Word of the day: bilharzia

The word of the day is bilharzia:

schistosome

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bilharzia)

"Invalided back to France with bilharzia, he had opened a practice in Grenoble."

 - Caroline Moorehead, Village of Secrets

Word of the day: millenarian

The word of the day is millenarian:

1. of or pertaining to a thousand, especially the thousand years of the prophesied millennium.
2. of or pertaining to the millennium, especially of Christian prophecy, or millennialism.

1550s, "one who believes in the coming of the (Christian) millennium," from L. millenarius (see millennium) + -ian. As an adj., from 1630s.

"After the Battle of Armageddon would follow the second coming of Christ, when his elected would reign in happiness and prosperity for a thousand years.  Much of what Darby preached was not new, but he wove the strands of earlier millenarianism and prophecy into a tightly spun system of his own, supported by Biblical texts, then communicated it to his followers in his endless writings and during his impassioned speaking tours."

 - Caroline Moorehead, Village of Secrets

Word of the day: roneo

The word of the day is roneo:

1. :  to produce (printed copies) on a duplicating machine that is similar in principle to the mimeograph
   (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/roneo)
   
   "They had hastily typed out and roneoed forms bearing the words 'Paternal responsibility and rights of guardianship abandoned by me' – a necessary formula under French law – and leaving room for names and signatures."
    - Caroline Moorehead, Village of Secrets

Word of the day: soutane

The word of the day is soutane:

1. a cassock.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/soutane)

"He was a shabby, dishevelled-looking man, of great charm and energy, with an old soutane and shoes with flapping soles."

 - Caroline Moorehead, Village of Secrets

Word of the day: clinker

The word of the day is clinker:

1. a mass of incombustible matter fused together, as in the burning of coal.
2. a hard Dutch brick, used especially for paving.
3. a partially vitrified mass of brick.
4. the scale of oxide formed on iron during forging.
5. Geology. a mass of vitrified material ejected from a volcano.

1769, from klincard (1641), a type of paving brick made in Holland, from Du. klinkaerd, from klinken "to ring" (as it does when struck), from M.Du., of imitative origin. 

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/clinker)

"The courtyard was made of clinker, which turned into dust in the summer and mud when it rained."

 - Caroline Moorehead, Village of Secrets

Word of the day: prevaricate

The word of the day is prevaricate:

1. to speak falsely or misleadingly; deliberately misstate or create an incorrect impression; lie.

1580s, "to transgress," from L. praevaricari "to make a sham accusation, deviate," lit. "walk crookedly;" in Church L., "to transgress" (see prevarication). Meaning "to speak evasively" is from 1630s.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/prevaricate)

"At every stage, the bureaucrats prevaricated.  The prefect of the Bouches-du-Rhône did all he could to keep too many would-be emigrants out of Marseilles, while the individual camps dragged their heels about transferring people to Les Milles, the only camp in which they were permitted to complete the formalities."

 - Caroline Moorehead, Village of Secrets

Word of the day: chilblains

The word of the day is chilblains:

1. an inflammation of the hands and feet caused by exposure to cold and moisture.

"Unable to go outside, permanently damp, the inmates huddled close together; their faces were red and chafed, their hands and feet purple and covered in chilblains."

 - Caroline Moorehead, Village of Secrets

Word of the day: rota

The word of the day is rota:

1. Chiefly British.
   1. a round or rotation of duties; a period of work or duty taken in rotation with others.
   2. an agenda or circuit of sporting events, as a round of golf tournaments, played in different localities throughout the year.
2. a roster.
3. Official name Sacred Roman Rota. the ecclesiastical tribunal in Rome, constituting the court of final appeal.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rota)

"A 'commission for children and old people' was set up and arranged for deliveries of fruit, olives, jam, cereals, rice, milk products and, just occasionally, chocolate.  A rota was established, providing extra meals to the most malnourished for a fixed number of weeks."

 - Caroline Moorehead, Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France

Word of the day: gauleiter

The word of the day is gauleiter:

1. the leader or chief official of a political district under Nazi control.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gauleiter)

"But the camp at Gurs had room for many more when, at dawn on 22 October 1940, the gauleiters Joseph Bürkel and Robert Wanger began to round up 6,508 Jews in the newly annexed territories of Baden and the Palatinate and, without consulting the French, dispatched them in sealed trains over the border into south-western France."

 - Caroline Moorehead, Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France