google: define:

[slemslempike]

I don't seem to have done this for about two years. I think I stopped having pen and paper near me when I read as a matter of course, I can assure you that it's not that I knew all the words that I read.

aetiology - the study of causation (of disease)
hieratic - priestly/cursive form of ancient Egyptian writing/highly restrained and formal (I think the last one was my context)
grobian - crude, sloppy person, fron the fictional patron saint of vulgar and coarse people, Saint Grobian, thought up by the satirist Sebastian Brant
cachexy/cachexia - loss of vitality and strength
cholegogue - agent that promotes the discharge of bile, "purging it downward"
fulvous - brownish yellow
tabes - wasting/atrophy of the body during disease
gleet - thin discharge, often from gonorrhea
strake - a plank in the hull of a boat
levinflash - lightning
peculation - embezzlement
spoom - frothy sorbet
toping - excessive drinking
costive - constipated
concupiscence - sexual desire
anent - regarding/concerning

And other things I looked up:
Podilarius and Machaon - legendary healers
Paracelsus - botanist in the 1500s who named zinc
Bartholomew Fair - summer fair in London from 1133-1855, suppressed for encouraging debauchery

And penguin apparently tastes like a gamey fish.

Comments

[serriadh.livejournal.com]

Ooh, what lovely words.

I've heard aetiology (also etiology) used not for diseases. For example: the account of Noah's ark is partly aetiological because it explains how rainbows came about. Or so my theology tutor always said.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's why it's in brackets.