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GOLCONDA - treasure trove; source of immense wealth. [Named after an historic region of southern India, once the hib of diamong mining.] The Koh-i-noor, all 105 carats, was extracted from a gravel claypit within Golconda.
HOUDING - a painter's or designer's pleasing evocation of space [From Dutch, literally meaning attitude or posture] In the Golden Age of Dutch portraiture, Rembrandt proved a master of houding,
DINNYHAYSER - (archaic Aus/NZ slang) an excellent example; a knockout punch [Origin unknown. Variants include dinnyhazer, dinnyhayzer] Dinnyhayzer is a synonym of bell-ringer in two senses: a knockout punch and knockout example.
JUVENOIA - the fear one generation holds towards younger generations succeeding them [A hybrid of juvenile-paranoia] A portion of Boomer critique of the millennial population is fuelled by juvenoia.
THOMASSON - any example of superseded design, often a revamp's leftover, such as a door opening to a wall, or staircase leading to nowhere. (Named by Japanese artist Genpei Akasegawa after US baseball import, Gary Thomasson - a well-maintained but under-serving athlete.) Hyperart Thomasson is Akasegawa's gallery of useless windows and redundant doors.
CRYPTOMNESIA - fresh emergence of a long-forgotten memory as if it were a new experience [From Greek, crypto - hidden, plus mnesia, memory] A form of self-plagiarism, cryptomnesia might see you express a novel idea only to realise it's one you'd earlier published or outlined.
DESCANSO [dess-CARN-so] - roadside memorial marking a fatality; any improvised marker honouring where a life was lost [From Spanish - resting place] Bouquets and teddy bears clutter the average descanso.
TINTOOKIE [tin-TUHK-ee] - sycophant; puppet [Australian slang, derived from marionette-master Peter Scriven - pictured - whose creations from the late 1950s included The Tintookies] Dictators tend to surround themselves with tintookies.
CACOGRAPHY - bad or illegible writing; poor spelling [From Greek kakos - bad, plus graphia] Come script time, GPs are notorious for their cacography.
AL DESKO - eating a principal meal at one's work station [Humorous variant on al fresco.] Before each Evenings show on ABC Radio Melbourne, I will observe an al-desko repast.
AUNT EMMA - croquet slang for a player more focused on hindering an opponent's progress, rather than trying to progress themselves; risk-averse individual [Unkind allusion to a possible kinswoman, though as likely to be a bigoted figment] For more croquet jargon, from Aunt Emma to Whaarad turn, try here.
TONGUE-HERO - a braggart; an exaggerator of minor achievements [Figurative, based on a blowhard's claimed feats.] Your typical tongue-hero is bound to magnify their least deed.
EXERGUE - space below a coin's central design, often containing the date or origins [Mediaeval Latin exergum, from Greek ex - outside, plus ergon - work] A medal will carry its own exergue with the honoree's details.
ZEIGARNIK EFFECT - whereby people tend to remember unfinished or incomplete tasks better than completed ones [Named after Bluma Zeigarnik, a Soviet psychologist who observed how waiters better recalled the details of unpaid bills than settled ones.] To prove the Zeigarnik effect, can you retrieve the last clue to stump you?
APOPHENIA - tendency to make meaningful links between unrelated things. [Coined by German psychiatrist Klaus Conrad in 1956, from Greek apophaínō - to appear] Patients living with schizophrenia, as well as QAnon conspiracy theorists, are prone to apophenia.
WHELVE - to overturn a dish (or other vessel) in order to cover another item [From Old English gehwielfan, to arch, bend over - akin to Old High German welben to vault] In summer, you're wise to whelve the chinaware to cover a platter of antipasti.
GLOMAR RESPONSE - evasive parry to a question, often expressed as 'neither confirm, nor deny' [Coined in 1975 owing to the LA Times inquiry into a covert CIA operation to salvage a Soviet submarine, under the guise of Howard Hughes's Global-Marine (GLOMAR) exploration vessel] In text-ese, the GLOMAR response is NCND.
SMEUSE - small hole in a hedge used as a thoroughfare for animals. [Sussex dialect] A wombat smeuse would naturally outsize a bandicoot smuese.
ZOOMBOMB - to trespass another's videochat - by design or accident. [Variation on 'photobomb'] No question, the most beloved zoombomb was performed by Marion, the four-year-old daughter of BBC interview, Robert Kelly, in 2017.
BLANDSCAPE - generic, lacklustre scenery, often occupied by tasteless public buildings or vanilla kit-homes [Bland/landscape hybrid] Shopping malls, office blocks and McMansions infest the modern blandscape.
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