Pele

 
No - not the footballer and pronounces peel!

A pele or pele tower is a small fortified keeps or tower houses, ususlly built along the borders in the Scottish Marches and North of England.  They were principally intended as watch towers where signal fires could be lit by the garrison to warn of approaching danger. By an Act of Parliament in 1455, each of these towers was required to have an iron basket on its summit and a smoke or fire signal, for day or night use, ready at hand.

Mordacious

   Mordacious is an adjective meaning using biting sarcasm, caustic wit or invective.  It can also mean given to actual biting (both in a person or animal).

Jackanapes

  I can't improve on this blog posting which I came across lately so I'll simply ask you to visit it if you want to know the meaning and history of Jackanapes.

http://rinklyrimes.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/jackanapes.html

And sadly, it still goes on...

Amigurumi

 
Although I tend to concentrate on English words there are occasionally words from other languages that sneak into English and become commonly used. We already commonly use origami, ikebana and bonsai and I think amigurumi may well join them.

Amigurumi (編みぐるみ?, lit. crocheted or knitted stuffed toy) is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures. The word is derived from a combination of the Japanese words ami, meaning crocheted or knitted, and nuigurumi, meaning stuffed doll. Amigurumi are typically animals, but can include artistic renderings or inanimate objects endowed with anthropomorphic features, as is typical in Japanese culture.

To break a butterfly on a wheel

   
Looking through Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable for the previous entry I came across "To break a butterfly on a wheel". It's not an expression I've ever heard used verbally but I have read it a couple of times.

It means to use superabundant effort in the accomplishment of a small matter.

You just broke my dream

   
Jo just said some thing which reminded me of a dream I had had last night so I said to her 'You just broke my dream.' That made me think about the expression. This colloquialism means that someone or something has just occurred to remind one of a dream which had occurred previously.

I haven't been able to find out when the expression was first used - it's not in my copies of Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.

Apotropaic

   
Apotropaic is an adjective meaning 'supposedly having the power to avert evil influences or bad luck.'

Crossing fingers is therefore an apotropaic hand gesture.

Mansuetude

   
Mansuetude means mildness or gentleness of manner and comes from the Latin mansuetus meaning tamed (or literally accustomed to the hand). World Wide Words shows an example from the Boston Globe as recently as 2004 but in general it can be considered obsolete and on that website Michael Quinion points out ‘To use it may be to gratify the ego of the writer rather than communicate with the reader.’

Ructions

 

Ructions is a plural noun (informal) and means a scrap, a fracas, a disturbance or fuss.   It is often used as a means of threatening dire consequences if someone misbehaves...   If you don't do as you're told this moment there'll be ructions.

According to the dictionary it can also be seen as a singular noun, ruction, meaning an uproar; a noisy or quarrelsome disturbance. I'm not sure that I can recall ever hearing it used in the singular.

Vilipend

   
To vilipend means to regard or treat as of little value or account; to vilify; or to deprecate, to belittle.

I saw one website which suggested it meant to depreciate rather than to deprecate. Oops, I thought. Until I looked up depreciate in the dictionary and found it not only meant to diminish in value over a period of time but it also meant to belittle. I had never previously realised that to depreciate could mean to disparage.