Words Every Game Master Should Know

On page fifty-five of Paizo Publishing's GameMastery Guide is fascinating list of archaic or obscure words. That list is provided raw without definitions. This post lists the words with links to the definition of each and categorizes the words into adjectives, nouns, and verbs.

Many of the words are separated and labeled "impractically specific." While these words are unquestionably interesting, they are only useful in unique circumstances. (Ambergris, for example, is not a word that will frequently arise in conversations outside those dedicated to perfume or the expulsions of sperm whales.) I have tried to exclude from this category words that might be easily used in metaphor in pedestrian discussion, but this quality is open to opinion -- though one can argue that dauphin might be used to describe the inheritor of a family business, it has still been placed in the category because of its specificity. Of course, if you're scouring the list as a Pathfinder or D&D game master in the first place, this section may prove more useful than the others.

When selecting a primary online dictionary to provide definitions from, I chose webster-dictionary.org, which impressed me with its cross-referencing of a 1913 edition of Webster's and the more modern WordNet Dictionary. (I've also used Wiktionary where the other fails.) Upon visiting the page of the word you've clicked, be sure to check the synonyms listed for other little known words.

(The list is yet complete.)

Adjectives
abstemious, abstruse, acephalous, acrid, aesculapian, amorphous, anfractuous, anserine, antediluvian, aquiline, ardent, astomatous, atavistic, augean, avuncular, bacchanal, baleful, banal, bantam, barmy, baroque, bawdy, bibulous, blowzy, boeotian, boreal, bouffant, bucolic, cadaverous, caitiff, canny, caparison, caustic, chary, circumvallate, cognate, comely, commodious, condign, connubial, conterminous, convivial, crenellated, crepuscular, cruciform, cyclopean, damask, decuman, desiccate, distaff, dotterel, doughty, dudgeon, ebullient, eldritch, eleemosynary, empyreal, flagitious, friable, frolic, fulgent, fuliginous, glaucous, gossamer, halcyon, hebdomadal, hermetic, hircine, hirsute, hoary, hoyden, indurate, ineffable, inexorable, infrangible, invidious, irascible, itinerant, jejune, jocund, kittle,

Nouns
abscess, abstersion, ague, ambrosia, ambry, anodyne, antechamber, antic,
argot, ascian, asperity, ataxia, autarch, bacchanal, badinage, bagatelle, baksheesh, balderdash, ballyhoo, bathos, bayard, beatitude, beldame, belvedere, benefice, benison, bibliolatry, bijou, billingsgate, bivouac, blague, blain, blarney, bombast, bower, braggadocio, bravo, brine, bucolic, cache, cad, cadre, caitiff, calumny, camarilla, canard, canticle, caparison, caper, carillon, casuistry, cateran, cavil, celerity, churl, cistern, clamber, cognate, cognomen, compurgation, condottiere, contretemps, conundrum, coppice, coquette, corban, cornucopia, coronach, cosset, coterie, coven, covenant, coxcomb, coxswain, crone, crony, crotchet, cuckold, cur, cynosure, dacoit, dastard, debauch, deglutition, demesne, diadem, diarchy, dictum, dirge, distaff, dolor, dotterel, doyen, dragoman, dross, dudgeon, duffer, eclat, eidolon, effigy, elan, eleemosynary, epicure, factotum, falderal, fallal, fardel, farrago, fester, filament, firmament, foozle, fop, fracas, fresco, frippery, frolic, gaffer, gammer, gentry, gewgaw, gimcrack, gloaming, glower, gossamer, grippe, halidom, harangue, harbinger, harlequin, harridan, hauteur, hecatomb, helot, hoyden, humbug, ichor, idolater, ilk, imbroglio, iniquity, itinerant, jabber, jackanapes, janissary, jaundice, jeer, jeremiad, jingo, jowl, jubilee, juggernaut, ken, kern, khamsin, kine, kirk, knacker, knell,

Verbs
abase, abash, accoutre, beleaguer, bede, beshrew, besot, bete, bewray, bivouac, blandish, blarney, blaspheme, bombast, bower, cadge, caper, castigate, caudle, cavil, chachinnate, circumvallate, clamber, coif, concatenate, convalesce, coruscate, cosset, covenant, cozen, cuckold, debauch, defenestrate, desiccate, diadem, dodder, efface, ensanguine, eviscerate, excoriate, fester, flagellate, foozle, frolic, fulminate, fustigate, genuflect, gibbet, glower, harangue, harbinger, harlequin, humbug, indurate, inosculate, inveigle, irk, jabber, jaundice, jeer, jowl, ken, kittle, kowtow,

Impractically specific
abattoir, ablution, affusion, alembic, alluvium, amanuensis, ambergris, amphora, anchorite, anthelmintic, baleen, bannock, banns, barque, bashi-bazouk, bas-relief, beadle, begum, belfry, beltane, benjamin, bier, bilbo, biltong, biretta, bodkin, bourse, bretwalda, bruin, bursar, cataphract, caudle, cenobite, chancellery, chyme, cinerary, cockade, coif, collet, colporteur, coomb, crannog, croft, cubit, cuirass, cuspidor, damask, dauphin, dobbin, dolmen, dowager, durbar, elegy, epigraph, equerry, escutcheon, fasces, fitz, formic, fumarole, galleass, gallipot, gallowglass, gardyloo, geophagy, gibbet, gralloch, hagiography, heriot, hussar, hydrargyrum, intaglio, jongleur, jorum, joss, jougs, kirtle, knout, kowtow, kulak,

noire,