notable knouting

• to knout (v.): to lash with a barbed, multi-headed whip. Peculiar to English commentary about Tsarist Russia.


• to perlustrate (v.): to inspect thoroughly; to rifle through.


• morganatic (adj.): Of marriage: crossing class boundaries; partial; granting no titles to the wife and children. AKA left-handed marriage.


• accouchement (Fr n.): a birth; the moment of fetal expulsion.


• altricial (adj): incapable of moving around immediately after birth.


• test particle (n.): fictional entity used in high-energy physics simulations / dynamics problems at the limit. Model with only one property, the one you want to simulate.


• fustian (n.): 1) thick dark cloth; 2) pompous writing. Confusing because it looks like an adjective.


• to templatize (computing v.): genericise; to use metaprogramming templates on. Seen in a BS marketing spiel; yet another case of presenting some 40-year-old basic CS idea as revolutionary innovation.


• nesomane (n.): Island lover.