We’ve not had a good word for a while, and I do like a good word! So today I give you:
Malkin or Mawkin
1. A familiar diminutive of Matilda, Maud. 2. (Obsolete) Used as a female personal name; applied typically to a woman of the lower classes. 3. The proper name of a female spectre or demon. 4. An untidy female, especially a servant or country wench; a slut or slattern; a lewd woman. [See, inter alia, Shakespeare’s Coriolanus] 5. (Obsolete) An effeminate man. 6. (Obsolete) A mop; a bundle of rags fastened to the end of a stick especially as used to clean out a baker’s oven. 7. (Nautical) A sponge on a stick for cleaning out a piece of ordnance. 8. (Obsolete) A scarecrow; a ragged puppet or grotesque effigy. 9. The name for certain animals, especially a cat and (in Northern and Scots English) a hare.
The experience of seeing meaningful patterns or connections in random or meaningless data.
In statistics, apophenia is a type I error (false positive, false alarm, caused by an excess in sensitivity). It is also used as an explanation of paranormal and religious claims, and a belief in pseudo-science.
The term was coined in 1958 by Klaus Conrad who originally described this phenomenon in relation to the distortion of reality present in psychosis, but it has become more widely used to describe this tendency in healthy individuals without necessarily implying the presence of mental illness.
A change or variation occurring in the course of something.
Interchange or alternation, as of states or things.
Successive, alternating, or changing phases or conditions, as of life or fortune; ups and downs: They remained friends through the vicissitudes of 40 years.
Regular change or succession of one state or thing to another.
Having more than two homologous sets of chromosomes in each cell nucleus.
Animals with sex chromosomes — such as humans — are diploidic; they have two sets of chromosomes, one from each parent. Organisms with more than two sets are polyploidic. Wheat has 42 sets of chromosomes; coffee can have 88 sets. [A Rose Is a Rose, Until It Isn’t: 5 Reasons Plant DNA Is Totally Crazy]
Halberd A military weapon, especially in use during the 15th and 16th centuries. A kind of combination of spear and battle-axe, consisting of a sharp-edged blade ending in a point, and a spear-head, mounted on a handle five to seven feet long. By transference, a soldier armed with a halberd; a halberdier. [Below left] Halberds are still currently carried by the Papal Swiss Guard.
Compare with …
Pike A weapon consisting of a wooden shaft, typically 14 to 15 feet long, with a pointed head of iron or steel; formerly the chief weapon of a large part of the infantry; superseded in 18th century by the bayonet. A soldier armed with a pike is generally a pikeman. [Below right] Possibly the best way in the UK to see pikes and pikemen is either at a Civil war re-enactment or at London’s Lord Mayor’s Show on the second Saturday in November.
And of course there is then …
Spontoon A species of half-pike or halberd carried by infantry officers in the 18th century (from about 1740); generally 6 to 7 feet in length.
The experience of seeing meaningful patterns or connections in random or meaningless data. 
Dhobi
Polyploid
Adit
Cast skins, shells, or coverings of animals; any parts of animals which are shed or cast off, whether recent or fossil.