Casuarina tree
A tree which sounds like the name of a girl, with slender, drooping twigs like horse-tails (the tree, not the girl), native...
Disseverment
The noun of 'dissever', to divide or sever something from something else. Also 'disseverance'. Used here in reference to a...
A cowardice of curs
What a pity we no longer use 'cur' to objurgate someone. And how appropriate that the collective noun should be...
Boustifaille
A feminine French noun meaning food, as in 'nosh', 'grub', 'chow' and similar. Boustifaille is more mischievous and tasty,...
Szkupcsina
This intriguing word turned up in Miklos Banffy's superb Transylvanian Trilogy, tracing the decline of the Hungarian aristocracy in the...
Concinnity
The OED describes this as a 'skilful and harmonious adaptation or fitting together of parts; harmony, congruity, consistency'. The adjective...
Boursoufler
A word that rolls into its roundness the sound of blowing ('souffler'), conveying something of its meaning: to swell, puff...
Cock-a-doodle-doo
In this year of the rooster, what better animal noise to kick off with than the Chinese version of ‘cock-a-doodle-doo’!...
The rustling wind
A se is a 25 stringed instrument like a zither, so I like the doubling up of this character to...
A temperance of cooks
Having recently revelled in the bursting descriptions of a quaffing, boozing, drunken chef in Mervyn Peake's Titus Groan, I...
Gulch it down
Mervyn Peake uses Rabelaisian vocabulary to describe the gargantuan appetites and appearance of Swelter, the castle cook in his Gormenghast...
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