| a dictionary of words and phrases on the verge of extinction — updated daily — for the word obsessed! |  |
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gloaming GLO-ming noun dusk; twilight 1901Ben HurAt the very moment he was most inclined to yield to the allurement, a hand very fair even in the moonless gloaming was laid softly upon his shoulder.1962King RatMoments later the native appeared from the gloaming and walked the path unconcerned.1986Dinosaur BeachThe stars were glittering through the gloaming…Labels: James Clavell, Keith Laumer, Lew Wallace
xystus ZAI-stuhs noun a long porch or portico used for exercise, usually during bad weather; a garden; a portico 1876Daniel DerondaThen, this, where she is standing on the Xystus with Agrippa, entreating the people not to injure themselves by resistance.1897The Economist...the xystus, 'a covered corrider in the gymnasium where the athletes exercised in winter.'1901Ben HurBut go up to Jerusalem next Passover, and stand on the Xystus or in the Street of Barter, and see him as he is.1919Mare Nostrum (Our Sea) a NovelThe xystus, or garden, adjoining the house had been laid out like a Grecian landscape with cypresses and laurels between squares of roses and violets.Labels: George Eliot, Lew Wallace, Vicente Blasco Ibanez, Xenophon
benison BE-nuh-suhn noun a blessing 1645L'AllegroELD. BRO. Unmuffle, ye faint stars; and thou, fair moon, | That wont'st to love the traveller's benison,1900The House Behind The CedarsWhen Rena came back unexpectedly at the behest of her dream, Frank heard again the music of her voice, felt the joy of her presence and the benison of her smile.1901Ben Hur'The other love is but a memory; of which I will say further that, like a benison of the Lord, it hath a compass to contain a whole family, if only'—his voice lowered and trembled—'if only I knew where they were.'1916We Can't Have EverythingHe caught her bruised hand and began to kiss it and pour tears on it. And she looked down at his beautiful bent head and laid her other hand on it in benison.1994Calde of the Long SunQuetzal raised the baculus to bestow a benison…Labels: Charles Waddell, Chestnutt, Gene Wolfe, John Milton, Lew Wallace, Rupert Hughes
habiliment huh-BI-luh-muhnt noun clothing; attire 1600Jerusalem DeliveredClad in rare weeds and strange habiliment, | A nymph, for age able to go to man, | An hundred plants beside, even in his sight, | Childed an hundred nymphs, so great, so dight.1893The Prince of IndiaThere must be in every heart a store of prevision of which we are not aware—occasions bring it out with such sudden and bewildering effect. Everything—hymn, tolling bell, lights, boys, friars, procession—was accessory to that veiled, slow-marching figure. And in habiliment, movement, air, with what telling force it impersonated sorrow! On the other hand, how deep and consuming the sorrow itself must be!Labels: Lew Wallace, Torquato Tasso
verdure VUR-jur noun lush, green vegetation; the state of flourishing 1901Ben HurThe birds took to wing joyously; beasts great and small went about, each in its way; the trees shook their verdurous branches, nodding to the enamoured winds; the rivers ran to the seas, and the seas tossed in their beds and rolled in crested waves, and with surging and ebbing painted the shores with glistening foam; and over all the clouds floated like sailed ships unanchored.1901The Man Who Was AfraidThe beautiful and mighty 'Yermak,' Gordyeeff's steam tow-boat, was rapidly floating down the current, and on each side the shores of the powerful and beautiful Volga were slowly moving past him—the left side, all bathed in sunshine, stretching itself to the very end of the sky like a pompous carpet of verdure; the right shore, its high banks overgrown with woods, swung skyward, sinking in stern repose.1916Flying for FranceThe ravishing beauty of the Val d'Ajol, the steep mountain sides bristling with a solid mass of giant pines, the myriads of glittering cascades tumbling downward through fairylike avenues of verdure, the roaring, tossing torrent at the foot of the slope—all this loveliness, seen from an airplane at 12,000 feet, fades into flat splotches of green traced with a tiny ribbon of silver.Labels: James R. McConnell, Lew Wallace, Maxim Gorky
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