Earlier in the week I came across a wonderful list of 18 obsolete words, which never should have gone out of style.
They’re all wonderful, but here’s a selection …
Snoutfair: A person with a handsome countenance.
Pussyvan: A flurry, temper.
Wonder-wench: A sweetheart.

Spermologer: A picker-up of trivia, of current news, a gossip monger.
Tyromancy: Divining by the coagulation of cheese.
Beef-witted: Having an inactive brain, thought to be from eating too much beef.
Resistentialism: The seemingly spiteful behaviour shown by inanimate objects.
Bookwright: A writer of books; an author; a term of slight contempt.

And I think my favourite of all …
With squirrel: Pregnant.
English is such a wonderful language!

Chatoyant
Having a changeable, undulating, or floating lustre, like that of a cat’s eye in the dark.
Hence also a chatoyant stone or gemstone, such as the cat’s-eye.

From the French present participle of chatoyer, to shimmer like cats’ eyes; from chat, cat.
The OED records the first use in 1798 in a scientific description of crystals.

Hallux, plural halluces.
1. The innermost or first digit on the hind foot of certain mammals. In humans the hallux is the big toe.
2. The equivalent digit of a bird, reptile or amphibian. In birds it is often directed backward.

The hallux corresponds to the pollex, or thumb, of the fore limb.
According to the OED the first recorded use was in an anatomy book of 1831.
The suggestion is that it is a medieval Latin blend of allus, hallus (thumb) and hallex (big toe).

Baculm
The os penis, a bone found in the penis of many placental mammals. It is absent in humans, but present in primates such as the gorilla and chimpanzee. The bone aids sexual intercourse by maintaining sufficient stiffness during sexual penetration. It is also suggested that certain shapes may assist in the removal of a rival’s sperm from the female vagina.
The female equivalent is the os clitoridis, a bone in the clitoris.

Walrus baculum, approximately 22″ (56cm) long

The size and shape of the baculum varies greatly between even closely related species and is often used as an aid in identification of species. But no-one knows why it is absent in humans, and relatively rudimentary in other great apes, compared with many other mammals.
The word is derived from a Latin for a cudgel, sceptre, staff or stick.

Helminth. This word cropped up in conversation over our postprandial coffee with friends last evening (you know who you are!) and it is one I’ve been meaning to write about for some time.
Helminth : A worm, especially a parasitic intestinal roundworm or tapeworm.
Yes, nasty things that you really don’t want to know about.
Hence anthelmintics or antihelminthics are drugs that expel such parasitic worms from the body, by either stunning or killing them. The drugs may also be called vermifuges (which stun) or vermicides (which kill).
Interestingly though, according to the OED, helminth is also a chlorite mineral which occurs in felspar and quartz.
Oh and the word comes from the Greek ἕλµινς, ἑλµινθ-, a worm.
[PS. No image with this one as nobody is that keen to be put off their tea!]

Ecolect
According to wiktionary an ecolect is a language variety unique to a household although I might cast the net slightly wider than a single household, maybe to an (extended) family.

However it appears that as yet it has not made it’s way into the OED or many other mainstream dictionaries.
Compare with:
Idiolect: The language variant used by a specific individual.
Ethnolect: A language variety specific to an ethnic group.
Sociolect: The variant of language used by a social group such as a socioeconomic class, ethnic group, age group etc.
Dialect: A variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular area.

Kleptocracy
A ruling body or order of thieves.
A government by thieves; a nation ruled by this kind of government.
Hence a government characterized by rampant greed and corruption.
[See also politics, from the words “poly” meaning “many”, and “ticks” meaning “blood-sucking parasites.”]

The first use recorded by the OED is in 1819 although regular use does seem to appear until the late-1960s.

Jarvey

1. A hackney-coachman. Now frequently applied to the driver of an Irish car.

2. A hackney-coach or jaunting car.

Pace Wikipedia, a jaunting car is a light two-wheeled carriage for a single horse, in its most common form with seats for two or four persons placed back to back, with the foot-boards projecting over the wheels. It was the typical conveyance for persons in Ireland at one time (hence the reference by the OED to an “Irish car”).

The Hackney Carriage (forerunner of the Hansom Cab, pictured) was first regulated in in London in 1654.

The OED gives the first use of jarvey (in the meaning of a coachman) in 1796. It is thought to derive as a by-form from the personal name Jarvis or Jervis.

Oh and forget the use of jarvey in Harry Potter. That’s just part of the fiction.

Speleology

1. The scientific study of caves, , especially in respect of their geological formation, flora, fauna etc.

2. The the sport or pastime of exploring caves; caving.

First coined, according to the OED, by EA Martel in the Report of the 6th Geographical Congress of 1895.

Hence speleological, of or pertaining to speleology; speleologist, a student of, or authority on, cave-research; an explorer of caves.

Vespiary

A nest or colony of wasps or hornets.

From the Latin vesp, a wasp and formed by analogy with apiary.

The first use recoded by the OED was in 1817.