Word of the Day...

[Haunted]

jujitsu \joo-JIT-soo\, noun:

1. The ability to accomplish a task with no apparent effort or resistance.
2. Method developed in Japan of defending oneself without the use of weapons by using the strength and weight of an adversary to disable him.

She stared at me as though I were some kind of bizarre math whiz, and she feared I was about to do some jujitsu calculus on her.
-- Stephen White, Blinded

Edmund has always had a way of turning things around on their head, practicing his own brand of moral jujitsu, Claire's holy zeal for humanity in the abstract!
-- Francine du Plessix Gray, World Without End

Jujitsu comes from the Japanese martial art of the same name, with the word being a combination of ju, "soft," and jitsu, "technique."

[blunthead]

eyot [aɪt] noun, a small island in a river or lake.

After a while a small speck on the rim of the world resolved into an eyot or crag, so perilously perched that the waters of the fall swirled around it at the start of their long drop.

[Sundrop]

i·o·ta (-t)n.1. The ninth letter of the Greek alphabet.

2. A very small amount; a bit: not an iota of truth to that tale.

My cousin and I had to look this one up when we were in our 20s. My aunt was giving us a raking because we stayed out all night, and she said "You two don't give one iota!" We looked at each other and at the same time asked "What's an iota?"

[blunthead]

baulk (bôk) noun, one of several parallel sloping beams that support a roof.

It contained one or two hulks and quite a large amount of floating wood in the form of planks, baulks and even whole natural tree trunks, some still supporting green leaves.

[Haunted]

torrefy \TAWR-uh-fahy\, verb:

1. To subject to fire or intense heat.
2. In pharmacology, to dry or parch drugs with heat.
3. To roast, as metallic ores.

A coffee-roaster answers for this purpose, taking care not to torrefy them too much, as the oil of the nut suffers thereby, and it becomes a dark brown or black, grows bitter, and spoils the colour of the chocolate
-- Ernest Spon, American library edition of workshop receipts, Volume 2, 1903

The eloquence of statesmen will not sear War's naked wounds, nor may one torrefy / The solemn lines of a gifted sonneteer.
-- Canadian Poetry Magazine, 1945

Torrefy stems from the two Latin roots torrēre "to dry up" and facere "to put, or make so."

[blunthead]

piquant (pē′kənt, -känt, -kwənt) adjective, agreeably pungent or stimulating to the taste; pleasantly sharp or biting.

"Ghlen Livid," he said. "The fermented vul nut drink they freeze-distill in my home country. A certain smoky quality... Piquant. From the werstern plantations in, ah, Rehigreed Province, yes? Next year's harvest, I fancy, from the color...".

[Haunted]

catawampus \kat-uh-WOM-puhs\, adjective:

1. Off-center; askew; awry.
2. Positioned diagonally; cater-cornered.

Very circuitous, I must say- most sidelong and backhanded, cockeyed and skew-jawed, catawampus and wonky.
-- Candace A. Croft, Annalia's Simply Splendid Flight: From Another Side of Day

The only traditional touches are the catawampus walls and whichaway entrances dictated by Feng Shui, the art of placing things so as to ensure luck and not disturb spirits.
-- P. J. O'Rourke, Eat the rich

Catawampus arose in the United States around 1840, during a particular vogue in elaborate coinages. Cata- stems from cater-, a now-archaic root meaning "diagonal," while the source of -wampus is subject to debate.

[blunthead]

plastron (plas′trən, -trän′) noun, the lower, ventral part of the shell of a turtle or tortoise.

It was midnight on the Disc and so, therefore, the sun was far, far below swinging slowly under Great A'Tuin's vast and frosty plastron.

[Haunted]

haw \HAW\,

verb:
1. To utter a sound representing a hesitation or pause in speech.
2. To turn or make a turn to the left.

noun:
1. A sound or pause of hesitation.
2. The fruit of the Old World hawthorn, Crataegus laevigata, or of other species of the same genus.

interjection:
1. Used as a word of command to a horse or other draft animal, usually directing it to turn to the left.)

I find that I cannot make poor Mr. Gresham hem and haw.
-- Anthony Trollope, Doctor Thorne: Volume 3

If you ask Frank Lockyear about his philosophy regarding trees, he will haw and dig about searching for the words.
-- Robert Gray, "He plants trees everywhere," Scouting, 1985.

Haw has many senses, but the origin of this sense is uncertain, possibly imitative of the sound.

[blunthead]

trireme (trī′rēm′) noun, an ancient Greek or Roman galley, usually a warship, with three banks of oars on each side.

dhow (do̵u) noun, a ship with a lateen sail or sails and a raised deck at the stern.

caravel (kar′ə vel′) noun, any of several kinds of fast, small sailing ships, esp. one with a narrow, high poop and lateen sails

Triremes, dhows and caravels protruded at strange angles from the general wooden chaos.