Niggle

nig-gle (nĭgˈəl)

verb
1. To obsess over petty details.
I am resisting the urge to niggle in writing historical fiction, even though excessive research only increases the temptation.
2. To find fault constantly and trivially.
The most difficult people to argue with are those who niggle about your words or phrases, rather than listening to what you have to say.

Synonyms: bother, carp, cavil, censure, complain, criticize, find fault, fuss, grumble, knock, nitpick, objurgate, pain, peck, pick, quibble, reproach.

3. To eat sparingly.
At lunch, I tend to just niggle over treats or whatever else is available.

Synonyms: nibble, snack.

4. To tease contemptuously.
I suppose she has been niggled so much in her life that she doesn't know how to discuss things rationally when someone disagrees with her.

Synonyms: annoy, badger, bait, bedevil, beleaguer, bully, dog, gnaw, goad, harass, hector, jive, josh, mock, pick on, plague, rag, ride, ridicule, roast, slam, taunt, torment, vex, worry.

noun
1. Small cramped handwriting.
She had so much to tell me on one small postcard that her message arrived as an illegible niggle.

Synonyms: scribble, scrawl.

Misogyny

mis-og-yn-y (mĭ-sŏjˈə-nē)

noun
1. Hatred of women.
"I’m pretty sure all of us have been told at one point or another, after taking down someone who perpetuates any one of a sea of -isms, “don’t be so sensitive.” When I was a kid that cowed me. I was afraid of being perceived as weak and hysterical (ah, internalized misogyny!), and as everyone well knows, sensitive is but one step down the dangerous path of unchecked (and feminine!) emotion." - Ailanthus-altissima*

Synonyms: bias, bigotry, chauvinism, inequality, inequity, patriarchy, partiality, prejudice.

* Check the link out, it's an excellent little article.

Umbrageous

um-brag-e-ous (ŭm-brāˈjəs)

adjective
1. Easily hurt or offended.
Her umbrageous words were perceived by some as a sign of weakness. It's ok to be weak sometimes. Many of us are weak all the time.

Synonyms: cognizant, conscious, delicate, easily affected, emotionable, emotional, feeling, fine, high-strung, hung up, hypersensitive, impressionable, keen, knowing, nervous, oversensitive, perceiving, perceptive, precarious, precise, psychic, reactive, receptive, responsive, seeing sensatory, sensile, sensitive, sensorial, sensory, sentient, supersensitive, susceptible, tense, ticklish, touchy, touchy feely, tricky, tuned in, understanding, unstable.

2. Affording or producing shade and/or shadowy places.
With her tail between her legs, she retreated into the umbrageous glen.*

Synonyms: adumbral, bosky, chiaroscuro, cloudy, cool, dim, indistinct, leafy, out of the sun, screened, shaded, shadowed, shadowy, shady, sheltered, umbrous, under a cloud, vague.


* This connection between the two definitions is where the expression "to take umbrage" comes from.
** I like this word because it feels like a mixture of "umm..." and "outrageous."

Neophyte

ne-o-phyte (nēˈə-fītˌ)

noun
1. Someone recently converted to a belief or belief system.
With the conviction of a neophyte, he dances forth into the hereafter.
2. A beginner.
In the neophyte's mind, there are many possibilities; in the expert's, there are few.
3. A newly ordained priest in the Roman Catholic Church.
A neophyte and a nun are on their way back home from a trip when their car breaks down. They are unable to get it fixed, so they decide to spend the night in a hotel. The only hotel in the town has only one room available.
Neophyte: Sister, I don't think the Lord would have a problem, under the circumstances, if we spent the night together in this one room. I'll sleep on the lounge and you have the bed.
Nun: I think that would be okay. They prepare for bed and each one takes their agreed place in the room. Ten minutes later...
Nun: Father, I'm terribly cold.
Neophyte: Okay, I'll get you a blanket. (He does) Ten minutes later...
Nun: Father, I'm still terribly cold.
Neophyte: Okay Sister, I'll get you another blanket. (He does)
Ten minutes later... Nun: Father, (she lamented) I'm still terribly cold. I don't think the Lord would mind if we act as man and wife just for this one night.
Neophyte: You're probably right...get up and get your own blanket.
4. A novice of a religious order or congregation.
Church attendance is so low these days, neophytes get to feel like superstars Sunday mornings. Good place to go, if you want a lot of attention.

Synonyms: abdecedarian, aesthete, aficionado, amateur, aspirant, cognoscente, connoisseur, dabbler, dallier, dilettante, greenhorn, hobbyist, learner, neophyte, nonprofessional, noob, putterer, rookie, smatterer, tenderfoot, trifler, tyro, uninitiate.

Zoophagous

zoo-pha-gous (zō-ŏfˈə-gəs)

adjective
1. Feeding on animal matter.
Can it be that his instinct is satisfied as to the vampire's ultimate triumph? Stay. He is himself zoophagous, and in his wild ravings outside the chapel door of the deserted house he always spoke of 'master'.* - Dracula

Synonyms: cannibal, carnivorous, flesh-eating, predatory, rapacious.

* A description of Renfield.
** We gotta have animal fat.

Laconic

la-con-ic (lə-kŏnˈĭk)

adjective
1. Pertaining to Laconia or its inhabitants; Lacedæmonian or Spartan.
Much Greek mythology is laconic in nature, relating tales of Helen of Troy.
2. Expressing much in few words.
I love you is a laconic phrase.

Synonyms: breviloquent, brief, brusque, compact, compeniary, compendius, concise, crisp, curt, pithy, poetic, sentious, short, short and sweet, succinct, terse.

Physiognomy

physiognomy (fĭzˌē-ŏgˈnə-mē, -ŏnˈə-mē)

noun
1. The art, science, divination or practice of judging human character through facial features.
Physiognomy is a central, implicit assumption underlying the plot of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. In 19th century American literature, physiognomy figures prominently in the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe.

Synonyms: judging a book by its cover, petty, phiz, phizog, shallowness, superficialness.