Word origins

• preallablePreliminary; previous.
• prebendA stipend paid to a canon of a cathedral.
• prejacentExisting previously, preexistent.
• preparementPreparation.
• presidialBelonging to a province, or being like a province; provincial.
• pretendantA pretender; a claimant.
• procacityThe state of being procacious; forwardness, pertness, or petulance, or an instance thereof.
• procelleA storm, a tempest.
• profaceA familiar salutation or welcome offered by a host before a meal or drinks are served.
• proferensThe person who proposes a contract (or one of its clauses)
• prosodiacA verse used in prosodia, having three anapests, of which the first may be substituted with a spondee or iamb.
• proveneTo originate, stem (from)
• prudhommieCharacter typical of a prudhomme; trustworthiness, loyalty.
• psalterionSynonym of psaltery.
• psychogonyThe study of the origins and development of the soul or mind.
• pucelageVirginity.
• pudicityModesty; chastity.
• pulsativeCharacterised by pulsing or beating; throbbing.
• pumpionPumpkin.
• pusillanimityThe quality or state of being pusillanimous; the vice of being timid and cowardly, and thus not living up to one's full potential; pusillanimousness.
• putageProstitution, copulation or lewdness by a woman.
• putrefyTo fester or rot and exude a fetid stench.
• quaternityA group or set of four; a foursome, a quartet.
• quintupletA group of five, particularly (music) a tuplet of five notes to be played in the time for four.
• ramifyTo divide into branches or subdivisions.
• rarefactTo reduce in density.
• rascetteThe wrist.
• rebecAn early three-stringed instrument, somewhat like a simple violin only pear shaped, played with a bow and used in Medieval and the early Renaissance eras.
• recidiveSynonym of recidivous (“recurring”).
• recommencementThe act of recommencing.
• reconductionRepeat undertaking or restoration.
• remercyTo thank (someone).
• requiesceTo rest, repose.
• resileTo start back; to recoil; to recede from a purpose.
• resipiscenceRecognition of one or more past mistakes, especially with a desire to improve in the future; repentance; (countable) an instance of this.
• retardanceThe difference in phase shift between two characteristic polarizations of light upon reflection from an interface. Retardance can be reported in the Abelès or Mueller conventions. The retardance phase shift angle is often specified in degrees.
• revulsiveCausing revulsion.
• rhyme or reasonLogic; common sense.
• roiteletA petty king, a kinglet.
• Rome wasn't built in a dayIt takes a long time to create something complicated or impressive.
• rondeletA metric verse (form), modeled after the rondeau, in two rhymes over seven lines, the first (in four syllables) being repeated as third and refrain (final one), each other line having eight syllables
• roturierA commoner or plebeian; a person of low rank; especially, in pre-Revolutionary France, a member of the social class comprising all who were not nobles or clergy.
• RoubaisianA person who was born in, or is a citizen or inhabitant of Roubaix, France
• roundelayA poem or song having a line or phrase repeated at regular intervals.
• SaliqueSalic; Salian
• salletA type of light spherical combat helmet used in the 15th century.
• SaturnalsSynonym of Saturnalia (“ancient Roman holiday”).
• scapularyscapular
• sesterceSynonym of sestertius.
• sign manualAn authentic signature; (especially), the signature of a sovereign, used to validate a formal document.
• solecismAn error or improper usage.
• spontoonA pointed weapon similar to a pike.
• stolidityThe property of being stolid; unemotionality.
• stupefyTo dull the senses or capacity to think thereby reducing responsiveness; to stun.
• sublimatoryA vessel or device used for sublimation.
• substantiousSubstantial.
• subtilityCunning, craftiness.
• supercherieFoul play; an attack made by deceit.
• supereminentSuperior to or notable above all others; outstanding; supremely remarkable.
• survivantSurviving.
• syllogizeTo reason by means of syllogisms.
• taintureDirtiness; uncleanliness; contamination, tainting.
• talionRetaliation; retribution.
• tasletA piece of armor formerly worn to guard the thighs; a tasse.
• temporizeTo deliberately act evasively or prolong a discussion in order to gain time or postpone a decision, sometimes so that a compromise can be reached or simply to make a conversation more temperate; to stall for time.
• tendronA young, tender plant shoot; a bud.
• thurificationThe act, or an instance, of burning incense.
• thyrseA type of inflorescence; a compact panicle having an obscured main axis and cymose subaxes.
• timocracyA form of government in which ambition for honor, power and military glory motivates the rulers.
• torseA twist of cloth or wreath, typically placed underneath and forming part of a crest (as an orle or wreath) and customarily shown with six twists, the first tincture being the tincture of the field, the second the tincture of the metal, and so on; rarely, it occurs as a charge.
• tranquilizeTo calm (a person or animal) or put them to sleep using a tranquilizer dart.
• transfixTo render motionless, by arousing terror, amazement or awe.
• transmewTo transmute, change.
• tresayleA grandfather's grandfather; a great-great-grandfather.
• tribadeA woman who engages in sexual activity with another woman; a lesbian.
• ultramontanePromoting the supremacy of the Pope.
• umbrageousHaving or providing shade; shady.
• usurpatorA usurper.
• vastityEmptiness or desolation.
• ventripotentHaving a big belly.
• verdourVerdure.
• veuglaireA wrought-iron cannon, part of the artillery of France in the Middle Ages.
• victimaryA person whose role it is to kill the sacrificial victim(s) during a ritual sacrifice.
• vidameOne of a class of temporal officers who originally represented the bishops, but later were given status of fiefs, and became feudal nobles.
• vindicativeVindicating, having a tendency to vindicate.
• virguleA medieval punctuation mark similar to the slash ⟨/⟩ or pipe ⟨|⟩ and used as a scratch comma and caesura mark.
• vitreo-vitreous humour
• vitrifyTo convert into glass or a glass-like substance by heat and fusion.
• vocabulistThe writer or maker of a vocabulary (dictionary or glossary); a lexicographer.
• volubileTurning or whirling; winding.
• zoophyteAn animal thought to have the characteristics of a plant, later specifically an invertebrate of the (former) group Zoophyta, comprising sponges, corals and sea anemones.