A blog about what goes into good (and bad) fantasy fiction.
Prizes are available for interesting sentences using the word ‘gallipot’.
gal·li·pot noun \ˈga-li-ˌpät\
Definition of GALLIPOT
1 : a small usually ceramic vessel
2 archaic : druggist
Origin of GALLIPOT
Middle English galy pott
First Known Use: 15th century
Source: Merriam-Webster.
‘To gather herbs,’ Drotte told him. ‘We are physicians’ gallipots.’
Source: The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe.
The Wikipedia article (link below) has more information on this military formation.
A sheltron (also sceld-trome, schiltrom or shiltron) is a compact body of troops forming a battle array, shield wall or phalanx.
The term sheltron is obsolete, but is most often associated with Scottish pike formations during the Wars of Scottish Independence in the late 13th and early 14th centuries.
Etymology
The term dates from at least 1000 AD and derives from Old English roots expressing the idea of a “shield-troop”. Some researchers have also posited this etymological relation may show the schiltron is directly descended from the Anglo-Saxon shield wall, and still others give evidence “schiltron” is a name derived from a Viking circular formation (generally no less than a thousand fighters) in extremely close formation, intended to present an enemy’s cavalry charge with an “infinite” obstacle (that is, a perimeter horses refuse to breach). Matters are confused by the fact that the term in Middle English could clearly refer to a body of soldiers without reference to formation, including cavalry and archers. The first mention of the schiltron as a specific formation of spearmen appears to be at the Battle of Falkirk in 1297. There is, however, no reason to believe this is the first time such a formation was used and, indeed, may have had a long previous history in Scotland, as the Picts used to employ spears in block formation as the backbone of their armies.
Source: Wikipedia.
Never for one moment had he regretted marrying her, but she could break his defences the way he used to break the schiltrons.
Source: The Company by K J Parker.
crap·u·lous
/ˈkræpyələs/adjective
1. given to or characterized by gross excess in drinking or eating.
2. suffering from or due to such excess.Origin:
1530–40; < Late Latin crāpulōsus. See crapulent, -ousRelated forms
crap·u·lous·ly, adverb
crap·u·lous·ness, noun
Source: Dictionary.com.
By the time Swelter’s monologue was dragging to its crapulous close, Mr Flay was pacing onwards, every step staking him another five feet from the reek and horror of the Great Kitchen.
Source: Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake.
cat·a·plasm
/ˈkætəˌplæzəm/noun Medicine/Medical .
poultice.Origin:
1555–65; < Latin cataplasma < Greek katáplasma. See cata-, -plasm
Source: Dictionary.com.
‘And that is arctium lappa; a good cataplasm of fresh roots cicatrizes skin eczemas.’
Source: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.
I had an appendectomy a few days ago, so there was no Monday Masterclass this week. But I can bring you another interesting lexeme today.
ve·ron·i·ca 1
/vəˈrɒnɪkə/–noun ( sometimes initial capital letter ) Ecclesiastical .
1. the image of the face of Christ, said in legend to have been miraculously impressed on the handkerchief or veil that St. Veronica gave to Him to wipe His face on the way to Calvary.
2. the handkerchief or veil itself.
3. Also called sudarium. any handkerchief, veil, or cloth bearing a representation of the face of Christ.Also called vernicle.
Origin:
1690–1700; < Medieval Latin veronica, alleged to be an alteration of vēra īconica true image ( see very, icon), subsequently also taken as the name of the woman who gave Christ the cloth
Source: Dictionary.com.
Consider our most real and tender pleasures – in the excitements of pain and mutilation; in sex as the perfect arena, like a culture-bed of sterile pus, for all the veronicas of our own perversions, in voyeurism and self-disgust, in our moral freedom to pursue our own psychopathologies as a game, and in our ever greater powers of abstraction.
Source: The Atrocity Exhibition by J G Ballard.
Tyr·i·an
/ˈtɪriən/–adjective
1. of or pertaining to ancient Tyre or its people.
2. of the color of Tyrian purple.Origin:
1505–15; < Latin Tyri ( us ) (< Greek Týrios, derivative of Týros Tyre) + -an
Tyrian purple
–noun
1. Also called Tyrian dye . a highly prized crimson or purple dye of classical antiquity, originally obtained at great expense from a certain shellfish: later shown to be an indigo derivative and synthetically produced, and now replaced by other synthetic dyes.
2. a vivid, purplish red.Origin:
1575–85
Source: Dictionary.com.
A new mood was on her … no longer icily terrible as in the judgment-hall, no longer rich, and sombre, and splendid, like a Tyrian cloth, as in the dwellings of the dead.
Source: She by H Rider Haggard.
I used to have a cat called Bertha. She was great and I still miss her. It turns out that ‘bertha’ is also a word.
ber·tha /ˈbɜrθə/
–noun
a collar or trimming, as of lace, worn about the shoulders by women, as over a low-necked waist or dress.Origin:
1835–45; named after Bertha (died a.d. 783), wife of Frankish king Pepin the Short; she was famed for her modestyBer·tha /ˈbɜrθə/
–noun
a female given name: from a Germanic word meaning “bright.”
Source: Dictionary.com.
It was one of Kitty’s happy days. Her gown did not feel tight anywhere, her lace bertha did not slip down, her rosettes were neither crumpled nor hanging off, her pink shoes with their high curved heels did not pinch but delighted her little feet.
Source: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.
Trisulc \Tri”sulc\ (tr[imac]”s[u^]lk), n. [L. trisulcus; tri-
(see Tri-) + sulcus a furrow.]
Something having three forks or prongs, as a trident. [Obs.]
“Jupiter’s trisulc.” –Sir T. Browne.
[1913 Webster]
Source: Free Dictionary.
a flame rushed up the night, lighting the whole sky with a livid glare. And in that trisulk flash Corinius beheld though the south-west window the Iron Tower blasted and cleft asunder, and the next instant fallen in an avalanche of red-hot ruin.
Source: The Worm Ouroboros by E R Eddison.
An example of logophany, perhaps?
the·oph·a·ny
/θiˈɒfəni/–noun, plural -nies.
a manifestation or appearance of god or a god to a person.Origin:
1625–35; < Late Latin theophania < Late Greek theopháneia. See theo-, -phany—Related forms
the·o·phan·ic /ˌθiəˈfænɪk/, the·oph·a·nous, adjective
Source: Dictionary.com.
It is the most immediate of the paths that put us in touch with the Almighty: theophanic matter.
Source: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.
Another example of lexical erudition and a humongous list from The Name of the Rose.
tat·ter·de·mal·ion
/ˌtætərdɪˈmeɪlyən, -ˈmæl-/–noun
1. a person in tattered clothing; a shabby person.–adjective
2. ragged; unkempt or dilapidated.Origin:
1600–10; first written tatter-de-mallian and rhymed with Italian; see tatter 1 ; -de-mallian < ?
Source: Dictionary.com.
From the story he told me, I pictured him among those bands of vagrants that in the years that followed I saw more and more often roaming about Europe: false monks, charlatans, swindlers, cheats, tramps and tatterdemalions, lepers and cripples, jugglers, invalid mercenaries, wandering Jews escaped from the infidels with their spirit broken, lunatics, fugitives under banishment, malefactors with an ear cut off, sodomites, and along with them ambulant artisans, weavers, tinkers, chair-menders, knife-grinders, basket-weavers, masons, and also rogues of every stripe, forgers, scoundrels, cardsharps, rascals, bullies, reprobates, recreants, frauds, hooligans, simoniacal and embezzling canons and priests, people who lived on the credulity of others, counterfeiters of bulls and papal seals, peddlers of indulgences, false paralytics who lay at church doors, vagrants fleeing from convents, relic-sellers, pardoners, soothsayers and fortunetellers, necromancers, healers, bogus alms-seekers, fornicators of every sort, corrupters of nuns and maidens by deception and violence, simulators of dropsy, epilepsy, hemorrhoids, gout, and sores, as well as melancholy madness.
Source: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.
24th August 2011
Sean May
Sean May - Elements of Fantasy 