captious \KAP-shuhs\, adjective:
1. Marked by a disposition to find fault or raise objections.
2. Calculated to entrap or confuse, as in an argument.

The most common among those are captious individuals who can find nothing wrong with their own actions but everything wrong with the actions of everybody else.
-- "In-Closet Hypocrites", Atlanta Inquirer, August 15, 1998

Mr Bowman had, I think, been keeping Christmas Eve, and was a little inclined to be captious: at least, he was not on foot very early, and to judge from what I could hear, neither men nor maids could do anything to please him.
-- M. R. James, The Haunted Dolls' House and Other Stories

Most authors would prefer readers such as Roiphe over captious academic critics.
-- Steven Moore, "Old Flames", Washington Post, November 26, 2000

With the imperturbablest bland clearness, he, for five hours long, keeps answering the incessant volley of fiery captious questions.
-- Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution

Captious is derived from Latin captiosus, "sophistical, captious, insidious," from captio, "a taking, a fallacy, sophism," from capere, "to take, to seize."

arbitrage \AR-buh-trahzh\, noun:
The nearly simultaneous purchase of a good or asset in one market where the price is low, and sale of the same good or asset in another market where the price is higher.

If the market exchange rate deviates from par, there is opportunity for arbitrage by exchanging the cheaper currency for gold, shipping the gold to the other country, converting the gold into the other currency, and converting the proceeds into the cheaper currency on the market.
-- Milton Friedman, Money Mischief

There are undoubtedly many arbitrage opportunities, where price transparency has failed to bring about price harmonisation.
-- Nunzio Quacquarelli, "Euro optimism", Guardian, May 28, 2002

Arbitrage comes from the French, from Latin arbitrari, "to pass judgment," from arbiter, "witness, arbitrator, judge." One who practices arbitrage is an arbitrageur.

redoubt \rih-DOWT\, noun:
1. A small and usually temporary defensive fortification.
2. A defended position or protective barrier.
3. A secure place of refuge or defense; a stronghold.

Evicting the intruders from their mountain redoubts with ground forces alone was beginning to look like a protracted and expensive task.
-- "Kashmir's violent spring", The Economist, May 29, 1999

First, Milosevic himself will be absent, apparently fearful of leaving his redoubt in Belgrade.
-- "Lessons of Balkans Applied to Kosovo", New York Times, February 1, 1999

Redoubt derives from French redoute, from Italian ridotto, from Latin reductus, "a refuge, a retreat," from reducere, "to lead or draw back," from re-, "back" + ducere, "to lead."

chichi \SHEE-shee\, adjective:
Affectedly trendy.

"Going in gangs to those chichi clubs at Maidenhead."
-- E. Taylor, Game of Hide-&-Seek

"Whether the chichi gender theorists like it or not, sexual duality is a law of nature among all highly evolved life forms."
-- Camille Paglia

"The sort of real delicious Italian country cooking that is a revelation after so much chichi Italian food dished up in London."
-- Daily Telegraph, January 22, 1969

"[Judith] Hope -- who lives in East Hampton, where the Clintons have a lot of chichi friends -- has been getting ink by the barrelful with her regular interviews quoting conversations with the first lady, on subjects ranging from Senate ambitions to summer and post-White House living arrangements."
-- Washington Post, June 4, 1999

From the French word that literally means "curl of false hair"; used figuratively in the phrases faire des chichis, "to have affected manners, to make a fuss"; and gens à chichis, "affected, snobbish people." Sometimes spelled "chi-chi."

taw \TO\, noun:
A large marble used for shooting in the game of marbles.

He is hiding or hoarding his Taws and Marbles.
-- Steele, Tatler No. 30, 1709

A still greater favourite is shooting a 'taw', which requires no small dexterity.
-- Grant

Of uncertain origin, but possibly from the letter T (in Greek tau) used as a mark. Names for other marbles: commoney, "a marble of a common sort"; ally or alley (a contraction of alabaster, of which it was originally made), a choice marble or taw; one of real marble or alabaster in contrast with those of terra cotta.

vexillology \vek-sil-AHL-uh-jee\, noun:
The study of flags.

This unknown specialist has demonstrated his great knowledge of heraldry and vexillology
-- Occasional Newsletter to Librarians, January 4, 1966

One of the most interesting phases of vexillology...is the important contribution to our heritage of flags by the Arab World.
-- Arab World, October 13, 1959

From Latin vexillum, "flag" + (Greek) -logy (from logos, " word, discourse").

quorum \KWOR-uhm\, noun:
1. Such a number of the officers or members of any body as is legally competent to transact business.
2. A select group.

The extraordinary powers of the Senate were vested in twenty-six men, fourteen of whom would constitute a quorum, of which eight would make up a majority.
-- Akhil Reed Amar, The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction

What other quorum in American history, save those who wrote our constitution, could claim as much impact on our day-to-day lives?
-- Gavin de Becker, The Gift of Fear

Quorum comes from the Latin quorum, "of whom," from qui, "who." The term arose from the wording of the commission once issued to justices of the peace in England, by which commission it was directed that no business of certain kinds should be done without the presence of one or more specially designated justices.

abscond \ab-SKOND\, intransitive verb:
To depart secretly; to steal away and hide oneself -- used especially of persons who withdraw to avoid arrest or prosecution.

The criminal is not concerned with influencing or affecting public opinion: he simply wants to abscond with his money or accomplish his mercenary task in the quickest and easiest way possible so that he may reap his reward and enjoy the fruits of his labours.
-- Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism

Pearl, now an orphan (her father having absconded shortly after her conception), has been taken to live with her great-aunt Margaret in the north of England.
-- Zoe Heller, Everything You Know

Abscond comes from Latin abscondere, "to conceal," from ab-, abs-, "away" + condere, "to put, to place."

virtu \vuhr-TOO; vir-\, noun:
1. love of or taste for fine objects of art.
2. Productions of art (especially fine antiques).
3. Artistic quality.

The Italian humanist Giovanni Pontano described these objects as "statues, pictures, tapestries, divans, chairs of ivory, cloth interwoven with gems, many-coloured boxes and coffers in the Arabian style, crystal vases and other things of this kind . . . [whose] sight . . . is pleasing and brings prestige to the owner of the house." They all spoke to the wealth, taste and virtu of their owner.
-- John Brewer, The Pleasures of the Imagination

Divans, Persian rugs, easy chairs, books, statuary, articles of virtu and bric-a-brac are on every side, and the whole has the appearance of a place where one could dream his life away.
-- "Mark Twain's Summer Home", The New York Times, September 10, 1882

Virtu comes from Italian virtù "virtue, excellence," from Latin virtus, "excellence, worth, goodness, virtue."

gamut \GAM-uht\, noun:
1. A complete extent or range; as, "a face that expressed a gamut of emotions."
2. The entire scale of musical notes.

The...stocks were running...up and down the gamut from $1 to $700 a share.
-- Harper's Magazine, 1883

Spider' and its predecessor run the gamut from the angry I-want-my-body-back screed 'Pig' to 'Hundreds of Sparrows,' a charmingly haunted ode lifted from Luke 12:7
-- "Back in the Sparklehorse Saddle", Washington Post, June 8, 1999

Comments from those testifying at the standing-room-only hearing ran the gamut from polite pleas for an endorsement of a given set of books to condemnations of a review process some said was hasty and flawed.
-- "State to Hold Textbook Firms to New Standards", Los Angeles Times, June 11, 1999

From gamma, the lowest note of Guido d'Arezzo's "great scale" + ut.