C




CACHECTIC, CACHEXIC :  adj  1) nutritionally deprived, often because of disease; 2) mentally depraved. Compare ANORECTIC, DYSCRASE, INANITION, MARASMIC, MARCESCENCE, TABESCENT

His horse has been restored to him (cachectic as ever, looking like one of the gutted nags the Druids used to impale for decoration). . . .
--Boyle, Water Music, p. 44.

But now I am old and cachexic, I need my nuorishment.

--Gardner, The Wreckage of Agathlon, p. 39.

He . . . ran a cachexic finger down a painted sign that listed the available treats.

--Theroux, Three Wogs, p. 56.

CALIGULAR :  adj  referring to the extravagant excesses perpetrated by Caligula, third Roman Emperor. See NEROTIC

CARDIOID :  adj  heart-shaped. See also BALANIC. Compare AKROPOSTHION, POSTHION, STEGOCEPHALIC

He drew his foreskin back. He liked the Greek words: posthia† drawn back from the balanos, the acorn. The curve was cardioid.
--Davenport, "The Dawn in Erewhon," Tatlin!, p. 155.

CAROTEEL :  noun  from Arabic, a measure of dried fruit in a basket, 700 hundred weight. See PATIBULARY

CATAMENIA :  noun  literally, "monthly descent"; menstruation

. . . the air stale and close and rancid with the heavy tang of perspiration and catamenia.
--Aczel, Illuminations, p. 167.

CATENARY :  noun  a chain, a curve formed by a chain hanging freely from two fixed points not in the same vertical line

A smile to you; to me the truth behind the catenary: locus of the transcendental: y = a/2(ex/a + e-x/a).
--Pynchon, V., p. 326.

"A bridge," he proclaimed, "is a very special thing. Haven't you seen how delicate they are in relation to their size? They soar like birds; they extend and embody our finest efforts; and they utilize the curve of heaven. When a catenary of steel a mile long is hung over a river, believe me, God knows."

--Helprin, Winter's Tale, pp. 66-67.

CATENATE :  verb  to connect like the links of a chain. CATENATING, adj

. . . like a string of firecrackers or the chains of orgasms that Shahryar could sometimes set my sister catenating.
--Barth, Chimera, p. 24.

CATENATION :  noun  a chain, a series

History is a catenation of disasters, redeemable only (and imperfectly) by the Tragic View.
--Barth, Letters, p. 94.

CELADONY :  noun  "[Charles, the utopian] Fourier's word for Lesbian (sexual sense)" (Davenport)

They were skilled in celadony and the sapphic kiss.
--Davenport, "The Dawn in Erewhon,"
Tatlin!, p. 234.

CHTHONIC :  noun  of, in, or beneath the earth. Compare BATHYSIDERODROMOPHOBIA, TANNHAUSERISM, TERRENITY

Rancho Merced . . . the building was not large but its lowness made it look far-flung. One almost looked down upon it: you got down into it like a sports car and with the same expectation of the chthonic dividends of living close to the ground.
--Percy, The Last Gentleman, p. 341.

Eating and defecating at once they remained blind and earthbound--were carried into the chthonic darkness of unreason.

--Durrell, Monsieur, p. 305.

After a fortnight with the odors of bunker fuel, chthonic plumbing vapors, and human sweat, the pasture smells of dirt and grass that came rolling off the Devon fields were welcome and tantalizing and worked a gaiety on the crew.

--C. Buckley, Steaming to Bamboola, p. 121.

CENAL :  adj  referring to the midday or afternoon meal

For it is not enough to carouse, it is not enough to sit long over the cenal or prandial ambrosia, it is not, for that matter, enough to swoop down on hapless nymphs in zoomorphic† disguises.
--Burgess, Napoleon Symphony, p. 261.

CLOU :  noun  French for "nail"; the main attraction of an event. See EPHEBE

COG :  verb  to cheat at cards, dice, etc. COGGING, adj. Compare FUGLE

I dub thee, dear Frog, a swinking,† cogging, jadish prattler; a bescabbed, fart-shotten, monastical fustilug;† a flogging, surfeited, whore-hunting piece of carnal concupiscence. In fact, not a bad fellow at all!
--Lloyd-Jones, Lord of the Dance, p. 47.

CONATION :  noun  the conscious drive to do something. Compare antonym VELLEITY

One day I took counsel of an Israelite on the subject of conation. That must have been when I was still looking for someone to be faithful to me, and for me to be faithful to.
--Beckett, Malone Dies, p. 297.

CONSTATATION :  noun  a certainty, a verification.

I now call upon my dear friend and colleague and whilom† mistress, Madame Germaine de Staλl, blue stocking extraordinary, to amplify these considerably unconstellated† constatations.
--Burgess, Napoleon Symphony, p. 246.

CONSUETUDE :  noun  a social custom or jointly held habit

I . . . learned the meaning of words like . . . whilomterraqueous,† consuetude. . . . I have by now forgotten the meanings of most of them, and though actual occasions for their use were all but inconceivable, they gave me a sense of security, like a gun kept loaded just in case.
--DeVries, Consenting Adults, p. 4.

CONTRECTATION :  noun  fondling, foreplay. Compare DACTYLIC, EUTRIPSIA, HAPTIC

C is for Contrectation. Their love-play lasted long.
--Theroux, Darconville's Cat, p. 340.

COUN :  noun  variant of "cunt." Compare COUNTRY MATTERS, COYNTE, DELTA, ESCUTCHEON, FOTZEPOLITIK, FURBELOW, MERKIN, QUIM, QUIMTESSENCE

He was fascinated with eighteenth-century dirty words. Perhaps he would whisper "coun," "cullion,"† "crack," (for "cunt," "testicles," "pussy") in my ear as we screwed?
--Jong, Fear of Flying, p. 213.

COUNTRY MATTERS :  noun  an archaic pun on "cunt." Compare COUN, COYNTE, DELTA, ESCUTCHEON, FOTZEPOLITIK, FURBELOW, MERKIN, QUIM, QUIMTESSENCE

Hamlet :   Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
Ophelia:   No, my lord.
Hamlet :   I mean, my head upon your lap?
Ophelia:   Ah, my lord.
Hamlet :   Do you think I meant country matters?
Ophelia:   I think nothing my lord.
Hamlet :   That's a fair thought to lie between maid's legs.
--Shakespeare, Hamlet, III, ii, 119-126.

What he wanted to tell her but could not think quite how was that he did not propose country matters. He did not propose to press against her in an elevator. What he wanted was both more and less. He loved her. His heart melted. She was his sweetheart, his certain someone. He wanted to hold her charms in his arms. He wanted to go into a proper house and shower her with kisses in the old style.

--Percy, The Last Gentleman, p. 68.

COYNTE :  noun  archaic variant of "cunt." Compare COUN, COUNTRY MATTERS, DELTA, ESCUTCHEON, FOTZEPOLITIK, FURBELOW, MERKIN, QUIM, QUIMTESSENCE

You find the Middle English form coynte. Earlier forms have a more definite initial kw. Cognate with quim† . . . the quimtessence† of womanliness. . . .
--Burgess, The Doctor Is Sick, p. 107.

CRETACEOUS :  adj  literally, "chalky," referring to the geological period when chalk beds were laid down; therefore, very old

In the middle of the bed he saw a small, jellylike blob on the dark-blue craziness of the quilt, cretaceous motionless. . . .
--Aczel, Illuminations, p. 165.