Vocabulary

alfresco \al-FRES-koh\, adverb:
In the open air; outdoors.

adjective:
Taking place or located in the open air; outdoor.

Turner escaped from the entangled politics of London's art world, where the Royal Academy was marooned in petty disputes, to paint alfresco on the riverbanks.
--Siri Huntoon, "Down by the Riverside," New York Times, November 7, 1993

Outdoor sitting areas all have LAN connections, so that employees can work alfresco.
--Scott Kirsner, "Digital Competition - Laurie A. Tucker," Fast Company, December 1999

wheedle \HWEE-d'l; WEE-d'l\, transitive verb:
1. To entice by soft words or flattery; to coax.
2. To gain or get by flattery or guile.

intransitive verb:
To flatter; to use soft words.

Editors who wished to carry original work rather than reprints found it necessary to wheedle contributions from readers by decrying inexperience as a reason for not taking up the pen and by offering prizes for submissions

billet-doux \bil-ay-DOO\, noun;
plural billets-doux \bil-ay-DOO(Z)\:
A love letter or note.

Perhaps she just looked first into the bouquet, to see whether there was a billet-doux hidden among the flowers; but there was no letter.
--William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair

Young lovers in Victorian England, forbidden to express their affection in public and fearful that strict parents would intercept their billets-doux, sent coded messages through the personal columns in newspapers.
--Susan Adams, "I've got a secret,"Forbes, September 20, 1999

assitude \LASS-uh-tood; LASS-uh-tyood\, noun:
Lack of vitality or energy; weariness; listlessness.

The feverish excitement . . . had given place to a dull, regretful lassitude.
--George Eliot, Romola

A long exercise of the mental powers induces a remarkable lassitude of the whole body.
--Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful

She felt aged, in deep lassitude and numb despair, and regretted not marrying Mai Dong before he left for the front.
--Ha Jin, Waiting

quidnunc \KWID-nuhngk\, noun:

One who is curious to know everything that passes; one who knows or pretends to know all that is going on; a gossip; a busybody.

What a treasure-trove to these venerable quidnuncs, could they have guessed the secret which Hepzibah and Clifford were carrying along with them!
--Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables

bivouac \BIV-wak, BIV-uh-wak\, noun:

An encampment for the night, usually under little or no shelter.

intransitive verb:
To encamp for the night, usually under little or no shelter.

maelstrom \MAYL-struhm\, noun:
1. A large, powerful, or destructive whirlpool.
2. Something resembling a maelstrom; a violent, disordered, or turbulent state of affairs.

The murk became thicker as Zachareesi fishtailed his canoe through a swirling maelstrom of currents pouring past, and over, unseen rocks.
--Farley Mowat, The Farfarers

Suddenly, the Serb cause was thrust into the maelstrom of the Napoleonic Wars.
--Misha Glenny, The Balkans

Always at the center of a maelstrom of activity and contention, he provided good columns for the press.
--Arthur Lennig, Stroheim