irenic \eye-REN-ik; -REE-nik\, adjective:
Tending to promote peace; conciliatory.

With an irenic spirit they join the debate, at times ugly and vicious, about the historicity of the Bible (by which they mean the Hebrew Scriptures, also known as the Old Testament).
-- Phyllis Trible, "God's Ghostwriters", New York Times, February 4, 2001

Indeed, for Cozzi -- as for several scholars -- the Interdict controversy of 1606-7 became the emblematic struggle that defined the Venetian Republic as tolerant and open, free from the tyranny of the Counter Reformation Church, animated by an aristocracy steeped in the values of civic humanism and evangelism, and committed to commerce and an irenic diplomacy.
-- John Martin (Editor) and Dennis Romano (Editor), Venice Reconsidered

Taylor was always irenic by temperament and desire, and his sensitivity to others enabled him to bring together and work with people of very diverse views.
-- "The Right Rev John Taylor", Times (London), February 1, 2001

Irenic comes from Greek eirenikos, from eirene, "peace."

inkhorn \INK-horn\, adjective:
1. Affectedly or ostentatiously learned; pedantic.

noun:
1. A small bottle of horn or other material formerly used for holding ink.

. . .the widespread use of what were called (dismissively, by truly learned folk) "inkhorn terms."
-- Simon Winchester, "Word Imperfect", The Atlantic Monthly, May 2001

In prison he wrote the De Consolatione Philosophiae, his most celebrated work and one of the most translated works in history; it was translated . . . by Elizabeth I into florid, inkhorn language.
-- The Oxford Companion to English Literature, s.v. "Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus (c. 475 - 525)."

Inkhorn derives from the name for the container formerly used (beginning in the 14th century) for holding ink, originally made from a real horn. Hence it came to refer to words that were being used by learned writers and scholars but which were unknown or rare in ordinary speech.

Argus-eyed \AR-guhs-ide\, adjective:
Extremely observant; watchful; sharp-sighted.

Yet other eyes were on me, and Kat, my Argus-eyed defender, never failed to notice them.
-- Rosalind Miles, I, Elizabeth: A Novel

Even the foliage at the Stork is apt to conceal a celebrity, as Argus-eyed star-gazers discovered the other night when they peeked behind three carefully combed fronds and found writer Ernest Hemingway, actor Monty Woolley and sculptor Jo Davidson.
-- Ralph Blumenthal, Stork Club

This flag was immediately spotted by the Argus-eyed Intelligence Service and the Admiralty found time to send a frogman, at high tide, to haul it down again.
-- Nancy Mitford, Don't Tell Alfred

One who is Argus-eyed is as observant as Argus, a hundred-eyed monster from Greek mythology.

machination \mack-uh-NAY-shuhn; mash-\, noun:
1. The act of plotting.
2. A crafty scheme; a cunning design or plot intended to accomplish some usually evil end.

He was telling me how he could have married the royal princess as a reward for his bravery in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where he was an infantryman in the Kaiserliche und Konigliche Austro-Hungarian army, but for the machinations of the evil Archduke somebody-or-other.
-- George Lang, Nobody Knows the Truffles I've Seen

Alongside the various representations of sincere tears, then, are a series of representations of insincerity and emotional machination.
-- Tom Lutz, Crying

To keep away from them and steer clear of their inveigling schemes and grasping machinations . . . has been my constant life-long effort.
-- Jeff Stryker, "They Couldn't Resist: Oh One Last Thing", New York Times, May 21, 2000

He declared that the tale he could tell would not be of generals or kings, for the political machinations of the great, he said, he was and had been in no position to observe.
-- Steven Pressfield, Gates of Fire

Machination derives from Latin machinatio, "a contrivance, a cunning device, a machination," from machinari, "to contrive, to devise, especially to plot evil." It is related to machine, from Latin machina, "any artificial contrivance for performing work." To machinate is to devise a plot, or engage in plotting. One who machinates is a machinator.

bootless \BOOT-lis\, adjective:
Unavailing; useless; without advantage or benefit.

I have seen a swan
With bootless labour swim against the tide.
-- Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part III

A noble intention, a decent attempt to bust bigger heads than their own with their best weapons, but bootless and, ultimately, senseless, too.
-- Gordon Monson, "Ute Defense Headlines Bland Game", Salt Lake Tribune, September 1, 2002

A crew of divers was scheduled to start cleaning the seaweed off the net in preparation for winter, although now it seemed like a bootless task, given that Keiko might never come back.
-- Susan Orlean, "Where's Willy?", The New Yorker, September 16, 2002

Late in the nineteenth century there had been a bootless competition between Munich and Berlin as to which was more modern, more civilized.
-- Peter Gay, My German Question

Bootless is from Old English bot, "advantage, profit" + -less, from Old English from leas, "without."