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bailey: (n) 1. The external wall enclosing the outer court, and forming the first line of defence, of a feudal castle; and, in a wider sense, any of the circuits of walls or defences which surrounded the keep.
2. In later writers: The outer court or base court of a feudal castle; also, either of the two (or three courts) formed by the spaces between the circuits of walls or defences.
3. Retained in proper names: e.g. the Old Bailey in London, the seat of the Central Criminal Court, so called from the ancient bailey or ballium of the city wall between Lud Gate and New Gate, within which it was situated.



ballium: (n) The defensive wall of a castle, or the area it enclosed; one of a series of such walls or courts.



oleaginous: (adj) 1. Having the nature or properties of oil; containing oil or an oily substance; oily, fatty, greasy.
2. Producing or yielding oil.
3. Exaggeratedly and distastefully complimentary; obsequious, unctuous.



nous: (n) 1. In Ancient Greek Philosophy: Mind, intellect; intelligence; intuitive apprehension.
2. In British slang: Common sense, practical intelligence, ‘gumption’.



happorth: (n) 'A half-penny's worth'; A small amount. In phrases such as 'put my happorth in'.



mensch: (n) In Jewish usage: a person of integrity or rectitude; a person who is morally just, honest, or honourable.



apoptosis: (n) 1. In Medicine: A resolution, relaxation, or loosening of something.
2. In Biology: Death of individual cells, characterized by condensation and fragmentation of the nucleus and cytoplasm and usually followed by phagocytosis by other cells, typically occurring as a self-activated process involved in the regulation of cell numbers, as in normal development, and in the growth of tumours.



phagocytosis: (n) In Biology and Medicine: The process by which a cell incorporates solid particles (bacteria, other cells, foreign material, etc.).



menarche: (n) The first menstrual period; the age at which this occurs.



quaver: (n) 1. In Music: A shake or trill, especially in singing. Also in extended use.
2. In Music: A note having a duration equal to half that of a crotchet and an eighth that of a semibreve; a symbol representing this.
3. A quivering or trembling movement; a tremor.
4. A shake or tremble in the voice; a tremulous cry or sound.



crotchet: (n) 1. In Architecture: ‘One of the small ornaments placed on the inclined sides of pinnacles, pediments, canopies, etc. in Gothic architecture’; usually in the form of buds or curled leaves, sometimes of animals.
2. A curl or roll of hair formerly worn; the crown of the head.
3. A small hook, especially for fastening things; an ornamental hook serving as a brooch or fastening.
4. A hook-like instrument; specifically an instrument employed in obstetrical surgery.
5. A hook used in reaping.
6. A hook fastened with straps on the back of a porter for carrying parcels.
7. A natural hook-like organ or process: specifically, the tusk or fang of a beast; one of the minute hooks or claws on the prolegs of many lepidopterous larvæ; the hook-like extremity of the superior occipito-temporal convolution of the brain.
8. In Music: A symbol for a note of half the value of a minim, made in the form of a stem with a round (formerly lozenge-shaped) black head; a note of this value.
9. A square bracket in typography.
10. A whimsical fancy; a perverse conceit; a peculiar notion on some point (usually considered unimportant) held by an individual in opposition to common opinion.
11. A fanciful device, mechanical, artistic, or literary.
12. In Fortification: A passage formed by an indentation in the glacis opposite a traverse, connecting the portions of the covered way on both sides of the traverse.
13. In the Military: The arrangement of a body of troops, either forward or rearward, so as to form a line nearly perpendicular to the general line of battle.
14. A crotchet-hero (a musician); a crotchet-monger (one who has crotchets on political and other questions and obtrusively advocates them); a crotchet-letter (one having a hook-shaped hair-line).



proleg: (n) Any of the fleshy appendages or tubercles of the larvae of some insects (e.g. on the abdominal segments of caterpillars) serving as legs but distinct from the true, thoracic legs.



tubercle: (n) 1. A small tuber or body resembling a tuber.
2. In Anatomy and Zoology: A small rounded projection or protuberance, as on a bone, or on the surface of the body in various animals.
3. In Pathology: A small firm rounded swelling or nodule on the surface of the body or in a part or organ; specifically a mass of granulation-cells characteristic of tuberculosis; by transference: the disease tuberculosis.
4. In Botany: A small tuber, or a root-growth resembling a tuber, as in many orchids; a small wart-like swelling or protuberance on a plant.



lepidopterous: (adj) Of or pertaining to the Lepidoptera: large order of insects, characterized by having four membranous wings covered with scales; it comprises the butterflies and moths.



occipitotemporal: (adj) Of or relating to the occipital and temporal lobes or (rarely) bones.



minim: (n) 1. In Music: A symbol for a note having a duration equal to half that of a semibreve; a note of this length. Also in extended use.
2. A single downstroke of the pen; especially the short downstroke used in the letters m, n, u, etc., in court hand or secretary hand. Also more fully minim stroke. 'to be in one's minims': to be learning to write such strokes.
3. The least possible portion of something; a tiny particle, a jot.
4. In Scientific use: The smallest portion into which matter is divisible; an atom. Also: the hypothetical smallest possible unit of time or space.
5. A person, animal, or thing of very small size or importance; frequently derogatory.
6. In Printing: A certain small size of type.
7. A term proposed for: a unit of weight, approximately equal to 16.4 milligrams.
8. The smallest unit of liquid capacity in apothecaries' measure, equal to a sixtieth of a fluid drachm (approx. 0.47 ml).
9. In Numismatics: Any of various very small, ancient (usually Roman), bronze or silver coins found in Britain and mostly produced locally.



semibreve: (n) 1. A note having half (in the greater prolation, one third) the length of a breve: in modern music the longest note in ordinary use. (Its figure is now an open oval)
2. The ‘space’ of a semibreve.



prolation: (n) 1. The action of uttering a word or sound; utterance, articulation.
2. In Theology: The sending out or emission of the divine Word or Logos.
3. In Early Music: The relation between the time values of a semibreve and a minim, determining the rhythm of a piece of music; measure.
4. More generally: a measure, a strain of melody, a tune
5. Generation (of something); production, emission.
6. Advancement, progress, growth.
7. Prolatation: Deferral, delay.



drachm: (n) 1. The principal silver coin of the ancient Greeks, the drachma; containing 6 obols. It varied in weight and value in different places.
2. Hence, the dirhem of the Arabs.
3. A weight approximately equivalent to that of the Greek coin. Hence, in Apothecaries' weight = 60 grains, or of an ounce, in Avoirdupois weight = 27 grains or of an ounce. (Spelt drachm or dram.)
4. A small quantity; a very little.



obol: (n) A silver (later also copper alloy) coin of ancient Greece, of the value of of a drachma.



dirhem: (n) An Arabian measure of weight, originally two-thirds of an Attic drachma (44·4 grains troy), used with varying weight from Morocco to Abyssinia, Turkey, and Persia; in Egypt (1895) = 47·661 troy grains. Also a small silver coin of the same weight, used under the caliphs, and (1895) in Morocco, where its value was less than 4d. English.



numismatics: (n) The study of coins, medals, and (occasionally) banknotes, especially from an archaeological or historical perspective. Also: the collection of these as artefacts.



glacis: (n) 1. A gently sloping bank
2. In Fortification: The parapet of the covered way extended in a long slope to meet the natural surface of the ground, so that every part of it shall be swept by the fire of the ramparts.
3. Short for glacis plate: A sloping armour-plate protecting an opening, etc., in a ship.
4. In Building: an easy imperceptible slope in the cymatium of the cornice, to promote the descent and draining off of the rain-water.



cymatium: (n) In Architecture: Cyma; A moulding of the cornice, the outline of which consists of a concave and a convex line; an ogee.



breve: (n) 1. A letter of authority; a royal mandate; specifically a pope's letter.
2. A summary, a short code of instructions, etc.
3. In Music: A note of the value of two semibreves, now written white and either oblong or (more usually) oval, with one or two strokes on each side; rarely used in modern music.
4. In grammar: A short syllable.
5. In Printing: The mark placed over a vowel to signify that it is short.
6. A name sometimes given (from their short tails) to the ant-thrushes.



bituminous: (adj) 1. Of the nature of or resembling bitumen, consisting of or containing bitumen. (Sometimes with reference to the ‘burning lake’ of Hell.)
2. Specifically in the scientific or technical names of various minerals, manufactures, etc.
3. Cemented with bitumen.
4. Figuratively: sulfurous.



bitumen: (n) 1. Originally, a kind of mineral pitch found in Palestine and Babylon, used as mortar, etc. The same as asphalt, mineral pitch, Jew's pitch, Bitumen judaicum.
2. In modern scientific use, the generic name of certain mineral inflammable substances, native hydrocarbons more or less oxygenated, liquid, semi-solid, and solid, including naphtha, petroleum, asphalt, etc; elastic bitumen: mineral caoutchouc or Elaterite.
3. In Australia: a tarred road; specifically the road from Darwin to Alice Springs.
4. A pigment prepared from asphalt.



caoutchouc: (n) 1. India-rubber, or Gum Elastic; the milky resinous juice of certain trees in S. America, the E. Indies, and elsewhere, which coagulates on exposure to the air, and becomes highly elastic, and is waterproof; it is now a most important substance in arts and manufactures.
2. A "waterproof"; waterproof cloak.



lubricous/lubricious: (adj) 1. Slippery, smooth; slimy; oily.
2. 'Slippery’, shifty; unstable; elusive.
3. Voluble, glib.
4. Insinuating.
5. Lascivious, wanton.



Béarnaise: (n) Béarnaise sauce, also in French form 'sauce béarnaise', a rich white sauce flavoured with tarragon.