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Word watching answers: November 29, 2006

REVOLERA

(c) In bullfighting, a movement in which the cape is fluttered above the matador’s head. The Spanish word. 1957: “At times, good matadors prefer to finish off their series of passes in a gentler way with a larga, in the form of a revolera in which the cape swirls above the man’s head. The term revolera is often loosely used for serpentina and vice versa.”

COXENDIX

(b) The hip or hip-bone. Also the ischium, the ilium. Adaptation of the Latin coxa. 1866: “A dahlia whose stake had gone through his waistcoat back and grazed his coxendix or something.”

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PLUNG

(b) A resonant noise as of a tennis ball striking a racket. Onomatopoeic. Betjeman: “1954: “ ‘Oh! Plung!’ my tauten’d strings would call, ‘Oh! Plung! my darling, break my strings’.”

COMPORT

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(c) A dessert dish raised upon a stem or support. Apparently a corrupt spelling of compote, short for compote-dish, or compotier. French. 1883: “The dessert service of Crown Derby china which is to be presented to Mr Gladstone consists of 26 pieces — 18 plates and eight comports.”