A factotum (fak-TOW-tum) – Latin for “do everything” – is an employee or official that has many different responsibilities; a handyman or jack-of-all trades hired to do all sorts of work around the house.

Anagnorisis (an-ag-NOR-ih-sis) – from the Greek for “recognition” – is the point in the plot of a play at which the protagonist makes a critical discovery. As I used it above: “This little bit of anagnorisis has made its way into my mind several times over the decades.”

The denouement (day-NOO-mon) – from the French for the final part of a play, movie, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and explained or resolved – literally means “untie the knot.” See how I used it, above, in my review of The Banshees of Inisherin (under “What I Didn’t Like (So Much”).

A coup de grâce (koo duh GRAHS) – from the French – literally means “finishing blow.” It originally referred to a merciful action: putting a fatally wounded person out of their misery. But it has come to refer to an action or event that serves as the culmination of a bad situation.

Bowdlerize (BOHD-ler-ize) describes the early 19th century policy of some publishers to modify or delete passages of books that they considered to be objectionable, particularly for children. The term comes from Thomas Bowdler (1754-1825), an English physician, who, in 1818, published a censored version of William Shakespeare (The Family Shakespeare), expurgating “those words and expressions… which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family.”

A neighbor and book club friend called me on my use of the word sciolism at the bottom of each of my blog posts:

“Were it not for hypocrisy, I’d have no advice to give.”
“Were it not for sciolism, I’d have no ideas to share.”
“Were it not for arrogance, I’d have no ambition.”
“Were it not for forgetfulness, I would have no new ideas to write about.”

“I love this word,” he said. “But I wouldn’t call what you do sciolism. I think of you as my good ultracrepidarian friend.”

Hmm… he may be right. Merriam-Webster defines sciolism as “a superficial show of learning.” Ultracrepidarian is defined as “expressing opinions on matters outside the scope of one’s knowledge or expertise.” There is a slight difference. The former indicates an inability to appear as if I know what I’m talking about. I’d prefer to think that my BS is convincing.

A soporific (suh-puh-RIF-ik) is something – especially a drug – that induces sleep. As an adjective, it refers something that is boring or dull. I used it this way, above: “I subscribe to Grande’s website out of some inexplicable and indefensible fascination with his soporific speaking style.”

Penultimate (pih-NUHL-tuh-mit) – from the Latin for “almost last” – refers to the next to the last… anything. Antepenultimate refers to the next to the next to the last. As I used it above: “If wealth building is on your do-do list for 2023, these recommendations are a good place to start. (Including, by the way, the antepenultimate one on his list!)”

A paraprosdokian – from the Greek para (“beyond”) and prosdokia (“expectation”) – is a figure of speech in which the latter part of sentence or statement has an unexpected twist. The twist is often humorous. Here are some examples of how it’s been used:

* Winston Churchill: “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they have tried everything else.”

* Groucho Marx: “Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”

* Homer Simpson: “If I could just say a few words… I’d be a better public speaker.”

* Fran Lebowitz (in an essay from The Fran Lebowitz Reader: “Any child who cannot do long division by himself does not deserve to smoke.”

* Douglas Adams (in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy): “The [alien] ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t.”

* Henny Youngman: “Take my wife – please!”

A tribulation – from the Latin tribulum (literally, a thing with teeth that tears) – is another way of saying adversity – i.e., a trying period or event. As I used it in the essay above: “I’ve been saying that I think we are headed into a massive, long-term recession that will include, among other tribulations, the failure of tens of thousands of businesses and the unemployment of millions of Americans that are currently working.”