| antebellum |
in or of the period prior to a war, especially the American Civil War. |
| apocryphal |
of dubious authorship or authority. |
| astute |
keen in understanding and judgment; shrewd. |
| atavism |
the recurrence or reappearance of a particular trait, style, attitude, or behavior that seemed to have disappeared, or that which has recurred or reappeared after such an absence. |
| canard |
a deliberately false story or rumor, usually defamatory to someone. |
| colloquialism |
a word or phrase typically used in conversational, informal, or regional speech or writing, hence sometimes considered inappropriate in formal writing. |
| disinter |
to dig up or remove from a place of burial; exhume. |
| duress |
intimidation or coercion. |
| gadfly |
a persistent critic, especially of established institutions and policies. |
| imbricate |
overlapping in an even sequence, as roof tiles or fish scales. |
| imprimatur |
any official permission or sanction. |
| rebarbative |
tending to irritate or repel; forbidding or unattractive. |
| reconnaissance |
the act or process of examining an area, especially to gain militarily useful information. |
| regicide |
the murderer of a king. |
| reprisal |
injury inflicted in retaliation for injury received, as in war; revenge. |