Bumble-puppy

 
Bumble-puppy - also known as tetherball - was a game for two players who use their hands to hit in opposite directions a ball that is on a length of rope attached to the top of a pole. The object of the game is to wind the rope completely around the pole. If Deryn Lake's novel 'Death at St James's Palace' is to be believed, it seems to have been in existence in the 1760s at the Queens Head in Marybone (Marylebone) Park, London.
We had an identical game - using a tennis ball on a metal pole - which we used to play at the caravan but we called it swingball.
 

Delations

 
Delations are legal charges or indictments.

'I am trying to sort the delations for all these new prisoners.’ C J Sansom (Dissolution)

 

Makebate

 

Makebate is an archaic term for someone who excites debate and quarrelling.

“Preaching in English is one thing, but allowing the Bible to blockish servants and peasants will fill England with makebates.” C J Sansom (Dissolution)

 

Runcible

 
A runcible spoon is a utensil that appears in nonsense poetry, which also uses the adjective "runcible" to describe objects other than spoons. It is considered by some to be a nonsense word.

Edward Lear's best-known poem, The Owl and the Pussycat, published in 1871, includes the passage:
They dined on mince and slices of quince, which they ate with a runcible spoon.

Lear does not appear to have had any firm idea of what the word "runcible" means. His whimsical nonsense verse celebrates words primarily for their sound, and a specific definition is not needed to appreciate his work. However, since the 1920s (several decades after Lear's death), modern dictionaries have generally defined a runcible spoon to be a fork with three broad curved prongs and a sharpened edge, used with pickles or hors d'oeuvres, such as a pickle fork.

Notwithstaninding its apparent nonesense associations it is used in C J Sansom's nopvel 'Dissolution':-

“This evening he stayed to dine at the obedentiaries’ table, where a great haunch of beef was served with runcible peas.”
 

Obedentiary

 
Obedentiary is a monastic rank or office below that of superior. For example, in the Sansom novel I have just read there are six obedentiaries below the prior.
 

Zareba

A zareba is an improvised stockade constructed especially of thornbushes and used for defence in parts of Africa; a village protected by such a structure, especially in Sudan.

Xebec

A xebec is a small three-masted Mediterranean vessel.

Xyster

 
Another lovely word for the crossword compiler - a xyster is a surgeon's bone scraping instrument. Ouch.
 

Falcula

Falcula is zoological term for a curved and sharp-pointed claw.

It originates from the Latin falcula meaning a small sickle, a billhook.

Cran

A favourite of crossword compilers is the word ‘cran’. The clue is usually ‘a measure used for herring’. The cran of herring is now fixed by law at 37½gallons – approximately 750 fish.

This is a quarter cran herring basket with its maker - Terry Bensley - photo from this Dunbar Gardens site.

The word is first recorded in Scotland in 1797 and like its Gaelic counterpart ‘crann’ seems originally to have meant a lot or share – that is, the portion of the catch belonging to each person involved.

According to the Oxford Dictionary the cran is also a Scottish name applied to the crane or heron; a name also applied to the swift in S Scotland; and an iron instrument laid across the fire to support a pot.