A few miles away bare scree-covered slopes protruded from the gnarled krummholz, marking the trail's maximum height. Annie Proulx, "Testimony of the Donkey," Fine Just the Way It Is, 2008
I should point out that nowhere are the wabi and sabi palettes of time acting on nature more visible than in the krummholz--the "elfin timber," gnarled and twisted little trees at treeline that might be a thousand years old ... Dan Simmons, “Introduction to ‘Looking for Kelly Dahl,’” Worlds Enough & Time, 2002
The word “Hoosier,” which today is the demonym used to describe people from the state of Indiana, is a mystery nearing its second century. It is one of the best-known irregular demonyms for American states, along with “Yankee,” referring to someone from New York (and sometimes expanded from that into the entire Northeast), and “Buckeye,” which refers to someone from Ohio. Dan Nosowitz, "The Unsolvable Mystery of the Word 'Hoosier'," Atlas Obscura, August 22, 2017
Shafik turns his thoughts back to the archaic demonym, Shawam, singular Shami, which is what the native Egyptians called people from a certain part of the Fertile Crescent. Alain Farah, "Life of the Father," Granta, 141: Canada, November 9, 2017
God, it seems like I'll always have a Minerva by my side being a better person than I am. Julia Alvarez, In the Time of the Butterflies, 1994
The notion of such a Minerva as this, whom I saw in public places now and then, surrounded by swarms of needy abbés and schoolmasters, who flattered her, frightened me for some time, and I had not the least desire to make her acquaintance. William Makepeace Thackeray, "The Luck of Barry Lyndon: A Romance of the Last Century," Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Volume XXX, July to December, 1844
Beyond that, the continued association of pregnancy with sickness perpetuates the benighted notion of childbearing as a threat to ordinary human experience when many would argue that it is the singular manifestation of it. Ginia Bellafante, "Paid Parental Leave, Except for Most Who Need It," New York Times, December 1, 2017
... it is difficult to have a reasonable conversation with someone who makes no secret about the fact that he thinks you are both benighted and stupid. Bruce Franzese, "The Conversation," The Atlantic, November 2017
He was examined by Dr. Wilson, who diagnosed the disease which had attacked him as ergophobia, (fear of work.) "Bad Case of Ergophobia," New York Times, October 13, 1907
Doctor, I thank thee for the name / That dignifies my soul's complaint, / That silences the voice of blame, / That frees me from the toiler's taint, / That lets me loaf the livelong day-- / Thrice blessed ergophobia! Ross Ellis, "Ergophobia," Munsey's Magazine, Volume LV, June to September, 1915
The neglect of the Treasurer and the supineness of the President gave him the opportunity to peculate. "A Defaulting Secretary," New York Times, October 14, 1884
Right off the top of his head, James Madison could think of a lot of good reasons to impeach a President. He ticked off this list: “He might lose his capacity after his appointment. He might pervert his administration into a scheme of peculation or oppression. He might betray his trust to foreign powers.” (To peculate is to embezzle.) It’s a very good list. Members of Congress might want to consult it. Jill Lepore, “How Impeachment Ended Up in the Constitution,” The New Yorker, May 18, 2017
Suddenly, here toward the year's end, when the new films are plunging toward the wire and the prospects of an Oscar-worthy long shot coming through get progressively more dim, there sweeps ahead a film that is not only one of the best of the year, but also one of the best seriocomic social satires we've had from Hollywood since Preston Sturges was making them. Bosley Crowther, "The Graduate," New York Times, December 22, 1967
Jonesy had seen representations of him on a hundred "weird mysteries" TV shows, on the front pages of a thousand tabloid newspapers (the kind that shouted their serio-comic horrors at you as you stood prisoner in the supermarket checkout lanes) ... Stephen King, Dreamcatcher, 2001