fastigiate

fastigiate \fa-STIJ-ee-it\, adjective:

1. Rising to a pointed top.
2. Zoology. Joined together in a tapering adhering group.
3. Botany. A. Erect and parallel, as branches. B. Having such branches.

As Rachel's neighbour was to be an Irish Water Spaniel's swamp cypress, likely to spread with time, they had opted for something deciduous and columnar, a fastigiate English oak.
-- Patrick Gale, Notes from an Exhibition

Taking Panfilo through the garden, she pointed up to a stained-glass window flanked on either side by twofastigiate poplars.
-- Mary Rhinehart, "The Song of Red Tower," The Stories of the Surge

Fastigiate comes from the Latin word fastīgi which meant "height."

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100 most common words in English

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gallant

gallant \GAL-uhnt\, adjective:

1. Brave, spirited, noble-minded, or chivalrous: a gallant knight; a gallant rescue attempt.
2. Exceptionally polite and attentive to women; courtly.
3. Stately; grand: a gallant pageant.

noun:
1. A brave, noble-minded, or chivalrous man.
2. A man exceptionally attentive to women.
3. A stylish and dashing man.

He praised the owl's wisdom and his courage, his gallantry and his generosity; though every one knew that however wise old Master Owl might be, he was neither brave nor gallant.
-- Frances Jenkins Olcott, Good Stories For Holidays

Oh, those were days of power, gallant days, bustling days, worth the bravest days of chivalry at least.
-- George Borrow, Lavengro: The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest

Related to the word gala, gallant stems from the Old French word galer meaning "to amuse oneself, to make merry."

surfeit

surfeit \SUR-fit\, noun:

1. Excess; an excessive amount: a surfeit of speechmaking.
2. Excess or overindulgence in eating or drinking.
3. An uncomfortably full or crapulous feeling due to excessive eating or drinking.
4. General disgust caused by excess or satiety.

verb:
1. To bring to a state of surfeit by excess of food or drink.
2. To supply with anything to excess or satiety; satiate.

In both adults a surfeit of prudence and a surfeit of energy, and with the couple two boys still pretty much all soft surfaces, young children of youthful parents, keenly attractive and in good health and incorrigible only in their optimism.
-- Philip Roth, The Plot Against America

She peered at the parents, imagining their hearts like machines, manufacturing surfeit upon surfeit of love for their children, and then wondered how something could be so awesome and so utterly powerless.
-- Chris Adrian, The Great Night

Surfeit is a very old English word. It is recorded as early as 1393. It comes from the Latin roots sur- meaning "over" and faceremeaning "to do."

sumpsimus

sumpsimus \SUHMP-suh-muhs\, noun:

1. Adherence to or persistence in using a strictly correct term, holding to a precise practice, etc., as a rejection of an erroneous but more common form (opposed to mumpsimus).
2. A person who is obstinate or zealous about such strict correctness (opposed to mumpsimus).

And now let all defenders of present institutions, however bad they may be — let all violent supporters of their old mumpsimus against any new sumpsimus whatever, listen to a conversation among some undergraduates.
-- Frederic William Farrar , Julian Home

She is a master of sumpsimus, more anal in language usage than Doc in his rigid professionalism. She insists on saying It is I, or He gave the book to John and me.
-- Ann Burrus, Astride the Pineapple Couch

Like its counterpart mumpsimus, sumpsimus comes from to a story about an illiterate priest. In this case, sumpsimus refers to the opposite practice as mumpsimus.

mumpsimus

mumpsimus \MUHMP-suh-muhs\, noun:

1. Adherence to or persistence in an erroneous use of language, memorization, practice, belief, etc., out of habit or obstinacy.
2. A person who persists in a mistaken expression or practice.

"I profess, my good lady," replied I, "that had any one but you made such a declaration, I should have thought it as capricious as that of the clergyman, who, without vindicating his false reading, preferred, from habit's sake, his oldMumpsimus...
-- Sir Walter Scott, The Talisman

Mr. Burgess, who sticks (I fancy) to his old mumpsimus, thought that the other gentleman might have given the canoe a shove to get it clear of the lock…
-- Ronald A. Knox, The Footsteps at the Lock

Mumpsimus comes from a story (perhaps first told by Erasmus) about an illiterate priest who mispronounced a word while reciting the liturgy. The priest refused to change the word, even when he was corrected.

dovetail

dovetail \DUHV-teyl\, verb:

1. To join or fit together compactly or harmoniously.
2. In carpentry, a joint formed of one or more such tenons fitting tightlywithin corresponding mortises.
3. To join or fit together by means of a carpentry dovetail or dovetails.

noun:
1. In carpentry, a tenon broader at its end than at its base; pin.

But in “Arcadia” the two periods don't dovetail until the last part of the play.
-- Tom Stoppard, Mel Gussow, Conversations With Stoppard

They seemed, after a fashion, to dovetail horribly with something which I had dreamed or read, but which I could no longer remember.
-- H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Out of Time

Dovetail originates in woodworking, with a joint that resembles the tail of a dove. The figurative sense derives from the tight fit made by such a joint.