at his eyes. The scent was addling his senses. For a moment it didn't look like he was in his bed. He knew he had to be. It was where he fell asleep after all. No on would disturb him in his slumber. But...the fruit smell. Pomaceous. Everyone knew he didn't like it. Why would it be here! Why would this look like the inside of an ill made shed?

Pomaceous - 1: of or relating to apples. 2: resembling a pome

Added Info - "Pomaceous" was first planted in the English language by physician Edward Baynard when, in 1706, he advised, "Apples and pomaceous Juices, are the greatest Pectorals." ("Pectoral" is now a rarely used word for a food that helps digestion.) Since then, "Pomaceous" has mainly been sown by botanists and poets. The word, which is ultimately derived from Late Latin pomum ("apple"), was originally used for apples and things relating to apples, but later it was also applied to things that look like pears. (Pears, like apples, belong to the pome family.)

The Word - Maquette

Yorvet barred his teeth. The man was convinced he was about to growl. The Mystics weren't always the most stable in their emotions. "Fine." He said gesturing sharply to his men. "A deal is struck. We keep this scrap of meat away."
"And you get a lunette blade to mold to your preference." The man said with a smile revealing his darkened eye teeth. "A good decision Mystic Yorvet."
The men moved forward, grabbing the boy roughly by the arms, and dragged him to a rotting maquette of what looked to be a palace of sorts. Though it had obviously been altered and strengthened with metal. Resembling more of a dog kennel of a prison than anything else.
The man gave a sketch of a bow. "May the winds be in your favor Mystic." He was going to need them with this particular Lunette Blade.

Maquette - a usually small preliminary model (as of a sculpture or a building)

Added Info - "Maquette" came to English directly from French, first appearing in our language in the late 19th century. The French word, which possesses the same meaning as its English descendant, derived from the Italian noun macchietta, meaning "sketch," and ultimately from Latin macula, meaning "spot." Maquettes are generally intended to serve as rough models of larger designs. Architects make maquettes of their buildings, and sculptors often create maquettes in wax or clay to help them realize the final sculpture. As an aside, you might spot something familiar in the word's Latin ancestor. The term "macula" in English refers to a spot (such as one on the eye) that is different from surrounding tissue; this is where we get the term "macular degeneration."

The Word -Inveigh

"You expect me to pay top dollar for this, this piece of skin and bone?" Inveighed the Leader of the Mystics, Yorvet by name. "I am in need of Men! Not boys! I need those with skills not those so soft the sun burns their skin."
The man listened calmly with arms folded across his chest, idly kicking the Noble's son sprawled unconscious on the ground. He waited for Yorvet to loose steam before stepping in over the Lead Mystic's words. "Bonded." He said slowly. "What lies before you may be a scrap of a scrap of meat off the bone, but he holds a Lunette blade. A weapon that will not be separated from him." He kicked the boy, rolling him face up, his pale face shining up in the moonlight. "You are a Mystic, the Best." So he'd been told, though he knew it was not true. This man could not match him in magic. "You can shape him into anything you wish. This was known when we agreed to the terms."
"I agreed thinking you would provide a warrior noble son! Not this weakling!" Yorvet interrupted.
"You knew he was spoiled." The man said calmly. "That does not mean a warrior at all, again you have a Lunette blade. You have this soft piece of clay to mold to your bidding. Take him, or leave knowing you broke your deal with me."

Inveigh - To protest or complain bitterly or vehemently. rail.

Added Info - You might complain or grumble about some injustice you see, but for a stronger effect, you can "inveigh" against it. "Inveigh" comes from the Latin verb invehere, which joins the prefix in- with the verb vehere, meaning "to carry." Invehere literally means "to carry in," and when "inveigh" first appeared in English, it was also used to mean "to carry in" or "to introduce." Extended meanings of invehere, however, are "to force one's way into," "attack," and "to assail with words," and that's where the current sense of "inveigh" comes from. A closely related word is "invective," which means "insulting or abusive language." This word, too, ultimately comes from invehere.

The Word -Sesquipedalian

The boat flowed swiftly down the current passing various cities and towns along the way, many with sesquipedalian names that even the locals had trouble pronouncing the long complicated names of their own city. It had been a trend, a couple centuries ago. To put as many syllables as possible into a city name. The more syllables meant the more status. But now, many of these places were near ruins. So much for their names. The man chuckled to himself glancing back at the unconscious nobleman's son. He too would learn that his name meant nothing now. He would not be able to order anybody around just because he was the son of a famous war lord.

Sesquipedalian - 1: having many syllables : long 2: using long words.

History Behind the Word -Horace, the Roman poet known for his satire, was merely being gently ironic when he cautioned young poets against using sesquipedalian verba--"words a foot and a half long"--in his book Ars poetica, a collection of maxims about writing. But in the 17th  century, English literary critics decided the word "sesquipedalian" could be very useful for lambasting writers using unnecessarily long words. Robert Southey used it to make two jibes at once when he wrote "the verses of [16th-century English poet] English Hawes are as full of barbarous sesquipedalian Latinisms, as the prose of [the 18th-century periodical] the Rambler." The Latin prefix sesqui- is used in modern English to mean "one and a half times," as in "sesquicentennial" (a 150th anniversary.)

The Word -Zwieback

With a grunt, the man stepped off the last of the slimsy stairs and tossed the boy into the dark boat that awaited them. The weight of the noble's son, sent the boat rocking violently, sloshing water back and forth, but even the cold splash of the waves did nothing to stir the Noble's son back into wakefulness. The man nodded. Yes, it would not do to have the son wake up to his new nightmare of a life too soon. He could continue to dream about the sweet zwieback breakfast he would not be having in the morning. No honey, no bacon, that life was over for this one. A light as a cat, the man hopped into the boat, chanting under his breath, they soon were moving silently out from the hidden harbor, the man crouched at the front, eyes scanning the darkness. It would not do well to grow careless now. He would remain unseen, the unobservant would miss him so long as they were not looking for what caused a noise out in the river. The current flowed around his little vessel, following his spelled commands, to give them speed to set them sailing like the wind was at their backs, all without him having to lift a finger. He'd already lifted the Noble's son, no need to do more work than necessary.

Zwieback - a usually sweetened bread enriched with eggs that is baked and then sliced and toasted until dry and crisp.

History Behind the Word - In ages past, keeping food fresh for any length of time required ingenuity, especially when people needed to carry comestibles on a long journey. One solution for keeping bread edible for traveling was to bake it twice, thereby drying it and slowing the spoiling process. The etymology of "zwieback" reflects this baker's trick; it was borrowed from a German word that literally means "twice baked." Nowadays, zwieback is not just used as a foodstuff--the texture of the dried bread makes zwieback a suitable teething device for infants. Incidentally, other twice-baked goods whose origins reflect that fact include "biscuit" and "biscotti," both of which come from phrases meaning "twice-cooked bread."

The Word -Noachian

The man dropped the noble's son with a thump to the dock as he paused before a noachian door. It was so rusted constant exposure to the water, that the man doubted even the oldest person in the village remembered that it existed, so well did it blend in with the other rusting pieces on the wall. But the man knew where to look, knew where to press, and soon, a dark opening revealed itself, more slimsy-like steps awaiting to take the careless step down with it. The man heaved the boy up, idly thinking he should turn the noble into a creature that didn't weigh so much. It would make the process easier, but no, he'd promised his buyers they would get him human. They could decide after that if they wanted to keep him like that.


Noachian - 1: of or relating to the patriarch Noah or his time. 2: ancient, antiquated.

History Behind the Word - Students of the Old Testament know that Noah survived the Great Flood by stowing himself, his family, and two of every kind of creature on his ark. "Noachian" is derived from the Hebrew name for Noah. Modern contexts find "Noachian" used in reference to the Great Flood or, more humorously, to describe torrential rainstorms and flooding reminiscent of the Biblical event. It could be said that usage of "Noachian" spans even beyond planet Earth. Astronomers studying the surface of Mars used "Noachian" to refer to the epoch between 3.5 and 4.6 billion years ago when that planet's oldest craters were believed to be formed. This usage is based on Noachis Terra, one of the landmasses of Mars.

The Word -Slimsy

The man moved quickly to the river that crisscrossed throughout the city. He handled the boy carelessly, giving every corner of a wall, doorframe, and reaching branch the opportunity to exact the revenge of the people. If the boy didn't have a headache from the wine before he went to bed, he certainly was going to feel every knock to the head when he did wake up. Just desserts for this yellowed-bellied skink.
Adjusting his grip, the man moved into a rotting docking area, navigating the slimsy boards with ease of familiarity. Any who tried to follow him would soon find themselves in the cold water below, not that any would try to follow this man. He smirked his blackened teeth showing once more. Who would want to ruin the kidnapping of the fool who got them into a war with no end? Life would be better on the morrow. For the town at least.

Slimsy - flimsy or frail.

Added Info -The reasons why some words flourish and others fall by the lexical wayside are often unclear, but what is clear is that "slimsy" is firmly in the latter category: It has very little current use. This shouldn't stop you from using it though; "slimsy" is a blend of "slim" and "flimsy," and its meaning should be pretty apparent to your audience if you're careful with the context. The word was first used in the mid-19th century and was at its peak of popularity in the early 20th, but who knows? Maybe the 21st century is seeing its revival.