It’s been a while since we’ve had a “Words New to Me…” post, but I’m reading Thomas Hardy and his vocabulary is enormous!! Here are some words new to me lately…

• Madder – red color (in this case, related to stains from plants)
• Apple-blooth – not sure. Linked with apple blossom perhaps as a lot of refs are to nature…?
• Logy – dull, sluggish
• Uz – reference to one of biblical Abraham’s sons (?)
• Niaiserie – silly or foolish talk or behavior
• Rozums – not sure, but was in reference to an intelligent person… Any ideas?
• Pummy (something has been “churned into a pummy”) – dialect word for “pomace” which refers to solid remains of grapes and other fruit after pressing for juice or oil
• Paltered – to act in an insincere way or to lie
• Thermidorean – ref. to a coup d’état within the French Revolution against its leaders (late 1700’s). Uncertain how this connects to text though…
• Ethiopic – refers to ancient language of Ethiopa
• Antionomianism – one who rejects society-established morality in favor of biblical ideas
• dapes inemptae – (Latin) homegrown produce or unbought feast

(From Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy – 1891.)