Moon and the Sun Vocab

Okay, I might have to stop keeping track of all the words I come across that I don't know. When I started I didn't realize how big a project it would be. Apparently there is a whole lot I don't know. In this case I think I can be cut a little slack though. Because really, who uses these words? Except, of course, for Vonda McIntyre in The Moon and the Sun.


Afrit (afreet) - a powerful evil spirit or gigantic and monstrous demon in Arabic mythology

Tippet - a scarf, usually of fur or wool, for covering the neck, or the neck and shoulders, and usually having ends hanging down in front

Parure - a set of matched jewelry or other ornaments

Monstrance - a receptacle in which the consecrated Host is exposed for adoration

Inchoate - not yet completed or fully developed; rudimentary

Perruke - a man's wig of the 17th and 18th centuries, usually powdered and gathered at the back of the neck with a ribbon; periwig

Tabouret -1. a low seat without back or arms, for one person; stool
2. a frame for embroidery

Caleches - a type of calash pulled by a single horse, seating two passengers and having two wheels and a folding top
(So what is a calash? - a light vehicle pulled by one or two horses, seating two to four passengers, and having two or four wheels, a seat for a driver on a splashboard, and sometimes a folding top)

Postillion - a person who rides the left horse of the leading or only pair of horses drawing a carriage

Steenkirk - a kind of neckcloth worn in a loose and disorderly fashion

Fontanges - a kind of tall headdress formerly worn

Aurochs - a large, black European wild ox

Fascia - a band or fillet, as for binding the hair

Palatine – 1. (adj.) having royal privileges
2. (adj.) of or pertaining to a palace; palatial
3. (noun) a vassal exercising royal privileges in a province; a count or earl palatine
4. (noun) an important officer of an imperial palace

Décolletage - the neckline of a dress cut low in the front or back and often across the shoulders

Chevalier - the lowest title of rank in the old nobility

Calvados - a dry apple brandy made from apple cider in Normandy

Lambrequin – a short ornamental drapery for the top of a window or door or the edge of a shelf


I didn't have to read the book with a dictionary in hand though. Most of these words were easy enough to figure out in context. You might not know that a postillion rides the left horse but you can get the idea.