I used to write vocab entries, motivated by me venturing into the world of crossword puzzles. I’m proud to report that I now know most of the words I encounter in puzzles (and don’t do as many crossword puzzles). However, the Economist still baffles me sometimes. So here are some fun words which I could not define:

  1. Homunculus– a little man;a miniature adult that in the theory of preformation is held to inhabit the germ cell and to produce a mature individual merely by an increase in size.
  2. Boondoggle – a braided cord worn by Boy Scouts as a neckerchief slide, hatband, or ornament;a wasteful or impractical project or activity often involving graft.
  3. Aubergine – eggplant (British).
  4. Tendentious – marked by a tendency in favor of a particular point of view; biased.
  5. Irredenta – a territory historically or ethnically related to one political unit but under the political control of another.
  6. Irredentism – a political principle or policy directed toward the incorporation of irredentas within the boundaries of their historically or ethnically related political unit.
  7. Aught – anything; all, everything.

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