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 . . . whilom, terraqueous, 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.