| word | definition |
| Fabian |
1. Of, pertaining to, or in the manner of, the Roman general, Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus; cautious; dilatory; avoiding a decisive contest. Using cautious slow strategy to wear down opposition; avoiding direct confrontation; "a fabian policy." 2. The Fabian Society is a British intellectual socialist movement, whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy via gradualist and reformist, rather than revolutionary, means. It is best known for its initial ground-breaking work beginning late in the 19th century and continuing up to World War I. The society laid many of the foundations of the Labour Party and subsequently affected the policies of states emerging from the decolonisation of the British Empire, especially India. Today, the society is a vanguard "think tank" of the New Labour movement |
| factotum |
A servant employed to do a variety of jobs. |
| fair copy |
A handwritten document that has been corrected and written neatly. |
| fakir |
A Muslim or Hindu mendicant monk who is regarded as a holy man. A fakir or faqir is a Sufi, especially one who performs feats of endurance or apparent magic. Derived from faqr (فقر Arabic), Lit: poverty. |
| falcate |
Curved like a sickle; "a falcate leaf"; "falcate claws"; "the falcate moon." Same as falciform. |
| faltboat |
A small boat having a collapsible wooden frame covered with waterproof cloth or plastic. |
| familicide |
The murder of an entire family by a family member. |
| famulus |
An assistant or servant, especially one working for a magician or scholar. |
| fane |
A sanctuary; temple. |
| fanlight |
A window, semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, and is sometimes hinged to a transom. |
| faradization |
The application of faradic current to stimulate muscles and nerves.
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| farrago |
A collection containing a confused variety of miscellaneous things. |
| farrier |
A specialist in equine hoof care, including the trimming and balancing of a horse's hoof and the placing of shoes to the horse's foot. |
| fascicle |
In anatomy, a fascicle is a bundle of skeletal muscle fibers surrounded by perimysium, a type of connective tissue. |
| fasciitis |
In medicine, fasciitis refers to an inflammation of the fascia. In particular, it often refers to one of the following diseases: Necrotizing fasciitis, Plantar fasciitis, Eosinophilic fasciitis, Paraneoplastic fasciitis. |
| fascine |
A rough bundle of brushwood used for strengthening an earthen structure, or making a path across uneven or wet terrain. Typical uses are protecting the banks of streams from erosion, covering marshy ground and so on. |
| fascinum |
A fascinum in Ancient Rome was a phallus-shaped amulet worn around the necks (often of children), to ward off the evil eye or to bring fertility. |
| fastness |
1. A secure or fortified place; a stronghold, a fortress. 2. The ability of a dye to withstand fading. |
| faute de mieux |
For want of something better; for lack of an alternative. |
| favonian |
Pertaining to the west wind; mild, gentle. |
| fell |
Used to refer to mountains, or certain types of mountainous landscape, in Scandinavia, the Isle of Man, and parts of England. |
| feminine cadence |
A cadence ending on a weak beat. |
| festinate |
To act or move at high speed. May refer to hyperkinetic movement or behavior of a neurology patient. |
| fiacre |
A small carriage for hire. |
| fichu |
A lightweight triangular scarf worn by a woman. |
| fideism |
Fideism is an epistemological theory which maintains that faith is independent of reason, or that reason and faith are hostile to each other and faith is superior at arriving at particular truths. The word fideism comes from fides, the Latin word for faith, and literally means "faith-ism." |
| filicide |
The deliberate act of a parent killing his or her own son or daughter. |
| finial |
1. The knot or bunch of foliage, or foliated ornament, that forms the upper extremity of a pinnacle in Gothic architecture. 2. Any decorative fitting at the peak of a gable, or on the top of a flagpole, fence post or staircase newel post. |
| finitary |
In mathematics or logic, a finitary operation is one, like those of arithmetic, that takes a finite number of input values to produce an output. |
| firedamp |
A mixture of gases (mostly methane) that form in coal mines and become explosive when mixed with air. |
| firkin |
1. A small wooden barrel or covered vessel. 2. Any of several British units of capacity, usually equal to about 1/4 of a barrel or 9 gallons (34 liters). |
| fisc |
Under the Merovingians and Carolingians, the fisc (root word of "fiscal") applied to the royal demesne which paid taxes, entirely in kind, from which the royal household was meant to be supported, though it rarely was. |
| fissiparous |
Factious, tending to break into pieces; causing division or fragmenting something; of cells that reproduce through fission, splitting into two. |
| fistula |
In medicine, a fistula (pl. fistulas or fistulae) is an abnormal connection or passageway between two epithelium-lined organs or vessels that normally do not connect. It is generally a disease condition, but a fistula may be surgically created for therapeutic reasons. |
| flagitious |
1. Shamefully wicked, as persons, actions, times, etc. 2. Heinous or flagrant, as a crime or crimes; infamous. |
| flan |
An open, tartlike pastry, the shell of which is baked in a bottomless band of metal (flan ring) on a baking sheet, removed from the ring and filled with custard, cream, fruit, etc. |
| flautato |
(It., 'fluted'). The production of flute‐like notes from stringed instruments, either by bowing near the finger‐board with the point of the bow, or by the use of harmonics. |
| flim flam |
Misinformation; bunkum; false information presented as true. |
| flobidising |
Drooling. |
| focalism |
Anchoring or focalism is a cognitive bias that describes the common human tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered (the "anchor") when making decisions. During decision making, anchoring occurs when individuals use an initial piece of information to make subsequent judgments. Once an anchor is set, other judgments are made by adjusting away from that anchor, and there is a bias toward interpreting other information around the anchor. For example, the initial price offered for a used car sets the standard for the rest of the negotiations, so that prices lower than the initial price seem more reasonable even if they are still higher than what the car is really worth. |
| fomite |
An inanimate object or substance, such as clothing, bedding or furniture, that is capable of transmitting infectious organisms from one individual to another. |
| foofawfery |
Nonsense, obfuscation, silliness. |
| foolscap |
Chiefly British. A sheet of writing or printing paper measuring approximately 13 by 16 inches. |
| footling |
Trivial; unimportant; useless; silly; inept; irritating. |
| fopdoodle |
A stupid or insignificant fellow; a fool; a simpleton. |
| foramen |
A natural opening or perforation through a bone or a membranous structure. |
| forfend |
Avert, keep away, or prevent (something evil or unpleasant). |
| forme fruste |
An incomplete form or partial symptom of a disease. |
| formication |
Formication is the medical term for a sensation that resembles that of insects crawling on (or under) the skin. It is one specific form of a set of sensations known as paresthesia, which also include the more common prickling, tingling sensation of "pins and needles." |
| fourgon |
Wagon couvert parfois incorporé dans un train de voyageurs pour le transport des bagages, du courier. |
| franchise |
French: openness |
| frass |
The fine powdery material phytophagous (plant-eating) insects pass as waste after digesting plant parts. |
| frenulum |
1. A small fold or ridge of tissue that supports or checks the motion of the part to which it is attached, in particular a fold of skin beneath the tongue, or between the lip and the gum. 2. The frenulum of prepuce of penis, often known simply as the frenulum, is an elastic band of tissue under the glans penis that connects the foreskin (prepuce) to the vernal mucosa, and helps contract the foreskin over the glans. |
| frowsty |
Fusty: stale and unclean smelling. |
| frowzy |
Negligent of neatness especially in dress and person; habitually dirty and unkempt. |
| frugivorous |
Having a diet that consists mostly of fruit; fruit-eating. |
| frumenty |
A porridge made by boiling hulled wheat, typically with additional ingredients such as milk, egg yolks, and/or almond milk, traditionally served with venison or porpoise. Frumenty was often the first dish on the menu of a medieval English feast. |
| frustum |
A truncated cone or pyramid; the part that is left when a cone or pyramid is cut by a plane parallel to the base and the apical part is removed. |
| fundus |
The base of a hollow organ or that part of the organ farthest from its opening; "the uterine fundus"; "the fundus of the stomach." |
| furze |
A thorny evergreen shrub (Ulex Europaeus), with beautiful yellow flowers, very common upon the plains and hills of Great Britain. |
| fusiform |
Formed like a spindle, wider in the middle and tapering toward the ends. The word "fusiform" comes from the Latin "fusus" meaning "spindle." |